Over the winter of 1862/63 the US siege of Fredricksburg dragged on. The failure to take and hold the town by led to Burnside being replaced by 'Fighting Joe' Hooker to command the Union forces. Robert E Lee had the Army of Virginia concentrated around Fredricksburg, and Hooker decided to break the stalemate with a bold outflanking manouvre via Chancellorsville, all coordinated by the shiny new technology of the Telegraph.
This is one of the largest battles of the ACW and also spans several days and a large area, so quite a wargaming challenge. I based this on the Chancellorsville scenario in the Volley & Bayonet ACW scenario book. Converting into terms for my hex based Neil Thomas ACW rules, I ended up with three days, each of 4 turns, plus two overnight turns (3/4 May and 4/5 May), and many of the individual units represent entire Corps.
Battlefield from the south. Fredricksburg is in the forground, and Chancellorsville up in the 'wilderness' to the north. There are five objectives, Chancellorsville, the Tabernacle Church, US Ford and two of the roads leading west. They don't include Fredricksburg itself, to encourage the fighting to take place elsewhere. I only gave the Union a single leader (Hooker) to try and model the immense difficulties he had coordinating both halves of his army. Lee has a central position and two leaders, and can easily switch forces from south to north and vice versa.
The siege forces around Fredricksburg. VI Corps (Sedgewick), I Corps (Reynolds) and II (Corps on the Union side Sedgewick has one division across the Potomac at Franklins Crossing. Jackons II Corps and half of Longstreets I Corps for the CSA are dug in around the town.
All the CSA units are Veteran, the Union are a mixture but the troops here are mainly Seasoned. The units are mostly 'entrenched', so permanent fortifications which provide cover from artillery fire as well as musketry.
Bobby Lee keeps an eye on proceedings with McClaws Division. This position covers both the bridges into the town and the ford just north of it. Fredricksburg itself is largely in ruins and just blocks LOS at ground level.
AP Hill and Rhodes divisions in reserve behind Earlys entrenched troops. The US have a bridgehead over the Potomac here and both sides glower at each other from their trenches.
Hookers master stroke, Sickles and Howard cross the Potomac at US Ford. These guys are Green. There is a road running the length of the Potomac on the eastern bank which allows Hooker (in theory) to shuttle troops back and forth.
And Meade and Slocum are already in position around Chancellorsville amongst the trees. Most of the these guys are Green too, apart from Sykes 2 Div (with the gun) who are Veteran. The are faced by Anderson, dug in at the Tabernacle Church, while JEB Stuarts cavalry lurk in the forest to the west. The pine tree hexes indicate 'The Wilderness', the area of horrible terrain which had been partly logged and the left to grow wild. This is an obstacle to movement, combat, C3 and pretty much everything else. The woods in the cultivated terrain further south just block LOS.
The action opens on 3rd May with the siege lines around Fredricksburg opening fire and two US divisions moving up to mount a pinning attack. As everyone is entrenched, casualties are light, although not so light for the troops moving in the open.
Sykes goes to tackle Jeb Stuart and takes fire from the cavalry carbines. Meade and Slocum take on Anderson at the Church, Meades boys are so enthusiastic they even pass their charge morale test. They soon find out the hard way that charging rifles frontally is a bad idea and the charge is repulsed.
Sickles crosses US Ford and marches towards Hookers HQ at Chancellorsville but Howard fumbles his command roll and mills around aimlessly on the banks of the Potomac.
Lee has a decision to make, but faced with the impetuous US attack, sends both Hill and Rhodes north, using the handy road network. Stonewall Jackson accompanies them. His aim is to beat the two most advanced US divisions in detail while Sykes is messing around in the forest and the reserves are still moving forward.
Just in time too as Anderson is driven back from the church! The Union now have three of the five objectives.
The guns roar at Fredericksberg, but McClaws sees off one US division.
And Hill retakes the church, driving the Union troops back to the edge of the Wilderness.
Jeb Stuart relocates to cover the Telegraph Road objective, pursued by Skyes. Hooker sends Sickles to reinforce them, as this objective looks ripe for plucking.
Back and forth at the Church. AP Hill is driven back by intense Union musketry. The Wilderness provides good cover which makes the Church, out in the open farmland, quite vulnerable. The CSA were the last to occupy it in though, so it is still their objective.
Back at Fredericksberg, McClaws holds off all comers, but in a shock development, Sedgewick is driven back over the Potomac by intense CSA fire. Hmm, might need to think about that, not sure troops could be forced back from siege works by just fire, it needs a charge really.
And up north things could be going better for Hooker. Jeb Stuarts cavalry have actually forced Skyes to retire, and the imposing CSA firing line has driven back one of Meades divisions in disorder. Howard has finally arrived to support Meade though.
Night gives everyone a breather. Units recover half their losses (and the rest become permanent), and there is the opportunity to redeploy or dig in. Although there is a bit of shuffling, digging sounds like a good option for most units!
At Fredericksberg the Union have dug rifle pits at the base of "McClaws Hill", while Sedgewick elected to dig in south of the Potomac instead of reoccupying the bridgehead. In future I'm going to make the siegeworks permanent. As I've mainly done 1862/63 I've not had many permanent siegeworks in games and I need to think how best to manage those, but they should certainly be harder to take than rifle pits.
And up north it is like WW1, with everyone dug in and glowering across Nomansland.
Rifle pits provide cover from fire, but not melee, so Howard charges AP Hill. In these rules it is easier to get Green troops to charge than Veterans. As the US troops are fresh and Hill is anything but, this is actually a good tactical move.
But the Union are unfortunate and the charge fails. Massed CSA musketry sends the Union line reeling back into the Wilderness.
And McClaws drives the US out of Fredericksberg, again.
But sadly, Stuart succumb to superior numbers and is driven off. Tbh, I'm not sure how the CSA are ever supposed to hold this objective, although it has absorbed one third of Hookers force for several turns. If I was redoing this scenario I'd shift it to the road further south.
Sickles occupies the objective while Sykes hacks his way south to the edge of the forest. I have considerably liberalised the movement and turning rules in this scenario. Units can turn for free up at the start of their move, but if they want to make multiple turns, they are still subject to a turn penalty.
Now it is Early's turn to be driven out of his entrenchements by Sedgewicks fire. The blue marker indicates they are rallying, which is quite easy for Veterans, as long as they are out of rifle range.
In the north Lee pounces on Hookers disarray! Hill occupies the Tabernacle Church and Anderson plunges after Meades retreating troops. Suddenly Chancellorsville and US Ford look to be within the CSA grasp. Too many US units are tied up in the northwest or hunkered down in disarray in the forest.
Skyes makes a dash for the second road objective, but Early abandons the siege lines and marches north to block him. The turning restrictions mean that Sykes can only move one hex and is forestalled by Early. This leaves McClaws to hold off four US divisions at Fredricksburg!
At this exciting time, night falls.
A lot of rallying and digging in takes place around Fredricksberg. Sedgewick failed to move at nightfall the previous day as this half of Hookers army is out of command. The US have gone into Fredricksberg overnight, again.
Rifle pits have sprung up along the front in the north. Four CSA divisions face five Union ones in an extended line along the edge of The Wilderness, but the US are battered and mostly Green.
McClaws is pinned by fire while Sedgewick finally makes his activation roll and crosses the Potomac aggressively, lined up on the rear of the northern CSA line.
McClaws is finally forced back, taking Stonewall Jackson with him. The CSA gunners hang on grimly on top of the hill though.
But disaster for Lee in the north. Anderson is unaccountably repulsed by Meade beside the Potomac (despite the latter only having one active base left!). AP Hill has more luck and drives the US back down the Chanchellorsville Road.
Early is attacked from both sides on the centre left objective but holds out, and McClaws once more advances up the hill into a storm of fire. Charging uphill with Jackson at their head, it is just like Bull Run all over again....
Anderson and Hill managed to drive back Meade right back to edge of Chancellorsville, and Lee sets off in pursuit with Hills division. Sadly it is perhaps a turn too late as Early is overwhelmed by concentric attacks.
Lee on the outskirts of Chancellorsville. It isn't quite enough and as night falls the Union still hold four of the five objectives. With both his Lines of Communication cut, Lee has no option but to escape to the southwest. Hooker has pulled it off!
It is a while since I've played my version of Neil Thomas's ACW rules and I was distinctly rusty. I'd forgotten quite how attritional the rules were, and the first few turns felt like a real slog to such an extent that I almost gave after after the first day. The turn restrictions on movement were also incredibly annoying and I rapidly revised those. It did settle down as the battle opened up a bit though and in the end I enjoyed myself a lot. Lees dash for Chancellorsville was very entertaining and only just fell short, which was a great way to end.
If I was doing this again I'd have a think about siegeworks, and I think the simplest thing to do is allow units in them to ignore retreat results from fire. I also didn't really get Hookers command problems right. I should have essentially only let him move half his army each turn, either with scenario specific rules or revisiting the command system in the rules.
In more general terms, it made me realise how much slicker the Napoleonic One Hour rules variant is and I think it would be worth investing some time in doing an ACW version for that. The main problem is that ACW armies are so....boring. Just masses of poorly clad infantry supported by a largely ineffective cavalry and a few guns scattered around, and the NT rules as written reward mass over anything else, whereas irl quality counted for a lot. So, my initial thoughts are to have 'cavalry', factor most of the artillery into the units with a possibility of a few artillery attachments and then to have three kinds of infantry - Green, Seasoned and Veteran who all have different ratings and can do different things, possibly even move and fire, for the better types. On top of that add some specific bonuses, Rebel Yell for charging, more plentiful US artillery fire and it might be getting there. I will also really need to do something about C3 as all nineteenth century armies in extended order were notoriously cumbersome, more so in poor terrain.
So, a very useful session, fun to play and also food for thought for some future developments.
