Battle at Drake’s Farm : The Forage War AWI

In our second instalment of the Forage War of early 1777 we have the Battle, or perhaps better described as Skirmish at Drake’s Farm. After several demoralising skirmishes where generally the British came off  worse the British Brigadier General, Sir William Erskine decided to set a trap for the local American forces to teach the rebels a lesson. On the 1st February he sent a small foraging party to Drake’s Farm new Metuchen, New Jersey knowing that the Americans were in the area. Colonel Charles Scott took the bait and advanced on the farm significant out numbering the foraging party with his 5th Virginia Regiment.  The trap was sprung and Erskine seized his opportunity with a considerable force of British with Grenadiers, Lights, Hessians and the 42nd Foot. Going a bit over the top he supported this force with no less than 8 artillery pieces !

Historically the Virginians ignoring their predicament drove off the grenadiers before realising they were massively outnumbered as they withdrew an unfortunate incident occurred where a small group of fleeing Americans who surrendered were butchered by the British. Definitely bad form !

Our initial setup despite some heavy searching on the internet apart from the details above there is very little information on the skirmish so I have been able to use lots of freedom to create a balanced scenario. The objective for both sides is the farm, the forages setup in the farm with the Americans well onto the table before the British arrive. The stream is crossable but slows movement. The British have slightly higher numbers as the Americans should be at the farm first but the British do have two artillery pieces. On to the action

The British foraging party at the farm they will be a skirmish unit and more of a roadbump

The 5th Virginians swarm onto the battlefield under Charles Scott, the company with hunting shirts are better shots

Several units of skirmishers who are also picked good shooters and we know how devastating they can be

BG Erskine arrives with his ambush force

Hessians

Combined lights and grenadiers who immediately roll a double six and make two activations. (For a change the British roll a lot of double sixes this battle)

The Americans have not used their early advantage, although they have driven of the foraging party the main British force has reached the farm first

The Virginians on the left form up behind the fence and open fire

But they are now facing British infantry in line !

The Hessians and the artillery open up on the rebels

But unfortunately even at close range the British artillery struggles to impact the American skirmishers

American infantry releases a volley over the road

General Erskine has advanced into the Farm itself and draws a lot of fire from the enemy, luckily he survives but his unit is soon below half strength and only hanging on

The British combined lights get into the battle

But the Hessians have been driven back and can’t get moving again

After a couple of turns of brutal volley fire the American skirmishers are pushed back 

and eventually Colonel Scott is driven back too

The battle rages

But only a matter of time the rest of the Virginians have had enough and start to flee the field

Only the Virginian sharpshooters stay to hold the line and form a rearguard

Erskine has won the day. But only just, three of the remaining British units are below half strength, only the Hessians are in reasonable order, the foraging party has fled. For a change the British were luckier with their dice rolling several double sixes and also more importantly passing several morale check with Erskine’s unit which could have been fatal to the British plans. Another good battle closer than the result might suggest, we have one more skirmish planned in the Forage War in a couple of weeks.

Those of you in the British Isles will know the wether has been kind, so several more trips out

Here to Little Asby Scar, we have also been very significantly distracted by the purchase of a campervan. Expensive but part of my retirement plans for later in the year (ever closer) this saw our first trip at the weekend to Scotland staying over night at a small place called Rockcliffe where there is an interesting Iron Age fort

The plaque at the fort 

And a view from the headland of the fort which it says was occupied around the time of the Peloponnesian wars, these being the thoughts of a wargamer having an evening stroll from the campsite.

Finally a shot of the new (to us at least) van at sunset. I hope to spend much of my early retirement aboard the van and of course as a wargamer I am now thinking about mobile gaming options in the van. My wife just rolls her eyes in despair, I do fully intend to develop a gaming option for the van more of that in the future 😀 but I would welcome any discussion on options ?

This means of course almost no painting has been done this week which is annoying and I haven’t been able to catch up on others blogs either !

Thanks for looking as always 👍