Battle of Olustee 1864 : ACW

This weekend saw us return to the ACW. Having discussed with George his latest game I thought we would try converting it to 28mm and using Valour and Fortitude.

The details of the scenario and published and available in these Potomac Publications

Historically the Confederate force had were looking to throw back the invading Union force, having built entrenchments the Rebels sent out a small force to entice the Union force into attacking. Not taking the bite both sides ended up feeding addition troops until they were fully engaged. Although the terrain is quite open it is constructed by swamps and a small pond.

A nice picture of the battle but inaccurate as this shows the attack at the entrenchments. The battle was also famous as it involved a number of Black American troops including the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment made famous by the film Glory.

I squeezed the battlefield onto the L shaped battlefield in the dungeon the Confederates on the left.

The battle kicks off with a skirmish between light troops, the main challenge for the Union force is where to stand and can they hold before they are overrun ? V&F does give a bit of an advantage here with the ability to ‘at the double’.

Union reserves rush to the sound of the guns.

In the distance the bulk of the confederate force arrives and the Federals still have a lot of ground to cover

The Rebels push forward but fail a critical early activation before their commanding general has arrived this delays the advance of their largest brigade for one turn, this could prove critical later

The rebels get moving while the Federals try to build a coherent defence line

Inevitably the two lines draw closer together the Rebels taking the initiative 

The rebels chose to focus their attack on the Union right where they have the advantage of numbers

But the rebels on the left are already fairly exhausted, the red counter mark units which are shaken, but somehow the brigade manages to hold its position 

Locked in brutal hand to hand combat, both sides now close to breaking, somehow the rebels continue to hold

And eventually break the Union right

They continue to advance taking out the final Union artillery. But as you can see the Rebels are pretty exhausted.

On the right the remaining rebel cavalry having been bolstered by late arrivals and having rallied from the initial skirmish battles charges in against the 54th Massachusetts Rgt. In an unlikely result (the dice gods favouring the rebels) the 54th flee and are cut down.

At this point we called the battle to an end with night falling, both sides and generals exhausted. It was a very tight battle, we played a couple of extra combats through just to see if one side could get an advantage but no, neither side would break. In the end it was probably a tactical draw, but after some discussion given the context of the battle we gave it to the Rebels as they had achieved their objective of holding back the Union force, they had captured all of their cannon and given them a serious bloody nose. A tough but enjoyable battle for both sides.

A bit more completed painting…

Here are the two Half tracks I picked up at York, they are very rough casts so I’m happy with the way they came out, ultimately they are only going to be used as transports

 And I mentioned a parade of my french cavalry ! Next on the list might be some Polish lancers ?

Thanks as always for checking in on the blog 

Matt ❤️