Another trip to the American Civil War and the last in the current series of 250th Independence Anniversary US battles. This one is Chancellorsville, another huge multi day battle, which tbh I'm a bit anxious about running with players because there is a fair bit going on. However I have a scenario so we may as well give it a go, as usual with my heavily modified version of Neil Thomas's ACW rules.
Chancellorsville was fought over three days in May 1863 after 'Fighting Joe' Hooker took over the Union Army of the Potomac to try and wrest control of Fredericksberg on the Rappahanoc from Robert E Lees Army of Northern Virginia. Repeated union assaults had previously failed, but Hooker settled on a wide flanking manouvre to unhinge the defence.
Battlefield from the south, the Potomac winds north-south and Fredericksberg is in the foreground, now largely destroyed after months of siege. Further up the road leading north from Fredericksberg is the Tabernacle Church and finally at the top of the map is Chancellorsville in 'The Wilderness'. The area marked with pine tress is dense forest, left untended after earlier forestry work and now heavily overgrown and very bad going. The woods indicated with deciduous trees further south are more open in the better tended farmland and just block LOS.
This is based on the old Volley and Bayonet scenario and victory is determined by the control of critical communication points in the north, not Fredericksberg itself. The objectives are the two roads leading off the west edge of the map, Chancellorsville, Tabernacle Church, and the ford in the northeast corner. The game last for three days with two overnight turns.
Here it is with the troops deployed. Most of the CSA army is around Fredricksberg, but Hooker has sent half his Army north to try and catch Lee in an encirclement. The Rappahanoc provides protection for that road on the right right which allows for rapid north-south Union movement.
For this game the CSA were played by John B (Lee and JEB Stuart), Tim (Jackson) and Simon (Longstreet). The Union were John A (Hooker and Slocum), Mark (Reynolds and Couch), Jim (Sedgewick), Russell (Meade) and Jerry (Sickles and Howard). The CSA units were generally divisions, while the Union units were generally Corps although the bigger Corps had two divisions. I will italicise the Confederate division titles to try and reduce some of the confusion as to which units are on which sides.
Hooker had immense problems commanding his dispersed army, so all units more than three hexes from him are treated as having 'poor staff', so harder to activate. The Union outnumber the CSA about 2:1, hence my trepidation about playing this with the very attrition focussed Neil Thomas rules.
Around Fredricksberg the Union have three Corps, Reynolds I, Sedgewick VI and Couch II, largely dug into siege works.One of Sedgewicks divisions (Brooks) has a bridgehead over the Potomac. Most of these units are Seasoned, but Howes division (2/VI Corps) is green.
Both of Lee's Corps are here, McClaws from Longstreets I Corps is on the hill, while Jackons II Corps is concentrated west of the Union bridgehead. Lee himself is up on the hill (Marys Hill I believe) with McClaws division and Jackson is with AP Hills large five base division. All the CSA units are veterans to even the odds a bit.
Further north, Hooker has concentrated Meades V Corps and Slocums XXI Corps around Chancellorsville. Sykes division (2/V Corps) is veteran but the other two are green.
The other division of Longstreets Corps, Anderson, is dug in at the Tabernacle Church, and JEB Stuarts cavalry division is over in the top left. Stuart had shadowed Hookers flanking move, so it wasn't the surprise Hooker was hoping. These units are both veteran.
Finally straggling up from the siege of Fredricksberg are Sickles III Corps and Howards XI Corps, just crossing the river. Both these units are green but if they arrive in a timely fashion at Chancellorsville, they will give Hooker a crushing local numerical advantage. What can Lee do about that? Well, we shall see.
OK, enough background, off to battle.
May 1st opened much as you would expect when the artillery around Fredricksberg sprang into life. Both both sides were largely in serious entrenchments so the smoke was impressive but casualties were light.
In the north however Brooks and Couch advanced on Anderson at the Tabernacle Church, while Sykes moved southeast and engaged Stuarts cavalry in the woods. Typically both Sickles and Howard failed their command rolls and were stuck around US Ford in the northeast. Having sent his forward divisions into battle, Hooker rode off the see what the holdup was at US Ford.
Jackson led Hill and Rhodes north and the shook out into line southwest of Anderson. So far all so historical.
There was heavy fighting in the north, Sykes managed to push back Stuarts cavalry with loss, who retired to the Spotsylvania Road exit to reorganise. Anderson and Hill inflicted enough losses on Slocum to force his Corps back into the Wilderness once more, while Rhodes advanced to the road between Stuart and Anderson.
Back at Fredricksberg the guns continued to roar, enough to inflict some actual losses by now, but units in siegeworks can rally adjacent to the enemy, so damaged units paused to reorder their stragglers. The two CSA divisions here were comfortably holding off the Union troops.
Hooker had however lost confidence in the original plan and instead led Sickles and Howard back down the Potomac, where they are dimly visible in the northeast corner.
Suddenly there were an awful lot of Union troops around Fredricksberg as night fell on 1st May. Reynolds I Corps had left its siegeworks and moved opposite the crossing to Fredricksberg. Overnight units rallied and there was some shuffling around. The units in the open dug hasty fieldworks.
In the north, JEB Stuart reoccupied the ground he'd held earlier and Griffin moved back to the front as well having rallied. The other units dig rifle pits along the line. The CSA had numerical and qualitative superiority here, so what would the next day bring?
Dawn on the 2nd May saw the Union attempt to overrun Tabernacle Church! The charge failed in a hail of musketry and Griffin fell back once more, leaving dead and wounded behind him.
The guns roared out at Fredricksberg with losses on both sides, but McClaws (on the hill with Lee) lost a base but didn't feel able to make a rally attempt as Sickles crossed the Potomac via Banks Ford right next to him.
Lee indicated to Jackson that help was needed further south so Hill broke off and headed back down the road. There was now a parity of forces in the north. Hmm, well that is an interesting development. The CSA have pretty much got the objectives locked down here, but have just given up any real hope of taking Chancellorsville. Perhaps more worrying, is that overall losses (in bases) are now equal, whereas earlier in the battle, the CSA had a clear lead.
We broke for the evening at that point as the game moved into the afternoon of 2nd May.
The ring around Fredricksberg tightened, Sickles declined to charge(!) Mary Hill but Reynolds moved across the river into Fredericksberg while everyone else covered them with fire.
In the north Sykes drove Stuarts cavalry back again, but Griffin fell back with heavy losses into the wiilderness to join Slocum. Both these units were finding it hard to rally.
As night fell on the 2nd, Sickles charged up Mary Hill covered by the rest of the Union army, but was bloodily repulsed, many routers drowning in the river as they fled. AP Hills division had meanwhile moved into position northeast of Mary Hill to shore up McClaws position on the hilltop.
Stuarts cavalry infiltrated back into the woods as Sykes didn't show any great inclination to follow them, but Griffin and Slocum dithered in the forest although Griffin finally rallied a base back. The Confederates were probably a bit over committed here, but with three objectives in close proximity there was little choice.
As night fell the Confederates dug in (both Anderson and Rhodes had now improved their positions to fieldworks). Sykes also extended his entrenchments, but under cover of darkness Griffin moved back up the threaten the Tabernacle Chapel while Slocum marched west to join Sykes, hoping to overwhelm Stuarts cavalry the next day.
Around Fredericksberg there was mainly the sound of pickaxes and shovels overnight as most people dug in where appropriate. Howards Corps moved down to the Fredericksberg crossing ready to follow up after Reynolds however. Couch and Sickles exchanged places at the ford east of Fredericksberg as Couch's Corps was still fresh. The Confederates sneakily moved the Corps artillery from the Tabernacle Chapel and placed it on top of Mary Hill instead.
Dawn of the 3rd opened with Couch charging McClaws on top of Mary Hill. They were cut down in droves as Lee himself encouraged the defenders, and like Sickles, they found their retreat route blocked by the river so losses were catastrophic.
Reynolds Corps slipped northwest of of Fredericksberg, impeded by ZOC while Howards marched into the town. Suddenly that big gap between the two CSA trench systems was looking to be a problem (of course the Union could have done this manouvre days ago with the units already over the river, but it didn't seem to occur to them).
The CSA responded with fire. Hill routed and destroyed Couch, blocked in by the river. Combined fire from McClaws and Early inflicted 50% losses on Reynolds, and in the north Griffin was flung back once again with losses while JEB Stuart hung on grimly against two Union divisions. Slocum attempted a frontal charge but failed his morale test. If units want to charge in the ACW, they need to find an open flank, and Stuarts flank has been wide open all game. Union losses have skyrocketed in the last couple of turns while the rate of CSA loss has remained steady, mainly among the poor unfortunates on top of Marys Hill under attack by six Corps(!).
Reynolds sets off west towards the objective on row F, but Rhodes simply abandons his fieldworks and moves south the block the move. Having destroyed the threat at the ford, AP Hill starts to move back around Mary Hill. Reynolds needs to try and break through the CSA fire to move further west but has already taken heavy losses. The rest of the Union troops batter McClaws who is reduced to 50% strength, despite his siege trenches.
The tide turns on the afternoon of the 3rd. Reynolds takes enough losses to be forced to retreat, reduced to one active base., and hard up against Hills division, it is hard to see him surviving another turn. McClaws inflicts enough losses on Howard to force him back out of Fredericksberg and the Union position around the town is starting to look a bit dicey.
Catastrophe in the north, Stuart weathers heavy fire from Sykes and in turn puts enough hits on Slocum to force a retreat, but with their back the table edge there is nowhere to retreat to, so losing another base is enough to destroy them completely. With the losses this turn the Union army is well past its exhaustion point and is now coming close to its rout point.
With the army exhausted it is unable to take offensive action any more and Hookers attack grinds to a halt late on 3rd May. Lee still holds all his starting objectives and has managed to shatter the Union army as well, so a great Confederate victory! The CSA are well off their break point, despite heavy losses on Mary Hill and being outnumbered almost 2:1.
Gosh, that was a slogging match and quite hard to run, with more moving parts than I was happy with for two short evening sessions. We did reach a conclusion however with ten minutes to spare no less. A very interesting result as Hooker basically gave up on the Chancellorsville encirclement on turn 2 and decided to refight the battle of Ferdericksberg instead, but with the units in the north pinning the CSA (which they did very successfully until 3rd May).
Sadly Fredericksberg is a horrible position to attack and not worth any VPs at all. Lee could use his interior lines to reinforce threatened positions and the Union suffered disastrous losses trying to attack the fortified heights across the river, just as they had in 1862. It was a brave effort and pressed home with vigour however, and the Confederates had some agonising command decisions to make about how many troops to commit to each sector.
Many thanks to the players for taking part in such good spirit. Following the requests to run Gettysberg, I am working on a scenario which may appear in due course....
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