Battle of Cross Keys : Shenandoah Campaign 1862

This weekend we played the fifth battle in our Shenandoah campaign the Battle of Cross Keys. Background in a couple of sentences. After the battle of Winchester Jackson had managed to evade two Union forces converging on him, he rapidly moved south burning bridges to delay the pursuit. The Union forces became separated but Fremont eventually caught up to Jackson at Cross Keys. Thinking the Rebel force much larger than it actually was the Union attack was piecemeal. The Confederates counterattacked and eventually drove off the much larger Union army allowing them to escape again.

Plenty of resources on the web for the battle. With such numerical superiority we needed some tweaks to give some balance. This would be our first run out with V&F for the ACW. This gave the ideal opportunity to tweek the Union command down so they would fail to activate on a 1 or 2 and then a 3 if a brigade lost a Unit. Koltes and Bohlen’s brigades would arrive turn 3 as would Taylor for the Rebels. 

The setup up in the dungeon, using V&F allowed us to reduce the units down to 16 men giving slightly more room to move and just enough figures in my collection for the complete battle. Wooded areas would provide cover, but this wasn’t doubled for figures behind fences. Although normally Artillery would have to target the nearest unit we allowed counter battery fire instead as this was a feature of the battle historically. And on to the battle……

Trimble in the woods around Pense Farm

Union troops advance through Cross Keys itself and past Union Church

Stable’s Brigade moves off through the woods

and come under skirmish fire 

The artillery opens up, the Union getting the better of the exchange

Things hotting up in the woods, more Rebel troops are being fed in behind Trimble’s brigade, initially the Rebels get the better of the firing

The initial advance from the Union troops in the centre stalls and they pull back to regroup, Jackson (me) had to make an ahistorical decision here and push forward rather than let the Union forces simply regroup and overwhelm them when the Union reserves arrive. 

Up close hand to hand combat in the woods

The rebels are pushing forward as they did historically…….but somehow the Union forces just keep passing Valour and fortitude tests !

The Rebel advance on the left, I figured I could always pull back if things got too hot but might just break the leading Union brigades before the reserves arrived ?

The rebels are definitely winning in the woods

They charge into another combat…

And break through the Union line in the woods, it is all going so well ……..🤔

Yes you guessed it, despite breaking through and despite the Union forces on their left all being shaken and close to collapse they pass their test again ! The attack has worn out /shaken the rebels as well and when they are forced next turn to take a valour test they fail, and then fail their fortitude test as well the brigade collapses the whole right flank. Arghhhhh the dice gods were against me again.

At this point the battle was over, on the left flank the out numbered confederates would now have to pull back over the Mill stream and seek to escape

Jackson has lost again but as his historical objective was to tie up as many Union forces as possible perhaps I can claim a victory ? A great battle and fun to play, I was thwarted by my dice rolling again. At one point we nearly ran out of wound markers for the Union so many units were shaken but still they kept passing their tests holding their left by a whisker ! The campaign table of shame is at the bottom if you really need to know 😢 moving on to happier things the weather was good on Monday

So back out for a walk looking towards Glaramara in the distance

Out west

South towards the Langdales

Could have taken a lot of photos during the day as the light/colours were so photogenic

The Campaign table of shame !

We are hoping to play the final Port Republic battle later this week 

Thanks as always for checking in Matt ♥️