Battle of Antietam 1862 : Dawn in the Cornfield

We have played two large ACW battle in the last few weeks which has been a real treat. First up the Battle of Antietam 1862. I have been gradually working through Brave Hearts Trembled By Brad Butkovich, so thanks as always so hats off to him for the background and broad outline of the scenario. Dawn in the Cornfield recreates the early morning start of the Battle of Antietam. On the 17th September 1862. Having skirmished the previous night the two armies are gradually coming together and organising for the coming battle. The confederates are already holding a line of slightly higher ground from the West Woods and the Dunker Church. The Union brigade under Seymour took the East woods the evening before and as dawn breaks they probe forward. Union troops are fed into the attack as they arrive. The cornfield which is central allowed troops to advance under cover but became a killing ground as Union troops tried to advance only to be met by increasing numbers of confederates.

The troops involved in the battle are quite complex as it involves brigades from multiple different Divisions on both sides and became very disorganised during the battle. As usual Brad has a detailed run down of the troops involved so I won’t list them here and the setup map below. As this is a pretty large engagement and we would be playing with our normal Bolt Action House Rules I made a few tweaks, mainly the basic unit size for morale purposes is reduced from 5 down to 4 bases, this allowed me to stretch my collection to cover the majority of the brigades but I have reduced the overall number of regiments proportionally for both sides.

The set up at Dawn on the 17th

Converted to an 8x5 table to represent the key part of the battle. The Union reinforcements have been placed on the table (as I didn’t have enough space elsewhere) but their arrival  is phased over a number of turns. 

Confederate forces to the East of the Dunker church, Walker, Douglass and Ripley’s Brigades

Some confederate reserves which again have been placed in the woods but won’t arrive until later based on a D6 

Seymours’s Brigade in and amongst the East Woods

The rest of the Union Divisions ready to arrive

Anderson’s brigade looking south past the Miller Farm

BG Truman Seymour leads the advance with his Pennsylvania Reserves

The rest of the 3rd Division are ordered forward

The Rebels wait !

The small unit of 31st Georgia Regiment hearing the advance moves into contest the cornfield

Seymour’s Brigade moves round the flank

The advance past the Miller farm towards the cornfield

Musket fire begins around the edge of the cornfield

and the confederate guns open up from the high ground

The Georgians have had to give up the cornfield and now Union flags can be seen advancing through the corn

The confederate line begins to open fire

Hood’s Division begins to arrive from the SW

More Union troops are being pushed forward into the cornfield

2nd Division under Duryee, Christian and Hartsuff arrive and advance along the Smoketown road

A Union battery by the Miller Farm

A strong defensive line awaits the advancing Union forces

View towards the cornfield from the East woods

Douglass’s men are pushing forward to contest the cornfield

But they are met by stiff resistance

Furious fighting and exchange of fire at the boundary of the cornfield

Several Confederate units are pushed back

But Colonel Douglass has pulled a battery into the line which can blast into the cornfield

A lot of confederate forces are being pushed back 

The confederate artillery continues to fire from the high ground

View from the north

Some of the Union reserves are being sent to the right to try and flank the cornfield

This could be key two Union regiments blunder in the same turn, visibility is poor and confusion causes one of them to fire at their own troops causing them to flee !

Union troops now flanking the cornfield on their left

The bulk of the Union forces are in place for a final push

Too many confederate units are being pushed back and the rebel line is thinning out

Finally the last rebel reserves arrive but is it too late ?

Fierce fighting at the edge of the cornfield continues but the Union troops have regained their composure and push forward out of the cornfield

More rebels units pulling back 

A final shot looking towards the cornfield as the Union forces break through

The fight in the west woods continues and is stalemate

At this point we called it a victory for the Union. We had set the victory conditions for the Union as getting troops beyond the cornfield which they had done, although in small numbers,  a victory for the Confederates would have seen them take and hold the cornfield. The later was always going to be tough as the rebels are outnumbered. A splendid game using my own house Bolt action rules. We did have some special rules about visibility in the cornfield which made it tough fighting, and the first two turns were in darkness. I think we gamed for most of the day but it was an absorbing battle.

Finally a bit more local history we had a trip out a few weeks ago to Bowes Castle, not a lot remaining but an impressive Norman keep, built once again on an existing Roman fort, although this is really not easy to see on the ground.

Bowes castle looking over the corner of the Roman fort ditch

The interpretation panel needs some TLC

Thanks for popping by Matt 😀