Battle of Freeman’s Farm September 1777 : AWI

I have had my eye on this battle for a while due to an excellent scenario written up in Wargames Soldiers & Strategy back in December 2009. The game is played out by the Perry’s et al and I assume it was around the time the Black Powder supplement came out but perhaps didn’t make the supplement ? Anyway this wasn’t a remote game with Jon as part of our campaign so we’ll probably see a refight of the battle later on in the year. The magazine article gives the background to the battle and useful OB’s.

This map not from the article gives a sense of wider battle

British Commanded by Gen John Burgoyne

Hamilton’s Brigade : 9th, 20th, 21st, 62nd Foot with an artillery piece and a small group of pickets

Fraser’s Brigade : a mixture of Grenadiers, light infantry the 24th Foot Native Americans and sharpshooters

Von Breymann’s Brigade : Hessian Grenadiers, Infantry and Jägers.

Americans Commanded by Gen Benedict Arnold

Morgan’s Brigade : Riflemen and Dearborns Light Infantry

Pool’s Brigade : 5 regiments of Regulars plus 2 units of Militia

Learned’s Brigade : 4 Regiments of Regulars.

For our battle the British regulars are classed as veterans so have improved discipline. The Americans have slightly more sharpshooters and to balance the leadership bonus Benedict Arnold provides a 2+ bonus. We made a few other minor tweaks. Historically the British had a 4th Brigade on a flanking March, but it seems this unbalances the scenario significantly and as soon as they arrived on the American right flank they started to pull out. So we didn’t represent this formation perhaps they were lost in the woods ?

The map from the magazine, according to the article they play on a 12 x 6 table. As I would be fighting with slightly smaller units and given the available space this was reduced to about 6 x 5.

The map converted to this the initial deployments. Two British brigades on the table on the left. Only Morgan’s small Brigade in and around Freemans Farm. The remaining two large American brigades would enter from the right on the designated roads. The stream provided cover but no significant penalty on movement. We would be using Rebels and Patriots as I am too lazy to change at the moment, the main change is all regular infantry units were increased in size to 16 men, this would significantly increase their resilience and better utilise my collection. (I even had some figures left in their boxes !)

On to the action

Frasers mixed brigade moving up on the right through the light woods

Hamiltons brigade marching forward in column towards the stream, their pockets have been thrown out in front

Morgan’s sharpshooters an and around the farm

A view down the British advance

Pool’s brigade enters behind the Coulter Farm but immediately suffers some poor activations.

British light infantry have made it to the bridge and Fraser’s light troops are spreading out.

The Americans open up as the first volley rings out from the farm

The Germans have started to arrive behind Fraser’s brigade

Now I should say at this stage both sides suffered a significant number of both failed activations and also a laughable number of double one’s a case t the British Grenadiers possibly the crash troops on the table managed to roll THREE double ones on their own ! so before they even got into the battle they had lost half their ammunition, and been forced to retreat in confusion. This was only a temporary state for them but it bought the Americans some time to deploy.

Von Breymann’s Brigade gets disorganised by the failed activations

In the distance Hamilton is now pushing over the far bridge and across the stream

…and still the Americans are struggling to deploy

Finally something resembling a defensive line is taking shape along the road

Things now hotting up all along the line, the Americans being forced to fire before being fully formed up, I should say at this stage the Native Americans had rolled a double 1 forcing them to wildly charge forward into the American around the Coulter farm, they caused chaos before they could be beaten back.

Mid point in the battle and both sides are poring out volleys, in the distance the British choose to tactically withdraw back across the stream

But the British are pushing forward on their right and have now managed to get a cannon onto the bridge

With two cannons now operating the American line is starting to thin out ! Especially on their left flank

Another shot showing the slightly twisting of the British line. They sense the Americans are weaker on their left ?

Finally the grenadiers have been thrown forward across the bridge but they are assault by volley fire from all sides. Despite this some of the American units are starting the break

The deciding factor is the arrival of Von Breymann’s Brigade how have now pushed across the stream and also managed to unlimber their artillery which had been stuck behind in the mud somewhere.

Sensing the time is right the British renew their advance on the left as well

This proves too much for some units who are broken and start to pull back

At this point we call the battle for the British as a minor victory they have done enough and the Americans are really not strong enough anywhere to hold the advance back and the British still have the numbers.

But it has been a tough fight and the British have taken a lot of casualties to force the Americans back from the farm. The rules worked well although the increased size of the units  made them significantly more resilient, without this we may have reached a more decisive conclusion earlier ? A real joy to get most of the collection out on the table in one battle. It has demonstrated that I do need to paint some Americans next as I have more British at the moment.

Now the trend set by others continues so here is a shot of my unadulterated painting table !

It is a very small portable table, so that if necessary it can be moved for larger battles but it remains pretty much in place all the time. The storage to the right is where I keep my part painted figures and work in progress. I’m quite comfortable with the clutter 😀

Next up I ordered these sheets for some Mediterranean terrain projects I am working on, for Sicily and Spain

Finally thanks go out to Phil who managed to find a sprue of spare US marines who can now be enrolled into my American force bringing them upto strength.

Thanks all as usual for checking in

Some terrain pictures in the next few days and then hopefully a first run out for the Americans ….what could possibly go wrong with a completely new untested force ?

Matt😀