Petersburg Campaign via Bloody Big Battles

We played Chris’s draft scenario of the Petersburg campaign, 8 months in a fairly short game. It was quite a dust-up, with both sides quite worried about enemy threats. We spent an hour before the game discussing the special scenario rules. They are unusual, for this most unusual subject. Bill played Grant, ably seconded by his son Mathew (a grown man. Bill and I are old guys.).

On the first strategic phase they cut the Weldon RR immediately and kept it by the second turn, earning 2 objectives. They also stormed one fort southeast of Petersburg, trying unsuccessfully for another on the third turn before declaring an end to the phase. I think they would have done better to declare an end to the phase right after the 2^nd turn, although that is moot. I should keep an online record of Union activations, objectives taken and turns played. My paper one got messed around some. I also forgot to count Hancock’s first retreat as one more US activation, little though that would matter.

After the first phase I pushed my rifle pits aggressively forward, placing Bushrod Johnson and Hoke’s divisions out on my right to threaten the Union left. As it turned out, that was an error. One look at my right convinced the Yankees to try their luck directly against Petersburg. On the second strategic phase, after taking several perimeter forts, they stormed the town on turn 6. I made the mistake of including a spent unit on the final defense. That -2 insured the town fell. One of those divisions off on my right would really have helped. My attempt at a counterattack foundered when a series of crappy movement rolls saw disrupted units rally in place and those in good order refuse to move. Mahone’s division was the sole exception. It made a long march from my right, and made a long-shot solo counterattack on Petersburg. Burnside’s IX Corps repelled the attack. The ignominy, defeated by Ambrose Burnside!

I got the combat result the less numerous player never wants to see: a tie with both sides losing a base and then having another immediate assault.

The game lasted 2 hours and 33 minutes, 6 turns, about 25 minutes per turn, including photo time.

The Union used up 22 activations of the possible 30. I think the ability of the US to make coordinated assaults due to good movement rolls was more important than good combat rolls, though they had some of those too.

With firing so reduced in this scenario, we weren’t sure how to handle going low on ammo. We decided that any infantry unit that passed an offensive fire phase without being in an assault recovered. 

Mathew said: I was wondering if the rule ignoring zones of control for the purposes of threatening LOC in the union lines might skew the game in this particular scenario towards the union siege lines, and away from the flanking maneuver because they need to keep so many units to guard the line of communication. Certainly, it might not work out that way. I just thought it was something to keep an eye on if I were going to continue to play it.

I wonder about it too.

Truly minor stuff from me: perhaps Sheridan should always be in command. He was one active fellow. Though we didn’t get to see him in this test. Burnside might be passive. But that’s likely too much chrome. Perhaps I’m just miffed to have been beaten by him.

The game was a blast. I hope to run it again in a few weeks, hopefully with emeritus Fencible Dennis and Fencible Andrew.

Edit: there were some crossed wires about scenario rules. That's why it is called testing. The things cleared up should open the game up considerably. Having testers and designer separated by the pond also makes for friction, as Clausewitz should have said. The LOC issue has been cleared up.

Minute Man National Park – and Bloody Angle

I recently spent a day exploring Lexington, Concord and the Battle Road in Minute Man National Park. For those not steeped in the lore of the American Revolution, that is where the fighting broke on April 19, 1775. A short recap: British General (and Royal Governor) Thomas Gage sent an expedition of 700 troops to raid a Massachusetts militia supply depot, 18 miles from Boston. Fighting erupted at Lexington where a single militia company was shot up, and again at Concord where most of the supplies had been removed before the British column arrived, and some 500 militia had shown up. After that, more militia kept arriving and firing at the regulars while they marched back to Boston. Basically, the grenadiers and light infantry marched 18 miles to kick a hornet’s nest and then headed back being stung the whole way.  

 

The Lexington town visitors center has an excellent diorama of the first encounter on Lexington Green. Concord has a diorama of the terrain between the two towns. Last year I drove by and the National Park building at Minute Man Historical Park was closed due to extreme heat. Google said it was closed again this time but fortunately was wrong. There was a good 20+ minute film about the day. A musket demonstration was due soon nearby.  

 

Volunteer Ed Hurley portrayed a local militiaman. Before he loaded and fired his replica Brown Bess, he explained how the locals had gotten angry enough to take up arms. While the issue of taxation without representation was the original cause of agitation, the closing of Boston harbor in response to the Boston Tea Party was what really riled people up. Bostonians rich and poor were penalized heavily as trade and work dried up. The farmers inland were also affected. There was no market in town for their excess crops and livestock, and no place to buy trade foods from abroad, or items manufactured there by artisans like Paul Revere. Gage had also replaced local government and judges with his own choices. Those elected by the locals continued operating as a shadow regime. The powder keg was set, and the Concord raid lit the fuse. I had not considered the effect of the closing of the harbor on the farmers before. Though the British raid began in darkness, it was clearly no surprise. Church bells pealed through the night, along with warning musket shots in the distance, as riders pelted down the roads. After Jim's fine program, another started within 20 minutes.

 

Ranger Jarrad Fuoss led a walk of Elm Brook Hill, better known to AWI gamers as the Bloody Angle, even if that’s more of a Civil War label. Recently the area was surveyed with Lidar and then extensively searched with metal detectors, yielding musket balls and some buttons. While some militia may have fired .69 caliber balls as the British did, most had.50 caliber or smaller balls, making it clear where militia shots had landed. The area was much less wooded in 1775, some 80 percent of current woods not present. Only patches too rough to farm or the odd orchard were present. The British column had advanced guards, flank guards and rear guards, about 50 yards ahead of or alongside the main column. Since half the troops were light infantry, many were available for such duty.

 

The Bay Road back to Boston crossed Elm Brook at a bridge and rose up the hill, making two turns. The first batch of militia musket balls turned up around A, where the rear guard held back the 400+ militia (1) pursuing from Concord. About 150+ Woburn militia (2) were on a wooded ridge, adding their fire against the rearguard.

Battle Road, Bloody Angle (not to scale)

To the surprise of the searchers, few turned up around the right-hand bend in the road. But further along, another batch of shot was found, where another road cut in from the north. The Reading and Billerica militia (3), some 300+ who had not been at Concord, had rested and refreshed themselves from the long march and then moved down that northern road to move into position against the Bay Road. The Woburn militia on the wooded ridge moved east along the ridge (4) to take the British under fire. It is not known if they engaged the British advance guard, flank guard or the rear guard. Ranger Jarrad said ~8 British soldiers died on this hill, suggesting total losses of perhaps 25 or 30 on this half mile of road.

Many musket balls landed some 50 yards from the road, indicating that the targets were the guards, rather than the road column. This indicates that the militia were further away, perhaps 100 yards from the road, despite film depictions of them lining the road itself. Below is a picture of reconstructed roadside fences.

Battle Road fence

Those who owned roadside property were required to build these “horse-high and hog-tight” to keep livestock from running off the road on their way to market in Boston. One advantage the militia had was plenty of locals who knew the roads, while the British had to stick to the Bay Road, and it was obvious where to go if anyone wanted to get a shot at them.

This was one of the bloody sections of the 18 mile retreat. Jarrad noted that because the terrain was so much clearer, the British could see thousands more militia heading to fight them, not a soothing sight. Some 4,000 militia got into combat, while at least another 2,000 didn’t get to fire before the pursuit ended in the evening.

 

Another rude surprise for the retreating column waited west of Lexington, where Captain Parker had rallied his Lexington company from their morning defeat. Along with other arriving men, they laid an ambush from a hill and fired into the Regulars. With many officers down, low on ammunition, tired, hungry and thirsty, the redcoats broke formation and started to run. They soon made it into the ranks of Lord Percy’s 1,000 reinforcements. A couple blasts from his 6 pounder artillery pieces scattered the pursuit. The militia soon recovered and resumed their incessant sniping. Serious fighting broke out at Menotomy (now Arlington). Action was house-to-house in some cases: buildings were burnt by the British. All during the action, militia companies would engage the British. Once the column was past, many would then leapfrog east parallel to the road to set up for another go. Any bridges or other choke points would see increased action. Here’s a link to the helpful National Park Service map of the fighting along Battle Road:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord#/media/File:Concord_Retreat.png

When it was over, some 93 militia had been killed or wounded, and almost 300 British soldiers. Assuming that the 4,000 engaged militia fired 10 rounds each, that would be 40,000 rounds for 300 hits, or over 133 shots for each hit. So much for tales of all the American sharpshooters. The raid, intended to destroy an arms cache and defuse possible hostilities, had failed to do either, and given a beating to the grenadiers and light infantry, the cream of Gage’s army. A growing army of militia began to besiege Boston. Eight years of hard war followed.

 

Ed was assisted by a park employee in period dress. I didn’t get her name. She was a guide at the Hartwell House where the tour started and knew plenty about the house and the owners, some of whom fought that day in their own yards. She also served as Ed’s safety helper and drill master during the musket demonstration. I thank them all for an excellent and illuminating presentation.  

 

Do check with the National Park Service at the park for info. Google was wrong. It’s worth the detour.

McPherson’s Ridge via The Devil to Pay

Saturday last week we played Brad Butkovich’s scenario for McPherson’s Ridge, July 1, 1863. It is part of his Summer Storm, Regimental Wargame Scenarios For the Battle of Gettysburg, available from Wargames Vault as a PDF. Excellent, well researched regimental ACW scenarios are his stock in trade. 

Previously we played a smaller scenario based on Davis’s attack on Cutler’s brigade, from a scenario found on the internet. Brad's scenario includes all 4 brigades that met at the early Gettysburg clash. Davis’s brigade started much closer in this and his regiments were much larger than in the internet scenario. The original plan was to have two brigade commanders and I would try to run a pair of brigades. But Andrew was recovering from a bug and didn’t want to share it with us. Thank you, Andrew. I'm a old coot and eschew contagion. Jay and I each ran a pair of brigades, CSA for him and USA for me.

Brad’s scenario suggested that the open woods should cost a minimal penalty. I should have listened. Meredith’s Iron Brigade moved very slowly into contact, what with the various woods and fences. On with the game: 

Errors in photo text are always obvious after hitting save. See next photo.

We only played three turns. As you can see, a lot can happen each turn. The game is designed for each player to run a brigade. Before each chit pull, there is the option to skedaddle, to run away in disorder without needing to use a precious order. Both Jay and I forgot to use this at critical times, I think due to the confusion involved in running two brigades. My crack 6^th Wisconsin was trashing a disordered pair of Confederate regiments, probably started when Jay failed to skedaddle. After thoroughly dusting those two regiments, I forgot to have the 6^th skedaddle and they were soundly beaten by a flank bayonet charge.

 

Archer was slowly being pushed back by Meredith. Davis beat up two Union regiments and was then thumped by the 6th Wisconsin, which was whipped in turn.

 

We had reached a point where both sides were not capable of much further effort without a lot of rallying and reorganizing. Jay had a single regiment in good order. I had three small ones. Each of us had their right flank mauled.

I lost about 480 infantry and a section (2 guns) of artillery. Jay lost about 320 infantry. We thought it was a tie, with any advantage going to Jay.

 

The scenario calls for both forces to fight it out until both sides think the game is over. That’s what we did. We talked about perhaps putting in geographical objectives, but the ones we considered would have made a tie also, since each had their flank beaten back. 3 turns took us 3 hours. I think it would have gone in almost half the time with two more players. As usual, The Devil to Pay was a hoot. I’d like to try the scenario again sometime, hopefully with 4 players. That seems to be a big ask these days, between family obligations of various Fencibles and the amount of time I spend out of town.

 

I would use Brad’s suggestions next time: increase all movement by 2 inches and only penalize woods and fences 1 inch each, get the game moving. This is because Brad has so much terrain. I ran out of fences and had to use stone walls as fences. I also realize that treating Meredith as a 1 order leader was a bit much. While he was no live wire, he wasn’t a real dunce either. That’s it for the AARs for a while, since we head north Friday for a while.

 

I owe book reports on 3 books, one about the Petersburg campaign, one about Benedict Arnold’s navy, and one about the Chinese Civil War 1946-1949. We’ll see if I manage to get those done. Holding your breath might well be fatal.

Poem by a Young Viking

Last week I toured around southern Iceland with my wife. There is a museum in Reykjavik about the settling of Iceland. One of the displays includes the following poem, written by a 6-year-old who would go on to become a famous warrior-poet.

I thought you folks might appreciate it. 

Book Review: Ordeal by Fire, The Civil War and Reconstruction

A bunch of used books were left by the mailboxes in my building. One was James McPherson’s 2001 3^rd edition. The price was right. This is a more academic text than his prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom. And that’s OK with me. It has more charts and such. You won’t get any scenarios out of this book, but if you’re looking for a deep dive into the causes, combat and after-effects of the American Civil War then this is the book for you. He has a long look at things, such as the number of weapons each side produced and procured.

 

The festering sore of plantation slavery vs. burgeoning industry is well covered. There are some interesting revelations about the war. After the Union victories of 1863, Vicksburg, Gettysburg and Chattanooga, it seemed the curtain was ready to be drawn in early 1864. He notes that the Union’s 2-year enlistments were already up, many of the 3-year ones too and the remainder coming soon. Bonuses and furloughs induced something more than half of these veterans to re-enlist. But a lot of blue-coat units were new regiments or those that had sat in cushy rear area camps for a long time and had no combat experience. 

On the other hand, Confederate soldiers were not allowed to quit, regardless of what their terms of enlistment were. The only way out for them was death, disabling wounds or illness, or desertion. As invading columns moved deeper into Dixie, some rear area units fought, but the main armies were mostly veterans. This is something that hadn’t occurred to me before.

 

It ends with the truly unfortunate travail of reconstruction. a combination of corruption, terrorism and economic depression that ended the experiment of Black suffrage. I’m pleased to have read this book. Worth the detour.

The Morale Effect of Yelling in Combat

I've been reading "The Last Citadel", about the siege of Petersburg. Union soldier C. F. Barnes wrote this about charging the works at Petersburg that last time on April 2, 1865.

 

“When I started on that charge, I was not feeling very well; there was something the matter with my throat. I thought my heart would jump clear out of my mouth. The boys were yelling and charging all around me. I think I went more than half way across before I yelled, and then I felt so much better that I was sorry I had not yelled when I started. I was much surprised at the great change in my feelings. After that whoop I think I could have tackled the whole so-called Southern Confederacy.” 

Inspired by this, after a trying morning dealing with a package delivery company, I returned home, walked out on my balcony and screamed at the FDR Drive. I felt much better after.    

Cutler vs. Davis at Gettysburg, Day 1

We tried out the ACW rules The Devil to Pay with a scenario from the internet, Cutler’s Dogfight at Gettysburg. We had an unusually large turnout, 6 of us all told, including Bill’s 18 year old grandson, recently graduated from high school. A new recruit, he brings the average age down quite a bit. It was a grand affair. After lunch we adjourned to the game table. Jay played General Davis with Andrew and Carl as subordinates. Bill played General Cutler with Jesse and me as subordinates.

The scenario seems to favor the Union heavily. There’s a YouTube video of this scenario with extra rules, but I went with the scenario as written. Between preparing lunch and figuring out new rules, I left out the extra scenario rules. They probably make the scenario more even. Heck, I even forgot to charge the battery on my trusty old point-and-shoot camera. Thanks to Andrew for the photos.

Off-table Rebel artillery, firing at extreme range.

 

This is the first time we ever played these rules. The Confederates, trying hard to clear the Yankees off McPherson’s Ridge, pushed it too far. Each hit negates a base in the unit, any base taking a second hit is removed. So, a unit that has as many hits as bases is virtually incapable of hurting the enemy and basically a pinata waiting to be smacked open. Losses were 10 Confederate infantry bases and one run off, while the Yankees lost one base.

I’ve played Loose Files and American Scramble back in the day. Losses are similar and I knew to run when a unit was in bad shape.

With experience the attackers would have called off the attack when their losses were 2 or 3 bases. We played 5 turns in a couple hours. A lot can happen in a single turn, a unit can move twice or fire twice, sometimes more.

The game is a hoot. All loved it, including the players who got whipped. You can pick up the gist of the rules in a turn or two. Turn phases are on chits drawn from a cup (or cards). The result is joyous chaos. Some of the chits are Carpe Diem. Each player rolls a die. High score decides what phase it is. Each one drawn causes much hooting and hollering. There are 4 such chits in the cup. Perfect? No, but then I’m mighty fussy. And there are no perfect rules. Damn good and a lot of fun? You betcha. And they are free.

 

Rules are here. 

You can't beat the price.

 

The scenario is here.

 Again, the price is great.

Of course, I’m already looking at American Revolution and similar with these rules.

Edit: this is an introductory scenario. None of us have played these before and half never read the rules. Normally, each player has a brigade.

The Fate of the Day: book review

I recently finished the second volume of Rick Atkinson’s trilogy of the American Revolution. The full title is The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780. Quite pleased, I look forward to the third volume. I liked the first volume; The British are Coming. My review of the first is here.

 

I like the second volume even better. Other books about the revolution I’ve read over the years are concerned with the events in and close by US territory. Once France (and later Spain and Holland) entered the war against Britain, it became a world war. Atkinson covers much more of this than I’m used to. One example is the naval battle of Ushant, when nature decided to smite both fleets after they had beaten each other up.

 

The abortive sieges of Newport, Fort George and Savannah are covered. Goodness, Pulaski was mighty brave and mighty foolhardy. I had thought he did his mad attack under stress, not that he led the Continental storm of a fortress with his cavalry.

 

The Royal Navy blockade strangling of the colonial economy is covered in detail. The runaway inflation makes our recent difficulties with that fade into insignificance. The Navy  also raided coastal towns, burning buildings, sacking and looting.

 

The mighty struggles in Parliament are covered, as pressure against continuing the expensive, bloody war mounted. In 1780, the Gordon riots erupted, something I was basically unaware of. Nominal anti-Catholic riots soon metastasized into a general uprising by the poor against the propertied classes. Cabinet members were dragged from their carriages and assaulted. Columns of smoke rose over London from burning buildings. The riots lasted a week. King George finally managed to concentrate 11,000 troops in London and they smashed the rioters, killing over 280 of them. This wasn’t easy, since so much of the army was either in America, Canada, the Caribbean, India or other outposts around the world, fighting Washington or the French. Some 800 to 1,000 lives were lost, including those shot by the soldiers. The damage to buildings in London wouldn’t be surpassed until the 1940 Blitz.

 

One result was that many of the propertied who had been on the verge of uproar against the war in the colonies chose backing North and the King over anarchy. The war would continue.

 

The war in 1780 resembled two bloody and exhausted barroom brawlers who wouldn’t quit, each hoping the other would collapse first. Of course, we know that the treasure being poured out by France would lead directly to their own revolution a few years after this one finally ended.

 

Atkinson has set himself a high bar for the third volume. I await it anxiously.  

Huzzah! 2025 Convention

 Last Saturday I drove down from Georgetown to the convention in South Portland, signed in for the game “Between Two Fires”. The scenario was based on the British withdrawal from Concord along Battle Road. The rules were Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles. The original Fistful of Lead were western gunfight rules that have since spawned a number of period variants. Last year a scenario based on fighting outside Bastogne in 1944 was played at the convention. I wasn’t fast enough signing up. I’ve never played any of the Fistful of Lead (FOL) rules, so this was my maiden voyage.

I ended up commanding a company of British grenadiers and a weaker light company. The other British player, who had once played FOL before, had a similar command and the Lt. Colonel in charge. The rebels had three full strength companies, one of them being light infantry, all irregulars. We were attempting to clear the road to Boston for the rest of the force behind us. 

We didn’t have a plan beyond that. My ad-hoc improvisations ensured that I suffered severely as a result. FOL proceeds by card play using a standard deck of cards. My light infantry activated first and filled their cartridge boxes. I should have activated the grenadiers first and saved the lights for later. My grenadiers blocked the road when the other grenadiers activated before them. It was a sign of things to come.

 

Next, I had my grenadiers move over the wall to their right, where I discovered how slowly they moved in the dense woods. A fairly large party of enemy light troops was in the woods and my light company crossed over to help deal with them. My grenadiers next got back into the road, formed in a formation that looked like a column, though all units on both sides were in a loose mob.

 

Now this apparent column on the road faced a rebel unit in a loose line behind a wall. My ingrained column-loses-firefight-to-line kicked in. In truth, all my figures could fire, so the firefight wasn’t as one-sided as it appeared.   But that’s hindsight. At the time, I marched into close range, hoping their first fire would be unlucky. Instead, they rolled a tad over average, shooting a number of my lads down and putting a lot of shock on them. The Lt. Colonel used his special activation card to remove three of their four shock markers. Thank you, Lt. Colonel! My next activation was a wild card, used as a queen of hearts. This brought two of my casualties back, crying “I’m not dead yet”. I decided to charge, hoping the rebels would run from cold steel. Wrong, they stood and beat me back into the road. Another rebel unit then fired into me and caused the remaining grenadiers to flee into the woods. My next activation saw the real queen of hearts bring back one more casualty and my grenadiers stayed out of the line of fire for the rest of the game.

 

Meanwhile the two understrength British light companies slowly whittled down the tenacious rebel light troops in the woods. As the game wound down Crown forces obviously had not cleared the road to Boston. We had lost much more heavily than the rebels and most of our losses were my poor grenadiers. Promotion was not in the cards for me, unless my parents could pony up the funds for a serious purchase. 

Hindsight says I should have moved up the road rapidly with my light company covering my left, peppered the rebels, drawn their first fire at long range and then tried to roust them. It would still have been a hard row to hoe but hopefully better than the disaster that I perpetrated.

 

The table was gorgeous and the game master had done a great paint job on his Perry miniatures. We had played 7 or 8 turns in a tad under 3 hours. Of the five players, only two had any experience with FOL rules. Well done and the conversation around the table was agreeable.

 

Now for my take on the rules. First, let me say that I only speak for my taste, each to their own.

 

I am not a fan of various types of dice in a single game. This used D12, D10 and D8 dice. The card activation sometimes kind of died down. Each unit gets a card, and each officer, including the company commanders. If their unit doesn’t have shock to rally (and possibly some other things that I’ve since forgot), when their card is drawn, they have nothing to do. Waiting at the tail end of each turn for officers to activate and then do nil slows the game. On the other hand, the card activation creates some chaos, which is always a good thing. I liked the scale of the game but am not sold on all the mechanisms.

 

The fellow across the table who shellacked me was Nathaniel St. John, who has published a set of American Civil War rules called The Devil to Pay. The rules are available online for free https://www.thedeviltopay.com/ . Each player is a brigade CO, with 3-5 regiments and a battery. It uses D6s solely. There are only 14 cards played in a turn. I’d use chits since that saves shuffling. Toss ‘em in a cup and shake. When troops activate, all players on that side activate. Not knowing what phase comes next ads to the chaos, which, as said before, is a good thing.

 

Possible drawbacks are the number of markers needed to indicate orders and hits. I’ll make some small and discrete ones. Also, every base (not yet hit) rolls a D6 needing 4+ for a hit. Some turns might see serious damage. On the other hand, it should give a fast game.  Like Loose Files and American Scramble, once a unit has a hit for each base, any additional hits cause lost bases. The rules do allow units to skedaddle before the next card (or chit) is drawn, at the cost of becoming disordered.

 

I hope to give these a try. Been looking for a set of rules where the base units are regiments (battalions) and batteries. We’ve been playing Bloody Big Battles where the base units are brigades or divisions. Excellent games for whole large battles, but sometimes you want to know the 114^th Pennsylvania is going in.

 

Here are some pictures of other games I saw, lovely tables and figures.

Book Review: The Swamp Fox

I picked up this 2016 biography of Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox of the American Revolution in a Goodwill store in Maine. Best $2 purchase I’ve made in quite a long time, possibly ever. John Oller wrote a fine biography of Marion’s life, including before and after the war.

 

I've long had an interest in Marion, starting with the ancient Disney TV series “The Swamp Fox” featuring young Leslie Nielson (Airplane, Naked Gun) as Marion. In the series young Marion romanced the comely daughter of middle-aged Banastre Tarleton, when not raiding, ambushing and escaping. A book for young adults opened my eyes to artistic license when I found Marion was middle-aged and Tarleton a young man in his early 20s, no child in sight.

 

Later came that preposterous film The Patriot. The fiction was so blatant that they changed the names of the principals. Marion (Mel Gibson) became Ben Martin, and Tarleton became William Tavington. Martin was a Rambo-style super-killer, disposing of a full British infantry company early in the film with a little help from his three pre-pubescent sons. The British commit war crimes that rival those of the SS. The war in the south was truly nasty, but churches were not packed full of civilians and set afire.

 

Oller’s book reveals that Marion was 5 foot 2 and 110 pounds. His strong suit was brain, not brawn. Early in the war he was a Lt. Col in the 2^nd South Carolina Continental Regiment. He escaped the catastrophic siege of Charleston by being on the injured list. He then raised a unit in the tidewater region, loosening his command style to avoid alienating his militia volunteers. They followed this tiny man. He didn’t lead from the front, instead hanging back to figure out when to commit his slender reserves, or when to cut and run. He worked hard to avoid heavy losses.

 

Ambushes and raids were his stock in trade. Once, a mixed force of Crown troops set out to abolish him and his “brigade”. Marion eluded them, burning bridges to delay them. Then he repulsed an enemy attempt to cross a bridge under fire. With supplies running low, the Crown force then headed to the coast, with Marion’s fighters snapping at their heels. The hunted became the hunters.

 

His small brigade put up a creditable showing at the one open field battle they participated in, Eutaw Springs in 1781, trading fire with British troops.

Marion suffered his one clear defeat during the long period between Yorktown and the final peace. Called back from his seat in the South Carolina legislature, he arrived as the fight was under way, when he had not picked the time or place of the fight.

 

He was a slave-owner. His will set three individuals free, but not the enslaved Buddy who accompanied him during the war. On the other hand, the British only freed enslaved people who escaped from rebels. Those enslaved by loyalists got short shrift.

 

I found this an excellent book about Marion and the war in the south. It may well give you ideas for small actions. Descriptions of the principal actors abound, with both strengths and flaws on display.

 

Spoiler: the film has Martin slay Tavilton in single combat at the end (you don’t need to see the film anyway). Marion never personally crossed swords with Tarleton. The Duke of Wellington would have been pleased if he had, since Tarleton ended up being Wellington’s persistent critic in Parliament for many years.

Edit: it is noteworthy that for a lengthy period after the fall of Charleston and the rout of Camden, Marion's guerillas were the only rebel force in Tidewater South Carolina. The book made clear that the guerillas of Sumter in the piedmont and Pickens in the mountains were the other flickers of resistance. 

 

 

Hell by the Acre, a book about the Stones River Campaign

I recently read “Hell by the Acre”,  a new history of  the Stones River Campaign. It’s a deep dive into the story. Most histories contain some accounts by participants. This one has  way more of them  than usual.

 

Those accounts confirmed some notions I’ve had about the Civil War. First, in the west, the standard position for infantry in combat was prone. Sometimes units would stand up to open fire, usually startling the target. If terrain offered some cover, they would remain standing. One account featured a firefight with a Union regiment standing while the Confederates lay prone. I assume the Union troops had some cover from the shape of the ground, since in most accounts all lay prone. Reloading while prone must have taken more than 15 seconds.

 

Second, accounts of the time almost always refer to enemy “columns”. It becomes clear in this book that “column” means a body of formed troops, not skirmishers. One account even says a “column” is in line formation. When a specific type of column is mentioned, as in column on the right division, then you can be assured the unit isn’t in line. But otherwise, it’s a body of formed troops.

 

The Union advance was slowed by the multi-day delaying action fought by the Confederates to allow Hardee’s corps time to concentrate with the rest of the army.

 

One interesting account of a delaying fight was the action by Captain Edgarton’s Union battery. Called upon to help another battery under artillery fire, he paused his guns in a wood and rode out with his section commanders. They all had their watches out. Each time the Confederate guns opened, they all noted how many seconds passed before the rounds hit. With the range calculated, they rode back into the wood. The battery was ordered out at the gallop. They rapidly deployed and opened fire. One percussion shell struck an enemy gun wheel, disabling the piece. Another struck just under another gun’s axle and exploded, throwing the gun end over end. Edgarton had a reputation as one of the most scientific gunners in the army.

If you’re looking for a detailed account of Stones River, this is the book for you. I have a Stones River scenario for Bloody Big Battles and this will help me update it.

 

The American Invasions of Canada

 

Since there has been buzz about annexing Canada recently, I thought it timely to post a brief summary of our previous efforts to annex Canada. And yes, those of you who know these wars well, I have left a lot of stuff out. It's a summary.

 

In 1775, before we even declared independence, a two-pronged invasion of Canada was launched. General Montgomery led the western force up the traditional Hudson River/Lake Champlain route, capturing the fort at St. Johns and Montreal on the way to Quebec. Benedict Arnold led about 1,000 troops up the Kennebec River and then down the Chaudière River to Quebec. His expedition suffered extreme hardship. Over a third of them turned back. The others had to dine on boiled cartridge box belts and candle tallow. An ancestor of my wife went up the Kennebec with Arnold. The two forces combined to storm the city on New Year’s Eve. 

 

Montgomery was shot dead; Arnold was hit in the leg. The assault failed, losing heavily in killed, wounded and prisoners. The attacking force was driven back to New York in the following Spring, since British reinforcements arrived once the ice melted on the St. Lawrence River. That was it for the rest of the 18^th century.

 

During the War of 1812, the War Hawks coveted Canadian lands. Others thought captured territory would make useful bargaining chips at the eventual peace conference. Ex-President Jefferson boasted that taking Canada would be “a mere matter of marching”. His administration and the succeeding one of his protégé Madison had starved the budgets of the Army and Navy, assuming that militia would suffice for any military needs. It was felt that professional military were tools of the opposition Federalist Party. The small, threadbare US army would start the war badly. Undisciplined militia would be found wanting when invading foreign soil, likewise feeding and equipping forces with amateur supply troops.

 

The first action was an invasion from Detroit, led by General William Hull. British General Isaac Brock boldly ran circles around Hull with his smaller force of British regulars, Canadian militia and Native warriors led by Tecumseh. He bluffed the cautious Hull into surrendering Detroit and his entire force of 2,000 troops, with very few shots fired.

 

Next, Major General Stephen Van Renssalaer led 3,500 troops to the Niagara River. Brock dashed back east to face this threat, gathering some 1,300 Regulars and Canadian militia. The American regulars and some militia crossed the river in a badly planned move; no one had assigned people to row the empty boats back across. A few did, some to escape the fighting. As the sound of gunfire erupted from the British side of the river, the militia waiting on the south bank suddenly discovered that their terms of enlistment didn’t include crossing into Canada. Stranded on the north bank, those who crossed were defeated in a tough fight, losing nearly 1,000 prisoners. The intrepid Brock was shot dead during the battle.

 

Those were the only two serious efforts to invade in 1812.

 

1813 saw the inept, corrupt and traitorous General James Wilkinson lead a force of 8,000 troops towards Montreal. Posthumously, Wilkinson was  discovered to have been on the payroll of Spain while he commanded the US army before the war.

 

Another force of 4,000 under General Wade Hampton was defeated by a much smaller Canadian force and fell back before joining with Wilkinson. Wilkinson then contrived to get only 2,500 of his force into contact with some 800 British and Canadian troops under Lt. Colonel Joseph Morrison, and was defeated, ending the invasion. Superior knowledge of the terrain by locals combined with insufficient training, discipline, supplies and leadership by the invading forces helps explain the continued defeats at the hands of smaller forces.

 

An attempted invasion further west by General William Henry Harrison ended in a stalemate after heavy fighting on both sides.

 

Late 1813 saw Harrison again invade Ontario, defeating a smaller British and native force. Tecumseh was killed (and cut up for souvenirs). This was the only  Canadian territory of note held by the US at the end of the war.

The US Army slowly expanded and improved, under the pressure of defeats. Incompetent generals were weeded out.

 

In 1814 General Jacob Brown led an invasion over the Niagara River, which saw some success before finally having to fall back to their starting positions. At the US victory of Chippewa, well-trained US regulars were dressed in grey uniforms, due to a shortage of blue cloth. The British commander Riall assumed they were Buffalo militia and was surprised when they fought like disciplined troops. “Those are regulars, by God!” he exclaimed and that is why the West Point cadets wear grey to this day.

 

Napoleon Bonaparte was forced to abdicate in April, freeing Britain to send veteran reinforcements across the Atlantic. This put the US on the defensive later in the year. A British offensive into New York failed when the US Naval victory on Lake Champlain cut their supplies.

 

A British amphibious invasion led by the bold General Robert Ross routed a larger force of mostly militia with some regulars and Navy sailors at Bladensburg Maryland. Ross went on to capture Washington DC, where he burned the White House and other government buildings. He then went by sea and moved against Baltimore. Ross was killed by a sharpshooter early on. His cautious replacement decided to wait for the Royal Navy to silence Fort McHenry. This failed, giving us the Star Spangled Banner. The invasion force went back to their ships.

 

In time, this force was reinforced and sent to attack New Orleans, failing badly. It is often said that battle was fought for no purpose, since the peace treaty had been signed. I disagree. If you want to know why, my earlier post about it is here. 

 

Finally, after the American Civil War, a group of Fenian veterans of that war invaded Canada in 1866. They hoped to trade Canadian real estate for Irish independence. After they won a battle against Canadian militia, the startled US government shut down their Buffalo supply center and with it, the invasion. The Wikipedia article can be found here. Here's hoping that it was the last invasion of Canada.