2nd July 1863 : Little Round Top

Well the title gives it away rather. For our battle this weekend and seeing as we are pretty close to the start of July I dug out another Scenario for Gettysburg. Shout out again for Brad Butkovich’s Summer storm book which always provides great inspiration, and in fact this scenario is pretty much straight out of the book, I just had to squeeze the terrain a bit.

On site ‘research’ back in March from the top of Little round top

The artillery position on Houck’s Ridge

Looking from Devils Den back up to Round top, I’m pretty loose with translating real details on to the table but you do get a sense from visiting how this is quite a small area.of course there is much debate about timing of the attack etc which I won’t go into here.

Translated onto the tabletop, Historically and in the scenario it is a tough ask for the Confederates they appear to have left their artillery behind. They were of course really only trying to find the end of the Union line and turn it rather than the frontal assault which it turned into. From some of what I have read Hood pulled back at the end of the day as he felt they had achieved their objective ? But that is obviously not the case with hindsight. At the start the only Union troops in position are on Houck’s Ridge, General Warren has realised the danger and is pulling in troops to extend the line.

Law’s Alabamians advance towards Big round top. (Worth noting they had been marching pretty much for 12 hours or more before the attack !)

Robertson’s Texan brigade faces Devils den it pretty obviously not a good place to attack, rather they attempt to pin Wards troops while the rest of the Confederates outflank the Union line

Vincent brings his brigade on from the North including the 20th Maine, really I could have done with them failing to activate ….wishful thinking !

The Texans are now pinned against Devils den, and come under fire from the rocks

Law swings his troops through the trees on big round top, hoping to catch the Union forces un prepared

Confederate reserves Bennings Georgians arrive and push forward but their path is king of blocked by the Texans who are stuck in a fire fight at Devils den 

The Union reserves are being brought onto round top and Vincent prepares for the attack

The Alabamians surge through the woods on the right

The advance is definitely bogged down at Devils Den repeating history !

The confederates crash into the the end of the line

After fierce fighting the 20th Maine are wiped out ! History is rewritten, Chamberlain is killed. But the Confederates crash into the famous 16th Michigan ? Who hold the left flank of the Union line and thus win Gettysburg and save the Union and the war ?

The benefit of wargaming is the Union General can advance off Houcks ridge to start to outflank the Rebels, this couldn’t really have worked historically as there were more troops to the left and it would probably have exposed their flank too much, but it forces the confederates to fold back their line around the triangle field

The Texans at this stage have take a real beating, although they are holding their position all their regiments are pretty much exhausted and it is surprising to both sides that the Brigade hasn’t broken. Some good Valour tests by me and a card used to save a failed fortitude test !

Eventually the assault starts to stall as the regiments begin to take increasing casualties

The final nail in the coffin when the Alabamians eventually fail a fortitude test and the brigades disintegrates, the confederates only have one viable Brigade now fighting and the Union reserves are pretty fresh. An almost historical win for the Union.

A very fun if occasionally frustrating battle, tough for the confederates who had their noses in front for a while or at least until the Alabamians faltered in the woods. Given that we played with fairly historical troop numbers it perhaps isn’t surprising the Union can hold Round top. Historically of course Warren and Vincent didn’t know the size of the force attacking them and the trees would have provided more visual cover which doesn’t work on the table top. Any delay (which didn’t happen in our battle) to Vincent arriving or the other Union reserves and the line would have been rolled up fairly easily. If nothing else it shows how this was a very close run thing on the day.

Setting up today for a Napoleonic battle tomorrow but that’s it for now

Many thanks for checking in as always Matt ❤️