Sunday, January 5, 2020

Davis' Crossroads - Chickamauga

This past Saturday, Chris, Matt, James, Aaron, Andy and Myself got together to give Pickett's Charge a second go. I decided to run the hypothetical scenario, Davis' Crossroads from Brad Butkovich's great A Murderous Fire: Regimental Scenarios for the Battle of Chickamauga: Sept 11th-19th. I own most of Brad's series of ACW scenario books and they are all fantastic with great maps and are easily adaptable to multiple game systems/scales.

Historically Maj General James Negley's division advanced toward Lafayette, GA ahead of the main battle of Chickamauga, they were lured up towards Dug Gap by Pigeon Mountain before realizing he was being drawn in a trap. Braxton Bragg had ordered Maj Gen. Hindman's division to attack with Maj Gen. Patrick Cleburne's division to crush the Union salient. Hindman flinched historically and failed to advance on the Union forces before they withdrew, this scenario presents that Hindman acted aggressively and was able to coordinate with Cleburne's division.

Forces Overview

Board and initial Union dispositions
The Union command consisted of two division commanded by Maj Gen. Negley and Maj Gen. Absalom Baird commanding five total brigades and three artillery batteries. The majority of Union brigades started around the Davis' farm preparing for a Confederate onslaught, with one brigade, Sirwell's, arriving as a reserve.

Confederate forces
The Confederate forces were two divisions, Hindman's and Cleburne's, which were significantly larger than their Union counterparts. Their attack would be staggered, with Hindman arriving on turn one and Cleburne coming on turn four.

The Battle


Hidman's Division arrived and immediately pushes the Union line
Sirwell's brigade moving up in support
Cleburne's division arrives
Deshler's brigade of (dis)mounted infantry arrive
Union artillery open up on Cleburne's division
Sirwell's brigade saves the Union left by flanking Anderson's brigade
Confederate artillery pushes up to clear Union forces in the woods
Cleburne's division breaks the Union line
Col. Wood leads his brigade to the wall

Conclusion

After a few hours of fighting the Confederates numbers were showing and we decided to call it a Rebel victory. Union forces on the left had managed to hold, due to the arrival of Sirwell's brigade flanking the Confederate forces. But Cleburne's large division hitting the Union right, overwhelmed the line and forced multiple regiments to retreat.

We all enjoyed the scenario and I am thinking about working on it some more to possibly run at Little Wars this Spring.

Union forces fleeing back towards the Davis' farmstead




2 comments:

  1. Looks excellent, I've ordered a copy after our game last month, hope it gets here soon.

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  2. That looks like a great battle! I love the figures and the layout. -Brad

    ReplyDelete