Sunday 6 May 2018

Brawner’s Farm August 1862 : ACW

As the ACW project starts to come together I have just enough figures now to start looking at some historical battles and scenarios. So going forward mixed in with the ‘balanced’ pick up games I hope to play some with more historical context.....who knows where this will take me🤔 (I would be interested to know from anybody good sources of smaller scenarios?)

Anyway first up the Battle for Brawner’s Farm. Now I am not an expert on the ACW so don’t intend to give more than the briefest historical background.  The battle took place on the 28 August 1862 as the precursor to the much larger Second Battle of Manassas. Union Forces under Brigadier General King were marching along the Warrenton Turnpike to concentrate for the forthcoming battle. Unknown to them Stonewall Jackson was already in position and although late in the evening he ordered an attack by the Stonewall Brigade (Taliaferro’s Division) and elements of Ewell’s Division for my purposes Lawton’s Georgia Brigade.
Civil War Trust map of the battle as it took place.
Our set up, we gave the Rebels 6 turns to break the Union Line. Forces are broadly equal at the start but as units on the Rebel side are destroyed they can be brought back on the following turn to represent additional Georgia Regiments being brought up into the attack.
The StoneWall Brigade Virginia Regiments moving through the Brawner’s Orchard their challenge will be to deploy quickly enough
Lawton with his Georgia Brigade moving over ‘Stony Ridge’
The left flank of the Union line with the 19th Indiana under the eye of Brig.Gen Gibbon and 2nd Wisconsin in Brawner’s Wood
Union Artillery well placed on the right flank on high ground
The 6th Wisconsin advance on the right flank
All the union guns open fire but struggle to get the range
The first Regiments of Lawton’s Brigade are now up to the edge of the field the thin blue line of the union forces can be seen in the distance
The Stonewall Brigade have deployed but horror of horrors the 2nd Virginia have been badly mauled by the 19th Indiana and they run back in disorder (we have tweeked the rules just enough to get the sense of units faltering, running back but then being able to rally)
The Rebel Rockbridge artillery have limited targets but the 19th Indiana have foolishly been deployed in the open on high ground
A view down the Rebel line
Despite the dynamic leadership of Brig.Gen. Lawton some of the 38th Georgia Regiment is forced back, the Rebels are being held on the right flank
But on the left the 19th Indiana have finally had enough, they have taken a lot of punishment and are forced to withdraw, this leaves a big hole on the left flank and Gibbon rapidly orders the 76th New York to move across through the woods
Having rallied the Stonewall Brigades are now advancing ominously 
Additional Georgia Regiments are being fed in on the left ☹️
BGen. Gibbon is holding the woods but only just the New Yorker’s are rapidly deployed and pushed into the gap
More and more Rebels are being pushed forward and are breaking across the central field
In a desperate last ditch move the 56th Pennsylvania are ordered to wheel and fire on the flank of the advancing Rebels in the field, this has the desired shock effect and throws the leading unit back......
But then they are caught in the flank and are forced to flee, the 6th Wisconsin have seen less of the combat but are becoming isolated as the rest of the line crumbles
The union artillery wheels around to target the rebels in the field but are unable to hit anything (I literally rolled 1’s all evening !)
The Virgina Regiments are now flanked the remaining Federals in the Wood
...and the 76th New York are forced to pull back
This was the end of the sixth turn and with only two Union Regiments holding their position a clear Rebel victory. Hopefully darkness will slow the Rebel advance allowing the remaining union troops to withdraw and regroup.

An excellent battle, hard fought like its historical counterpart. We used my adapted bolt action rules again and I am happy they are developing well. I have managed I think to sort out the photo editing problem I had but it is very laborious to fix as I need to edit each photo separately 😫

23 comments:

  1. WooW! awesome looking game Matt! I am always very impressed by the terrain and models!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michal you’ll quite a lot of overlap in my gaming and many things get used in multiple genres 🙂

      Delete
  2. Stunning table and excellent action! Your ACW collection is getting a workout. Brawner’s Farm is ground I have fought over on numerous occasions. It provides an interesting, small scenario.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jonathan I would welcome an further suggestions for similar sized scenarios 🙂

      Delete
  3. Congrats to the Rebs...and to you, what a spectacular and inspired report, love the terrain and photos Matt!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome. You appear to be using my artillery with all those 1s. We must play again soon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did literally roll almost nothing but 1’s 😫

      Delete
  5. Great stuff Matt.
    Great to see the ACW project gathering pace.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Stuart I now need to knuckle down and get another couple of rebel units finished before the shine wears off 🙂

      Delete
  6. Very nicely done. I am really enjoying these posts. enthused by your terrain, I set about this afternoon to spray a fleece throw with my airbrush ..... everything that could go wrong did! though red brown acrylic paint dripped onto sueded walking shoes could become the next fashion storm, so I won't knock it. I will try again tomorrow (even hotter than today) with rattle cans instead! all good :-) going to soothe my mind now by trawling through your recent pictures again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You’re very kind Norm, I used nothing fancier than army spray cans I got slightly cheaper from a show. The challenge is finding someway of hanging the cloth up then just getting stuck in. I found initially I was making too many ‘blobs’ so I just started speeding up.

      Delete
  7. Most excellent. For scenarios check Potomac Publications on the Wargamesvault or via George Anderson’s blog, view from the window. They appear to be in offer at the moment too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Phil I’ll check these out...🙂

      Delete
  8. Great looking battle, very atmospheric another vote for wargames vault, there's a lot of ACW in their free section that might be worth checking out.
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I’m off to hunt through the vault 😀

      Delete
  9. Some nice photos there Matt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks I have found that photoshop is the only way to stop google photos messing them all up 🙂

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Many thanks Michael...I do like my games to have some context, even if not ‘accurate’ they mean it is not just rolling dice 🙂

      Delete
  11. Great looking ACW game and decent scenario. Last year, I must of played this scenario like 4 times using RFF. It was much fun and cool to see the small differences in design with your version. Well done. 😀

    I have a couple of ACW scenario books but off the top of my head I’d say that the battle of port royal and the morning on McPhersons ridge would be roughly the same size. 😀

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Stew 🙂 for this game I found three different versions of the scenario all slightly different....so felt it was fine to add our own small amendments. I think for me gaming something historical needs to feel right have the broad elements to give that historical feel but then the game needs to be given some balance. I know both the battle/engagements you mention so will do some planning 🤔

      Delete
    2. Great! Especially since I ment Port Republic and not port royal (silly autocorrect). But yes, broad elements I agree completely. 😀

      Delete