Civil War Campaign: Confederates

The Confederates were hastily searching for a viable ford by which they could cross the river, the bridge that was marked on their maps had been destroyed. Across the river Union troops took up positions among the cabins and fields forming an impressive hurdle for our brave Southern Soldier’s to overcome.

Captain Bell observed their activity for the better part of the afternoon until 4pm when the Confederates abandoned their search for a crossing position elsewhere and opted to wade through the river and take his craven Yankee boys head on.

Two things.

First these photo’s are staged but nothing in them is staged. I only had the idea to do this Campaign as a project in the last few turns and so we hadn’t taken any real pictures. These battles happened as you see them, luckily deaths, moments of bravery/cowardice and other meaningful events were all meticulously recorded for the campaign anyway so this isn’t a huge hurdle.

Secondly the table shown is only half the table, there was an extra two feet behind the Union players with fields and houses but it played no part in the game so was omitted for obvious reasons.

The Confederate Player had to cross the river but didn’t want to take on the Union troops dug into their positions in daylight. So I decided to give the Union player a choice, fight a defensive night battle or take the fight to the enemy by moving their deployment point forward the the sunken road. Wanting to get stuck in as soon as possible the Union player opted to make the crossing well and truly opposed.

As the Union skirmishers emerged from the sunken road the Confederate skirmishers entered the shallow river and exchanged some useless volleys back and forth as Schneider’s men made ground in their risky flanking move.

To the left of the Confederate centre is a small cabin and a gentlemen has emerged to watch the battle unfold, shotgun in hand of course.

Seeing his time Bell lead his men across the river as the Union troops rushed into a line.

Whoever fires the first volley will have a big advantage, will they follow it up with cold steel or try to win the volley fire war?