Brother Against Brother -- Ultimate General: Civil War(Interactive)

[Brian Swartz]

Estimates are 22k for us, 17.5k for them, though we remain significantly outnumbered in terms of artillery. Early in the war, this number of men would have been considered a grand battle for sure; I think it's more than were involved in 1st Bull Run, for example. It's hard to consider this a minor skirmish. Let's hope Grant's up to the challenge with his large, but inexperienced, Corps.

[Brian Swartz]

** September 14, 1862, 5:30 PM

Updated troop estimates are currently at 21k for us, less than 16k for them. Same range as expected. I'm told we have three hours here to accomplish our task.

Grant's men are massed east of here, well on the other side of the river. It seems best to focus most of our efforts on the forests, flanking them to the north and south if possible. One division to the north, one in the center where we'll have the best firing positions for most of the artillery, two divisions south where we'll have better cover and can get closer before we press home the attack.

Or so goes my theory. It is not a plan without risk -- but then what is? Attacking from the south gives us better cover, but also puts us at lower elevation.

** 5:39 AM -- Skirmishers met us on the east side of the river, and there was more significant opposition on the west side; close-placed artillery and multiple infantry brigades. The division assigned to the center would not be able to do more than hold our side of things.




** 5:47 AM -- McRae's Brigade here didn't feel like waiting, aggravated at some of our skirmishers and nearly a thousand men charged across immediately. They got into the woods, but we were still able to give them a rather rude reception.

Definitely not a slow positional beginning here. Soon afterwards, we noticed they had one brigade in the north, and a second shifted up that way from the center; but nobody was guarding the crossing to the south. Perhaps we'll have a chance of flanking from that direction, and orders were sent out for all units to proceed forward so long as there was no enemy contact.

** 5:56 PM -- McRae routs, having lost well over 200 men in about ten minutes. The artillery refocuses on Ripley & Anderson, who hold the most advanced positions in the rebel center. Meanwhile, with the enemy pulling back a bit in the north, our most ... uh ... 'disposable' brigade out that way, 1500 infantry under Averell with Farmer's muskets, were sent across the stream to claim a small grove of trees, with the other two infantry brigades in support. This is also where Bryan Baldwin is deployed; his cavalry are backing up that flank.

Current casualty report: 94 Union, 272 Confederate. I'll take that.

** 6:04 PM -- A couple of brigades push our way in the south; we're further west down here, and a couple of units(Kitching and Harker) engage them while more infantry is coming up behind them and also to push round the flank. Most of the cavalry is further west now, and reports no enemy activity. Circling around them in this direction still appears to be possible.



** 6:14 PM -- The Confederates appear to be shifting south en masse. Ripley, Drayton, and Anderson here, their former center, are all heading that way. Meanwhile in the north Averell was slowed by skirmishers but the rest of the rebels appear to have retreated or redeployed It seems we should be able to push forward now in the center and north. Cautiously, we do so, moving into apparently-abandoned footholds on the western side of the stream.

A few minutes later, Gen. Longstreet is spotted in the vicinity of the southern flank, confirming these reports.




** 6:49 PM -- While the rebels are holding in the center where there is no action, and in the north where they have enough numbers to make further attacking foolhardy, we've got them encircled pretty well in the south. This is where we will continue focusing our efforts, hoping to gradually roll them up northwards.

** 7:26 PM -- Having circled around behind the rebel position, BG Clyde Canfield got himself wounded.

The terrain was just too rough, too many Confederate guns, too little time. A general attack up the hillside would have fared even worse. Night fell with the Battle of South Mountain appearing to be the first clear Defeat of the war for the Union -- but in fact Grant deserves credit for the casualty numbers achieved, and for not getting his Corps shot up more than it was. Longstreet just had too many things in his favor on this night.

[Brian Swartz]

Battle Statistics

Strength

Infantry: Union 18,842; Confederate 15,348
Artillery: Union 1,075(43 guns); Confederate 1,816(76 guns)
Cavalry: Union 1,638; Confederate 0

Total: Union 21,555; Confederate 17,164

Losses

Infantry: Union 1,689; Confederate 2,776
Artillery: Union 8(0 guns); Confederate 326(14 guns)
Cavalry: Union 132; Confederate 0

Total: Union 1,829; Confederate 3,092

It is at least arguably a lose-the-battle, win-the-war kind of day for us.

Brigade Performance

** Bryan Baldwin basically hung out in the north; 0 kills and 1 loss. Again though the achievement here is in not forcing action in a situation where the enemy was entrenched with superior firepower and cover.

** Kitching's Brigade, part of the southern flanking effort, is our hero of the day. Started out with a little over 900 men, and killed 459 with less than 200 losses.

Officers

A handful of promotions, none to anyone we care about. Getting a general wounded(Canfield) was not good.

Weapons

** Palmetto M1842: 11 rescued
** Springfield M1842; 121 rescued, 5 captured
** Hunter: 7 rescued
** Re-Bored Farmer: 16 rescued, 46 captured
** Cook & Brother: 1 rescued
** Springfield M1855: 18 rescued
** Sharps Model 1855: 6 captured
** MJ&G Type II: 25 captured
** M1841 Mississippi: 30 captured
** Palmetto M1842: 25 captured

In other words, a whole lot of nothing important. Surprisingly low numbers, and I thought we'd have captured some of the artillery as we routed a couple of batteries.

Reward

** No Career Points
** -10 to Reputation
** $79.3k funding
** 6.3k recruits

Without capturing South Mountain, there was no Victory or even Draw option. A more aggressive battle plan was demanded here really -- and yet it would have been catastrophic. The Draw condition only kicks in if we gained the ground but lost more than 40% of the Corps. That's pretty horrifying.

[Brian Swartz]

I apologize for the delay here, I've been slacking on this. Weapons Reference updated; short version is we don't have jack in the Armory.

Army-Level Choices

1. Emphasis -- Slight lean to veterans at the moment.

2. Reputation Investment -- We're down to 43 here, which confers a +1 morale effect. Same choices as last time remain available:

** $125k cash(22 Rep.)
** 5k recruits(22 Rep.)
** 7.5k Springfield M1855(18 Rep.)
** 12 12pdr Napoleon(7 Rep.)
** 12 10pdr Ordnance(7 Rep.)
** 12 10pdr Parrot(7 Rep.)
** BG George Meade(6 Rep.)
** BG Ambrose Burnside(4 Rep.)

[Brian Swartz]

Weapons Distribution

Infantry

** Re-bored Farmer(5 brigades, 7172 total, all green)
** Springfield M1842(22 brigades, 31331 total, 12 * and 10 green)
** Palmetto M1842(1 brigade, 998 total, 1 *)
** Lorenz(1 brigade, 752 total, 1 **)
** Springfield M1855(8 brigades, 8400 total, 6 ** and 2 *)
** Harpers Ferry M1855(1 brigade, 1324 total, 1 **)

Skirmishers

** Hunter(1 brigade, 258 total, 1 green)
** Sharps Model 1855(4 brigades, 1055 total, 1 * and 3 green)

Cavalry

** Cook & Brother(1 brigade, 294 total, 1 green)
** Palmetto M1842(3 brigades, 1218 total, all green)
** Colt M1855(1 brigade, 388 total, 1 *)
** Smith(1 brigade, 411 total, 1 *)

Artillery

** 6pdr Field(3 brigades, 46 total, 1 * and 2 green)
** 10pdr Ordnance(1 brigade, 15 total, 1 **)
** 12pdr Howitzer(3 brigades, 27 total, 3 green)
** 12pdr Napoleon(3 brigades, 48 total, 1 ** and 2 *)
** 20pdr Parrot(1 brigade, 13 total, 1 *)

[Brian Swartz]

** Note: I skipped the command briefings for a couple reasons -- one was to get things moving again, but the biggest reason was simply that there isn't much money(because we got lost the last battle, literally less than a third of the normal amount each), and that left it without really any interesting choices to make. Ultimately I thought it would just be a waste of time. I hope to go back to having everyone put in their orders next time out; if we do better in the next battle it'll certainly help that out.

Camp Results

I Corps

Race's Brigade -- 44 veterans added, now at 871.

Scales' Brigade -- Only a fraction of the cash needed for any real improvement.

Durrell's Divison

Kemper -- +41 to 793.
Hoke -- +114, at 1483.
Pease -- +113 to 1400
Birney -- +32, at 443.

Seymour's Brigade -- Holds at 17.

Loomis's Division

** Moody -- No change.
** Finegan -- +164 to 1488.
** Pease -- Nothing.
** Gary -- Zip.
** Wright -- Nada.


III Corps

Baldwin's Brigade

+28 to 510

Summary

Main takeway is we chopped down the Springfield M1842 boulder some more; now not much over 3000 of them left. It's close, but I think II Corps is best prepared to take on the next bit of action at Crampton's Gap.

[Brian Swartz]

Cuts off a bit due to how big the image is, but says 'We must attack and secure the passage".

[Brian Swartz]

I have decided to discontinue this project. Thanks for all who participated; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. I've felt like it was petering out in terms of activity for a while, and the way promotions are done/arbitrary limits on force numbers in battles/inability to control which brigades are committed/etc. was wearing on me also. I still think UG is quite a good game, but putting in the necessary effort to continue had become more work than anything else.

I've also been encouraged by the community on another site to do some LP-related stuff, which is probably what I'm going to be spending more time on as opposed to dynasty stuff here.

[chesapeake]

Sorry to hear that! I was enjoying the stroll through history, so thanks for taking us this far. But I certainly understand how bad it can be when a project like this changes from fun to work.

Pardon my ignorance with all the fancy lingo that you hep cats are using nowadays, but what does LP stand for in this context?

[DavidCorperial]

I enjoyed it, thanks for running it.

[Brian Swartz]

Glad you both participated. LP stands for 'Let's Play' -- gaming videos youtube/twitch and such.