From now on I would like to limit myself to scenarios where I have some special observations to make.
After Cedar Mountain, the Campaign continues with a set in the evening of the 28 August 1862 between King’s Division and Jackson’s corps around Brawner’s farm and Groveton; I skip these because I have played them all in one go and can’t remember the details. I would like to make some remarks however about the next set of scenarios, which deal with Sigel’s attack against Jackson’s in the morning of the 29. August 1862. They pose some very special problems which left me a bit at a loss how to solve them. I am not yet through with all of them, but so far my results when playing for the Union (I did the initial scenarios at least twice) were sometimes poor (some minor victories and a minor defeat), but the play was very interesting. The last I have finished was the following scenario (read with a German accent!):
Second Manassas scenario Nr. 9 “A Most Vehement Contest”29. August 1862, 09:30 am.
I. Corps., Army of Virginia (Union), Maj.Gen. Franz Sigel,
- 1. division, Schenk, with 2 brigades (Stahel and McLean)
- 2. division, von Steinwehr, 1 brigade (Koltes) and 2 batteries
- 3. division, Schurz, 3 brigades (Schimmelpfennig, Krzyzanowski, Soest), 4 batteries, and 2 Cavalry battalions
- independent brigade, Milroy
- cavalry brigade
Sigel’s corps is placed in the lower right corner of the map, facing north-west. On the right, the Sudley Mill Road is leading in a slight bow to the north, first through corn fields, then open meadows, then through forest. After a stretch there is no forest on the left of it anymore, after some more it crosses the unfinished railroad at an angle of roughly 45 degrees. The crossing designates the first objective, with the Sudley church nearby. Very close further on the north-east flows the Bull Run, which is crossed by the railroad at a right angle. If we follow the railroad south west, there is a belt of forest (Groveton Woods) all along it on the south-east side. At about the center of the railroad, there is a second objective star. Siegel’s Corps is placed with its right flank (3rd division) on and besides the Sudley Mill Road, then follows the independent brigade, then the 2. Division. The 1st Division on the left flank touches the Warrenton Turnpike (which crosses the Sudley Mill Road at a right angle in the back of the Corps). No Confederates are visible except a single regiment in the Groveton woods.
In the preceding scenarios, the player gets to play Krzyzanowski’s brigade, with the order to take the second objective, while the other brigade of the 3rd division moves against the Sudley church. In the next, he commands the whole 3rd division, with the same objective stars. Then he plays a confederate brigade, then Milroy’s brigade, and has to take another, not yet mentioned objective, further south-west on the railroad tracks; while the 1st division attacks other objectives even further to the south-west.
If the first scenarios are historical accurate, then they leave me puzzled. It means that Sigel ordered all his divisions/brigades to advance more or less straight ahead of their initial position. This however has the effect that the more they progress, the more they spread from each other with the result that the moment they hit the Confederates hidden behind the railroad, they are all on their own, without flank support, and without reserves. Imho the forces are just inadequate to attack on such a wide front. Sigel had is forces concentrated at the beginning, but isolated at the moment of contact with Jackson’s corps. If I take into consideration that the order was to “close the retreat of Jackson north over the Bull Run at Sudley Church”, then I can only wonder. But then, I am no expert.
Anyway, in the Sigel scenario, there are only the two objectives visible at the beginning (at the crossing near Sudley church and the one further south-west on the railroad), therefore I decided to ignore the historical (?) push into the far left with Schenks division/Milroys brigade, and instead concentrate all my forces on the two objectives at hand (EDIT: when I played the scenario another day, I dispatched some forces there, whith remarkably better results overall; it considerably reduced the pressure on my center). I chose to attack the Sudley Church with all of Schurz’ division, and the other objectives with the rest, with Schenk’s division in reserve nearby.
Sudley church objective: The problem here is that to reach this on the Sudley Mill Road, the regiments would - in the last stages of the advance - have to march immediately in front of the railroad, from where a devastating flanking fire was to be expected, and would have to storm it. To avoid that, I decided to split the division and let only Krzyzanowski’s brigade and a battery follow the road, but then stop out of the range of any forces behind the railroad. Meanwhile Schimmelpfennig, Soest and two batteries would make a wide march to the right around a forest and then, following a path and finally crashing through the woods, emerge immediately at the objective and take it. The problem was that all this marching takes a lot of time.
In the center, I let von Steinwehr and Milroy enter the Groveton Woods just where it was nearest to reach the second objective behind it, followed by a battery. After a while I sent one of Schenk’s brigades after them, because I had doubts if they would be strong enough to get out of the forest on the other side. In the forest there was only one Confederate regiment in skirmish mode, more annoying than effective. Progress was slow but when my brigades where near the objective star, it turned blue, even though they were still inside of the forest. I was insecure if I should advance further to take the railroad, because I didn’t know if it would offer a better defensive bonus than the heavy woods, but then I went for it. Immediately a firefight followed with Confederate brigade (later reinforced) on the other side of the railroad in the wood, and I needed all my brigades to man the defensive line. I noticed that a great amount of Confederate troops were moving against my flank from the left along the railway, and therefore ordered the rest of Schenk’s division to advance through the forest and take them in the flank.
Meanwhile Schimmelpfennig reached the objective at Sudley church and took it without opposition, which surprised me (I suppose that Confederate forces were diverted to fight my push through the forest on the left). Before that, I had done some scouting behind the railroad with my cavalry, and discovered two batteries, but only weak infantry. There was a whole brigade at least further back, but they didn’t move. I therefore ordered a cavalry attack on the batteries, which destroyed all but two guns. Then I ordered Krzyzanowski to advance to the railroad, attack over it and take the remaining two guns, which succeeded.
At the second objective, I was able to defeat the frontal attack against my line, and the push against my left was stopped with the help of my reserve, and fighting there was slowly tilting in my favour. I was already planning my next moves, especially with further advance of my right flank, and wanted to bring my cavalry brigade into play against some big Confederate batteries. But then the end screen appeared and declared a minor defeat (877 points), even though I felt that I didn’t do that bad. Maybe other objectives that I had missed? Hmm….