{"id":3062,"date":"2020-12-07T20:35:28","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T20:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2020-12-07T20:35:28","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T20:35:28","slug":"chickamauga-1863","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/2020\/12\/07\/chickamauga-1863\/","title":{"rendered":"Chickamauga \u2013 1863"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>

Stephen takes a break from his War of the Roses games to revisit the American Civil War…<\/em><\/p>\n

I fancied an ACW game, and since I had a scenario for Chickamauga already written out for play at the club (whenever that will be) I decided I\u2019d have a solo game and give it a go.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have enough models to do the whole of Chickamauga so I decided to concentrate on one small part \u2013 the Confederate attempt to outflank the Union left on 19 September. This would be a challenging battlefield \u2013 nearly all wooded! Normally a piece of felt on the table indicates woodland, but not this time \u2013 the felt indicated open spaces. Everything else was woodland, so would be difficult going and all engagements would be at close range. So a potentially deadly battlefield (as indeed it was, both historically and in my re-fight).<\/p>\n

The objective was simple \u2013 the Confederates had to get a brigade on the opposite side of Lafayette Road and take fewer casualties than the Union. The Union had to stop them. During the course of the battle fresh brigades would arrive on both sides.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see how it played out\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"
Brannen holds the river<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Union won the initiative in the early rounds, allowing them to dictate the course of the battle. I pulled Croxton\u2019s brigade back \u2013 he was on his own, far forward, at the junctions of Alexander Bridge Road and Walker\u2019s Road and staring down two Confederate divisions on his own. But on the next turn I realised I\u2019d made a mistake \u2013 an uncontested advance is just what the Confederates wanted, so I decided to push him back forward to stall the Confederates and to bring up Baird\u2019s Union division and Turchin\u2019s brigade (and feed in the rest of Reynold\u2019s division when it arrived). This would hold the Confederates back.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Confederates advance on the road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Up on Reed Bridge Road Pegram set up his artillery and got his cavalry ready for a charge against the Union line. In hindsight I should have dismounted the cavalry, but I was carried away by the romance of a cavalry charge. Whilst the cavalry got ready Pegram\u2019s artillery started a duel with the Union artillery to soften them up before the cavalry went in with their sabres.<\/p>\n

Confederate corps commander, Leonidas Polk, along with Cheatham\u2019s division arrived on table in the area of Alexander Bridge Road, meaning that flank was heavily loaded against the Union. Liddell\u2019s division led the Confederate advance and with bayonets fixed and a wild rebel yell they charged Croxton and Turchin. Surprisingly, they were bounced back \u2013 the Confederate charge didn\u2019t go in.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Confederates go in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by the infantry\u2019s zeal the Confederate cavalry did likewise, and charged in. The effect was just the same \u2013 repelled by the Union line.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Cavalry go in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, to the south (the Union right flank) Baird\u2019s division still moved up slowly. This was caused by the need to keep the artillery in line with the foot brigades.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Baird’s Division moves slowly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Further south, as the rest of Reynold\u2019s division came on, they found themselves all that stood in the way of two aggressive Confederate divisions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Battle for the right flank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wilder\u2019s cavalry brigade launched a daring and foolish charge against the Confederates \u2013 outflanked and outnumbered they were shot down and cut down.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Confederate numbers start to tell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It started to dawn on the Union that the right flank was looking very weak with not much (a lone artillery battery) between the confederates and Lafayette Road. Further north, Brannen\u2019s division held firm against Pegram and Forrest. Pegram\u2019s cavalry had taken a mauling so were pulled back and Forrest\u2019s infantry were pushed forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The right flank opens up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Baird\u2019s slow advance actually paid off here because he hadn\u2019t moved too far forward and was able to pull back Starkweather\u2019s brigade and an artillery battery into an enfilading position to try and do something about the Confederates who realised how close they were to victory with little to stop them securing Lafayette Road with a mad dash.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Wright’s brigade is sacrificed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Starkweather\u2019s repositioning proved successful. The Confederates had used Wright\u2019s brigade to screen Jackson\u2019s brigade\u2019s dash for the winning line. But Wright took a hell of a pounding and paid the price \u2013 his brigade was obliterated and routed off the field. Sure enough, Jackson had made it to Lafayette Road, but the Confederates had taken quite a few casualties and lacked the oomph to assert control over the road.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Too little too late<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the end it was a historical outcome \u2013 the Confederates moved on Lafayette Road but didn\u2019t have the manpower to completely take it. Further north, the Union troops held firm and stopped Forrest\u2019s advance. Neither side could really claim a convincing win at this stage (the full battle went on into the 20th<\/sup> Sept and would ultimately be a Confederate victory).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen takes a break from his War of the Roses games to revisit the American Civil War… I fancied an ACW game, and since I had a scenario for Chickamauga already written out for play at the club (whenever that will be) I decided I\u2019d have a solo game and give it a go. I … Continue reading “Chickamauga \u2013 1863”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[68,25,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-15mm-wargaming","category-american-civil-war","category-game-reports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Chickamauga-Header-e1607372486701.jpg?fit=800%2C283&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9A5LG-No","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3064,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions\/3064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}