Gore or Glory: A brief ACW, AAR, 22/10/17.

Sorry a bit belated but X Factor and Strictly get in the way.

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Arkansas: September 1863.


Down south:

It’s an early misty morning and both armies are off the leash. From the onset the Confederates get tangled along the dusty dirt tracks. The leading elements of CSA I Corps, (Department of the Eastern Frontier) continued moving east along the Greenville pike, crossing the Washita river at Arkadelphia on day two.

Unbeknown to the Rebels the Federal II Corps, Army of Arkansas, had marched forcefully down the Pleasant Ridge road. The Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in the saddle screening the main force.

The CSA 2nd division advance guard crosses the bridge over the Washita and occupies Knoxville.

Day three, the Federal cavalry and infantry threaten the CSA forward brigade’s position at Knoxville. After several skirmishes the division pull back across the river and blow the bridge.

The next day, Federal II Corps keep on moving west and attempts two river crossings: the 2nd Division at Paxton and the 1st at Caddo Valley.
The Texans are waiting at Caddo Valley and repulse the Union assault. At Paxton a Pennsylvanian Brigade force the crossing, defeats the Confederates and captures part of their supply train.

That night the Rebels withdraw to the minor river further west and fortify the river line. The Federals are in pursuit the next morning. The two day battle for the Washita river crossings is over.

Up North:

The CSA II Corps moved serenely across the map. Both divisions in column of march heading for Midway. Federal cavalry picks up this movement pretty quickly.

Slowly moving from their jump off positions Major General ‘JED’ Davies (US) and the I Corps undertake a ‘guarded’ approach as reports filter in from their Calvary and pickets informing that the Rebels are now at outside Donaldson.

It’s now Day 4, the Federals videttes are beaten back. The Southerners cross the Washita river without much difficulty and move south towards the exposed flank of Federal 2nd Corps.  

This move puts the Federal II Corps is in a tricky situation. On the other hand, This action cuts the Rebels from their supply as the Federal cavalry stifle all Rebel communications between their Corps and their base of supply at Greenville. The Confederates get locals to ‘help’ with their plight.  

The End Game:

The all-conquering Federal II Corps are now in a predicament as reports were coming in from deserters and POW’s informing Rebels are coming and that support ain’t coming soon.  With one division on each side of the Washita, and Confederates advancing on their positions from both east and west, the Federal corps will be fortunate to escape.  

From an umpires’ point of view, it was now a damage limitation exercise for the Federal Army of the Arkansas, II Corps. The Confederate had orders to attack and now entered Miles and the outskirts of Knoxville.  

The Federal 2nd Division was in a more favourable position to side step the Rebel grip. The Division of the Federal 1st Corps under General Pemberton and two cavalry regiments were in place to assist in getting them out via Friendship.  

The Federal 1st Division at Bethel was threatened by a superior force, and with their backs to the Washita.  As the rear-guard, they would have run the gauntlet with both Confederate Corps squeezing them from both flanks.

In this exercise It’s hard to predict what might have happened next. Both Confederate Corps were not in contact and maybe the Federals could have slipped away? As at Spring Hill 1864.



To be continued?

Thanks for the AAR. This was an experimental game, but after a slow start the mechanics worked well once the umpire team (of whom I was a part) got into a groove. I think we learnt a lot about how to do it another time.

The map was very good, with just the right amount of detail. I felt the OOB was a bit too detailed, going down to individual named regiments. That potentially had flavour, but no-one used it, and my feeling is that it would be better to just go down to brigade level another time.

There was a good supply of laminated versions of the map, and after a while a system developed that players marked up their orders graphically using washable pens, and liaison umpires did the same when preparing reports back for the players. I think we should make this standard practice for games at this operational level in future.

This one is definitely worth playing again, with a different scenario. Thanks for running it.

Martin (J)