In April of 1862 Grant was caught by surprise when Johnston attacked his army in the early morning hours. Grant's army had camped in a position where they were boxed in by the Tennessee River to the rear with marshy creeks on both flanks. To reflect this each division in Grant's army had to roll to see if they had formed up and were ready for battle. Many of the troops on both sides were also inexperienced and would have to roll to determine if they were poor or average quality.
The rules used for the game were "From Manassas to Apomatox". Each stand represents 500 infantry, 300 cavalry, or 12 guns.
All figures are Heroics and Ros. Buildings are from the Paperterrain North Russian Village set, most of the tents were from the Roman Seas Fortification set six, and most of the trees were from Everest Models. Dan Rygasewicz provided the Tennessee River, Fields, creek, gunboats, made most of the tents, and some of the trees. There were six participants, four confederate and two union, with Dan commanding the Union Army and Manny Granillo commanding the Confederate army. The game took place at the South Bay Game Club's April 14th meeting.
Grant started with five of his six divisions - Sherman, Pentris, McClernand, Wallace, and Hurlbut. Grant's other division, an additional division, and the gunboats would arrive later in the day. The Confederates had six divisions organized into four corps. Units are normally activated by a random card draw, but for the first turn all Confederate formations moved first and then the Union would attempt to activate McClearnand, Hurlbut, and Wallace. Pentris and Sherman were automatically activated by the initial Confederate attack.
The pictures can be viewed in a larger format by first left clicking on one of them, then right clicking on the picture and selecting view image.
8:00AM initial Confederate attack has been repulsed. The yellow discs were used for morale markers. Each marker would have a negative effect on the unit's morale when it activated.
9:00 AM Union army has been forced back. Wallace is marching to the front. Hurlbut's and McClernand's divisions are in total disarray.
9:30AM Confederates re-organize their formations. Breckinridge's Corps is marching to the far right of the Confederate line, Bragg is moving Ruggle's and Wither's division to the right center, Polk in the rear is moving his divisions to the Confederate left flank, and Hardee's division is in front.
Photo op for the gunboats. Not actually there as they are due to arrive about 5:00PM
Late morning. Cheatham's division from Polk's corps is attacking Sherman's division, McClearnand's division has taken a position in the woods, Wallace and Hardee are engaged in combat in the center, Pentriss is holding the Hornets nest, and Hurlbut is marching to the Union left flank. The red markers on Wither's division of Bragg's corps are there to help identify which command they belong to.
View of the Eastern edge of the battle at the same time as above. Breckinridge is preparing to attack Pentriss' division.
Early afternoon. Breckinridge is now facing Hurlbut's division. Pentriss has been forced out of the Hornet's nest by Ruggles. Hardee has been driven back by Wallace, but Wither's then drove Wallace back and captured his guns.
view from the other flank. Cheatham has routed Sherman, but is now exhausted.
2:00PM Union left flank in serious trouble. Pentriss' division would have six morale markers when it took its next morale test. Hurlbut has been pushed back by Breckinridge. Wallace is under pressure from Hardee and Withers, and McClearnand has fallen back.
Sherman has been rallied by Grant. Forrest's cavalry has arrived on the Confederate left flank.
Pentriss has routed. Hurlbut's division is exhausted.
3:00PM final positions at end of game. Due to time restrictions for the meeting place the game was called at this point. Confederate casualties were 7500. Union casualties were 13000. The Confederates were awarded the victory for doing better than historically. Two additional Union divisions were due to arrive later along with the gunboats.
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