MacPherson Ridge : Gettysburg Day 1

We had planned this battle before my trip but was delayed. Anyway not surprisingly I’m full of enthusiasm for ACW gaming so a good start back from our holiday. The basic scenario is again from Brad Butkovich’s Gettysburg Scenario book. It picks up the renewed assaults by Heth along MacPherson’s Ridge and the Herbst Woods, defended by the Iron Brigade.

A shot from the recent trip, taken from the modern bridge over the railway cut looking towards the Chambersburg Pike, beyond that the MacPherson Barn and beyond that Herbst Woods

Our setup, Macpherson ridge on the left

Daniel’s Brigade advancing on the left of the cut

Baxter’s union brigade is pushed up into the line of defence

Confederate artillery open up, histprically they were further back but we put them on the table 

Pettigrews brigade advances towards Willoughby Run to drive the Iron Brigade back

The rest of the Union defence line along MacPherson ridge

Daniel’s splits his force to find a weakness along the Pike 

The iron brigade have rallied slightly but are hit in fierce hand to hand combat by the rebels in Herbst woods

By the cut the advance slows and each side throw volleys at each other

The initial assault in the woods is thrown back but the iron brigade is very close to breaking 

A second assault in the woods, but with some impressive valour rolls the Iron brigade holds again !

Can the iron brigade hold much longer ?

On the right half of Pettigrews brigade exchanges shots across the creek

A third combat in the woods

And then a fourth…..the attackers are exhausted and the Iron Brigade somehow holds, good Valour rolls and the timely use of a bonus card to pass a failed fortitude test !

In the woods the sting has been taken out of the attack but fighting continues on the right

The iron brigade also exhausted continue to hold the woods

On the left there is still a chance of a break through

The leading rebels have made it to the MacPherson Barn but they are hit by fresh Union defenders. The rebels are also pushing up the Chambersburg Pike, but the rest of Daniel’s brigade is thrown back and they don’t have the numbers left to secure a victory.

A fun return to gaming and great to play another Gettysburg scenario. The Iron Brigade really were close to breaking but just managed to hold out long enough to take the sting out of the confederate advance. Played with V&F it gave a good game and a close result.

Painted up before the holiday another bit of Italian armour for a future Sicily battle.

Next up Salute and I’ll try and take some photos. Let’s see if there are any Perry Spanish left for me to buy ?

Thanks as always for taking the time to check out the blog Matt ❤️