Battle of Aiken Bottom Ranch

I commanded a Georgia Brigade under BG Paul Semmes under MG McClaws Division in this ACW clash using Carnage and Glory II Computer Aided Rules, run by Rich Wallace at his New Hampshire home last Sunday.  My brigade and the rebel artillery started on the board.  Our objective was to seize the bridge to our front right and exit our supply wagons over said bridge.  Max Sewell, aka BG William Barksdale and his Mississippi Brigade, and Scott Monteith, aka BG Woffard and his Georgia Brigade were the other rebel commanders.  Leo Walsh and Mike Paine commanded the Union forces. The picture below shows the first turn arrival of Barksdale's Mississippi boys and on the far side of the road, Woffard's Georgians.  Rich would not allow the guns to limber, so I have prolonged one over the wall.

 

The Union troops prepare for the Rebel advance as the farm burns.

 

The guns have set the Union occupied house on fire as my troops advance, on the left we move into the cornfield while in the center we advance on the burning farmstead while the right fires on the union troops behind the fence.

 Another shot of the opening moves.  Wonderful terrain and detail typical of a Rich Wallace game.

 

Union reserves arrive near the bridge.

The red cotton ball denotes the serious condition of General Willard's Union Brigade after having two of its four units thrown back by the rebels.

 

Using an Indian Rush to draw fire from a further distance, my Georgians have thrown the Yanks out of the burning farm and the next turn followed up with an assault on the troops at the fence line from both the victors of the farm clash and their supporting unit. 

The rebels finally come to grips with Union Zouaves in the Cornfield.  The troops had to be within 75 paces to see and shoot at each other.  Barksdale's Mississippians advance at the rear of the photo in support of my Georgians.

The supply train and Barksdale's Mississippi boys move forward as the guns continue to prolong and try to get into the action.

 The congestion at the bridge as Mike Paine brings BG Carroll's Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia boys forward past BG Willard's retreating New Yorkers. We must hold the bridge!

 Beautiful vignette of union troops around the campfire. 

 Another of Rich's excellent touches, adding depth and beauty to the field of battle.

Carroll's Union troops charge over the bridge in assault column, hitting the 50th Georgia, who had defeated two separate union regiments. The Zouaves have been sent packing from the cornfield as Scott and Woffard's Georgians advance in the distance.

The clash at the fence lines.

Another view of the actions as my Georgians hit the retiring New Yorkers on the far right and are assaulted by the Ohio boys in the center.

The 50th Georgia defeats the Ohio boys and countercharges.  Three Yankee regiments sent reeling. 

 The Union boys prepare to assault from the bridge while a Gattlin gun moves onto the contested structure.

A wider view of the action

A Close up of Barksdale's boys preparing to advance.

 

 

 

 

 

A view from the other side of the river as the Ohio boys hit the 50th Georgia and the West Virginias hit the left most Georgia regiment.

 

 

 

 

 

The Georgians are finally sent off, only to unmask the prolonging rebel artillery and Barksdale's fresh troops.

 

 

 

Woffard's Georgians advance through the cornfield along with the Mississippi boys.

 

 

 

 

Barksdale's charge on the Gattlin gun falls short. The gun misfires. The rest of the two union brigades on this flank are routing off the board.

 

 

 

 

 

A final shot at game end.  The Rebel left flank had charged forward on the last turn only to run into fresh Union troops who turned a Major Confederate Victory in to a Pyrrhic  one.  My (Semme's) Georgians had cleared the way.  Great Game Rich.  Good fun all around and a wonderful terrain board with well painted and based troops made this a real pleasure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Projects for Carnage and Glory

The Battle of Neerwinden, 1793 and the Battle of Kaiserlauten 1793 are being researched.  I may just concentrate on the northern sector of Neerwinden where Charles and his Austrians defeated the French.

War of 1812, I'm working on Plattsburg (a hypothetical involving the crossing of the Sarinac River West of the Town) and North Point which I'm planning on running with Steve Keyer at Huzzah in 2017. 

I'm also beginning to put together a campaign of the Swedish-Russian War of 1808, as there are a two excellent campaign books available on this little heard of aspect of the Napoleonic Wars.

Leuthen

The flanking movement brings the Prussians onto the flank of the Wurttemberg Division

The Prussian dragoons and hussaars in the rear of the Wurttemberg units and blocking the exit from the town



Charles of Lorraiine watches his troops react from the Windmill Hill








The Bosniaks charge the retreating Austrian Hussars




Nobody puts Frederick in a corner, except may Frederick.



Leuthen: Fredrick's greatest victory. Carnage and Glory II Rich Wallace GM Havoc Marc 2014.
Christian, Max and I played the Prussians under the command of his majesty Frederick the Great, Jerry B. and another gamer took the Austrians commanded by Charles of Lorraine who outnumbered the Prussians about two to one. The Prussians have better quality troops than the Austrians and their Wurttemberg allies. Victory conditions were to hold the church, the three city areas, and the windmill hill, failure to hold all victory conditions became a victory for your opponent.

The Austrians had a fixed setup with their weakest troops on their left (the Wurttembergers), and an Austrian brigade arrayed in front of the town and a strong force on their right flank in front of the windmill hill. Their cavalry would come on later. They had grenzers and hussars (one unit each) in the woods on their right front facing our Prussian skirmish unit and Bosniak lancers. Max jumped in to take these Prussian units.


The Prussians chose to have a flank march arrive turn one on the right flank allowing us to come in with cavalry (four units) behind the Wurttembergers and with a heavy gun and two commands of infantry totalling 8 units. Two units of light cavalry remained to support the heavy battery on the hill. Christian ably commanded this flank.

I took the Prussian center (Christian later gave me command of the battery on the hill bearing on the Wurttembergers). Another battery was deployed on the left center hill to bear on the Austrians in front of the town and my third heavy battery along the left flank road bearing on the Austrians and the windmill. I had a large Prussian infantry brigade of five units and an independent single infantry grenadier unit. Four cavalry units were also part of the command, two on the center right, one under the guns on the hill, and one on the left flank in case the bosniacks needed assistance.

The flank attack developed with our Prussian cavalry moving along the table’s edge toward the church and outflanking the Wurttembergers . I wonder how the game’s outcome would have changed if we had sent one of Christian’s brigades of infantry on a forced march accompanying this incursion, instead of having them enter the town on the Wurttemberg left flank and never get fully into the battle. An artillery barrage and a volley from the Prussians shook the Austrians allies on turn one. Return fire saw one of Christian’s grenadier battalions disordered. It spent the remainder of the game trying to recover.

In the center the Prussians advanced.


On the left the Austrian and Prussian light cavalry formed line.

On turn two the Austrian irregular cavalry charged and the bosniacks lancers counter charged. They locked in melee and would swirl about in combat for the next four turns under Maxs able command, tying down the flank for most of the game.

Turn two the Prussians also charged in the center as their flanking cavalry on the rear table edge moved toward the church. Leaving two line infantry units and a battery to hold the Prussian center left, the remaining Wurttemberg infantry about faced (Turn one) and made for the rear to better deal with the flank attack (turn two). On turn two my Prussian cavalry in the center charged the retreating Wurttemberg (Center right) and a retreating Austrian unit ( center left) to pin them and keep them from occupying the town and other victory conditions. The Austrians by the windmill formed column and rushed to occupy the church and town.


















The Wurttemberg infantry on the flank crumbled in the face of Christian’s assault (his infantry and artillery having softened them up on turn one a charge saw the first unit flee and the second defeated in melee).

His cavalry in their rear caused massive losses as troops surrendered as they broke for the rear. With assaults hitting the Wurttemberg left and center and cavalry romping in their rear Jerry had his hands full. Fortunately for him cavalry reinforcements brought troops onto the rear and flank of the Prussian flanking movement.

Turn 3 saw Christian dealing with losing two infantry units to Austrian cavalry on their flanks before the Prussian cavalry could deal with this incursion.

It slowed us down and kept us from crushing the Wurttemberg division sooner.

My Prussian cavalry kept pressure on the center pinning the Austrians in place while the Prussian right center infantry moved up and the guns sought to soften up the opposing infantry. Unfortunately the Austrian center guns gave as good as they got, damaging one Prussian unit and eventually causing them to rout. Turn two’s cavalry charge into the rear of the Austrian unit attempting to enter the town failed to close at 50 paces after taking some passing fire from another Austrian infantry unit. I attached General Seydlitz and used his command capabilities to order another charge on the same unit the following turn (3) which resulted in the Austrian units utter defeat. Turn 2’s cavalry attack on the Wurttemberg infantry resulted in that unit routing. Turn 3 the unit refused to charge as did a Prussian hussar unit in open order that I requested assault the unprotected Wurttemberg artillery.

Max caught the retreating Austrian light cavalry in the rear on turn 3 and kept them in combat. Two Austrian dragoon units formed behind them anticipating an easy victory once their pinned colleagues retreated from the battle. They didn’t and Max kept them tied up for another turn.

Meanwhile his light infantry exchanged point blank fire with the grenzers who finally broke on turn four, clearing the woods. Turn 5 saw the Austrian Dragoons see off our Bosniaks.

On Turn five I had sought to charge the other Austrian units to the front left of my Prussians. I was stopped by Austrian cavalry who caught my other dragoon unit, defeating it in battle and causing my infantry to reconsider their advance. I was very unhappy with my handling of the Prussian battery on this flank as it was never fully engaged because of the limiting terrain and poor deployment of my units which did not allow for proper fields of fire for this unit. My center right infantry finally went in and threw out the Austrian infantry leaving their gun unprotected. By this time the Austrians from the windmill hill had deployed in all of the victory locations, giving them the terrain victory conditions.

With the arrival of the Austrian cavalry the Prussian’s chances went from slim to nil. We broke the one wing and never got into the town.



The esteemed game master declared an Austrian pyric victory which switched to a minor Austrian victory on the next day.


A fun time was had by all on a beautiful table. Way to go Rich

By God Those Must Be Regulars - The Battle of Chippawa 1814

 I ran this battle using Carnage and Glory II at Cold Wars last weekend, March 7, 2014. Brigadier General Winfield Scott had spent the winter drilling his brigade and getting them into fighting trim for the summer campaign. After crossing the Niagara River into Canada his troops were leading Major General Jacob Brown's pursuit of Major General Riall's British Right Division as it retreated east towards Niagara destroying the bridges as they went. The US Army logistics were horrible. In fact, the Army had run out of blue dye for its uniforms and were forced to use grey cloth. Scotts troops went into camp on the west side of Streets Creek. After restoring the bridge Scott lead his brigade over to the empty farm fields and began drilling his troops once again. The British, seeing this activity, sent their native allies supported by the 2nd Lincoln Milita into the woods to harrass the Americans while they crossed the Chippawa River and formed up under cover of the woods. Our game includes the earlier clash between each sides native allies and supporting Militias (US 5th Pennsylvania and 386 Native Warriors and British native allies from the Grand River Band 100 and Western Natives 200 supported by the 2nd Lincolnshire Militia). The British and Americans are marching onto the field. The Order of Battle for the Battle of Chippawa 501 MG Riall 502 Colonel Gordon 501 1st Foot 502. 8th Foot 503 LTC Hay 503. 100 th Foot 504 LTC Dickson 504 2nd Lincoln regiment 505 Captain Mclachlane 505 Sheppards Battery 506 Armstrongs Battery 506. Major Leslie 507. 19th Light Dragoons 507 Captain Norton 508 Western Nations 509 Grand River Nations 201. MG Jacob Brown 202 BG Winfield Scott 201 Ninth/twentysecond 202 Eleventh 203 Twentyfifth 204 Twentyfirst 100 men (attached from Ripley's Brigade) 203 BG Ripley 211 Twentyfirst(balance) 209 Twentythird 204 BG Porter 205 Fifth Pennsylvania 205 LTC Granger 206 Native Warriors 206 Major Hindman 207 Ritchies Battery 208 Towsons Battery 207 Captain Harris 210 US Light Dragoons
 

The Battlefield map



The British begin to deploy onto the field.




Scott's Brigade begins to deploy into the field

 

The 5th Pennsylvania Militia move forward across Streets Creek to support their Native Allies




British Form line in the field with a battery along the road



the 100th regiment of foot form the second line



The 9th/11th Regiment form line to meet the British advance.



Native allies support the British advance in the woods and along the fenceline



5th Pennsylvania advances to support the US Line slowly thorugh the woods 



Cannon Fire along the flank



The British advance toward the fence line

 

US Regulars prepare to greet the British line



Exchanging Vollies



Decision Time




Both sides lose one unit.

 

Here they come in the woods



Command Integrity is cautionary, the British can no longer advance.

 

Scotts Brigade also receive a no advance marker



US Native allies advance



Native Allies advance



Woodlands warfarae



The Canadian Milita is sent packing by the Native Warriors



A native warrior prepares to slip across the Chippawa River

The results from this run through of the game were the same we received at Cold Wars, a US pyrric victory. Both sides having a regular line unit disperse along with punishing losses to their remaining colleagues and native allies.  Good fun was had by all.