Battle of Short Hills 26 June 1777 : AWI

Our American War of Independence campaign continued this week with the Battle of Short Hills. Fought on the 26th June 1777, General Howe was seeking to bring the American army under Washington into a pitched battle. Having moved his army to Perth Amboy he split the force and marched inland. Washington not wishing to engage in an open battle deploy a strong holding force under Gen Alexander (Lord Stirling) to cover his movement. The two British columns advanced from Oak Hill NW towards Scotch Plains. Stirling blocked the approach close to town of Woodbridge. Historically he held the two British just before rejoining the main army in the Watchung Mountains. If you are interested wiki has plenty more info and details of the troops involved etc..

Background map of the build up to the battle.

A lovely period sketch of the two columns advancing and the positions taken after the battle

So I converted this to a suitably sized battle, the key objective for the British was to break through the Americans who must hold them. The difficult thing for the scenario was to guess how many turns the British would need to give the game some balance. In the end I decided on 12, the British would have the advantage of artillery and a force effectively 2 to 1. The Americans would deploy upto the red line shown and have one unit of reserves to arrive randomly on one of the three roads. So onto the battle …..

Stirling and his troops mainly on the right

General John Vaughan’s column arrives, Hessian Jaegers, British grenadiers and some British light infantry although true to form the lights don’t arrive for a couple of turns

General Cornwallis leads the other column, more Hessians some British and a troops of light Dragoons, his artillery looks to deploy on the small hill

After two turns the British are making good progress in their deployment

The first of the artillery is now in place

The Americans await the attack holding their ‘first fire’

…and then the battle proper begins and volleys open up all down the line

Wreathed in smoke from their volley the Americans are targeted by the cannon

The jaegers try to clear the woods on the left

Give them a pounding, for a change the British artillery was quite effective activating almost every turn

The Americans are now under pressure and they fire another volley back down the road

!!!!! arghhh General Vaughan is struck by a stray ball and knocked from his horse severely wounded he will take no more part in the battle. More importantly he won’t be providing his additional leadership

The dragoons who have pushed to the front have been forced back as well

The onus is now on Cornwallis and he is driving down the road where the Americans are reluctant to get into the fight

Still the jaegers are trying to clear the woods

Eventually they do allowing the British grenadiers to lead the way down the road

British on the right now pushing into the woods on the right and the American infantry by the fence has been hammered by the artillery and forced to retire

…..wouldn’t you know it the British grenadiers fail a test and pull back down the road, the Hessians must be grumbling as they March past them ! Finally the British lights have moved up and taken the small hill to draw the American fire

…and there is plenty of it

The way is open on the right supported by the artillery Cornwallis is pushing on towards the baseline but does he have time

Under heavy fire from the Hessians Stirling is also forced to retreat

The American line is almost broken …..

Both the British light infantry and Cornwallis with his regulars can taste victory, then the lights fail to activate !

With barely any men left on the American left, the British regulars charge forward but they end just one inch short of the final two American riflemen holding the line

The British have run out of time with the end of turn 12 ! Stirling rallies his forces on the right before pulling back satisfied with his troops efforts.

A really close battle, literally down to the last turn  and the last inch, a minor American victory because of this.

12 turns ended up being the correct length to give a close and exciting battle. The British artillery was much more effective than previous battles and that helped. Losing General Vaughan early on was a real blow as the right failed several activations and needed his support. The Hessian Grenadiers did better than the British equivalents and once again the British lights were disappointing, rumours has it they will be disbanded as a unit and sent back to the ranks unless they improve !

As always thanks for checking in 😀

Matt