Portable Gettysburg - 'Draft' version part 1

Just on a month ago, 20 December 2023, I wrote up some prep work for a 'Portable Gettysburg'.  I played out at least some of the the thing just over a week ago.   The first pics here are of the battlefield laid out. I had to find some extra hill or ridge from somewhere - e.g. Herr and Cemetery Ridges: must tidy them up a bit. 

The Peach Orchard is a dead giveaway, ain't it though? My peach trees (made more than 30 years ago) are in blossom whatever the season!

 

Here are the armies laid out.  I included the cavalry of both sides, although the main action between them would not 'fit' on my table. Buford's 6-figure Division has a starting role on July 1; and part of Kilpatrick's late July 3. It seems that Gregg put in an appearance at some point, but without being engaged in the main action. Possibly the cavalry action could be reserved for my chessboard (8x8 square grid) as a separate action.

The action starts off promisingly with a 'continuity glitch', that is to say, I used the wrong figures to represent Heth's Division. This formation was split in two - the brigades of Archer and Davis leading (represented by 2+ Strength Points) with Pettigrew and Brockenbrough (2SP) following. Lining McPherson's Ridge stood Buford's Cavalry Division, 2SP, supported by cannon (1SP). 

Just as Buford prepared to hold his line, two army corps, J.F. Reynolds's Ist, followed by O.O. Howard's XIth came marching up the Emmitsburg road.  Somewhere behind them, off the table, was Dan Sickles's IIIrd Corps.

For his part, Harry Heth was supported by part of the III Corps artillery. Divided into two wings, Buford's right was driven off the ridge and routed (1SP destroyed), and part of the ridge captured. The second half of Heth's Division later followed up and united with the rest of the Division, where they were joined by the artillery.

Coming up behind them on the Chambersburg Pike, Dorsey Pender's Division was on the march, followed by the rest of the III Corps Artillery. By this time, Maj-Genl Reynolds was in action, Buford pulling out the remnants of his command back to Seminary Ridge. Wadsworth and Robinson counterattacked the front of MePherson's Ridge, whilst Doubleday occupied the rising ground - part of Oak Ridge - on the other side of the railway cut.

At this point the eagle-eyed reader will observe that the Confederate infantry have suddenly exchanged their blue kepis for brown slouch hats. Having 'colour coded' the CSA formations - blue kepis I Corps, black hats II Corps, and brown for III Corps, I simply forgot, and on came for the first corps to arrive: the blue kepis. 'Yarooh!' says I (or its rough equivalent - remember, this is a family show), and made the amendment.  


Meanwhile, Oliver Howard was bringing up his XIth Corps to form a line extending Reynolds's around the north of Gettysburg. The leading Divisions of Lt-Genl Ewell's II Confederate Corps were arriving, 'Old Jube' Early pushing down the Harrisburg road and Emmett Rodes to their right cresting Oak Ridge.

Suddenly, Doubleday was caught front and flank by Pender and Rodes. Howard led Schurz's Division to aid Doubleday, but even together they were overmatched. Barlow's Division found itself facing almost double their numbers in Early's command, supported as it was by half the II Corps artillery.

In short  order the whole of I Corps was being cut to ribbons, though Schurz was for a time holding his own.

During the course of this day's action, I was using the PW combat system ... sort of. Hits were resolved as 1-3 = -1 SP; 4-6 = 1 SP retreats. Not sure why the whole force within the target hex area weren't retreating, but it seemed right at the time. However, if and when detached SP/elements wished to rejoin, the smaller portion had to join the larger. In the pic below, two of Doubleday's Division had been forced back, leaving the commander himself with just one Brigade (SP). To reunite his Division, Doubleday had to pull back to where his other two brigades (SPs) stood.

For the July 2 action, I found this method wholly impractical, on account of a much more crowded battlefield. Although I tried to use it, eventually I found myself simply 'taking the loss' unless the ground behind were clear. I think now it were better simply to have the whole formation - or the part under close assault - retreat or else all hits are SPs lost. This is a decision for the next time I play out this battle. By the by, you will observe that I use the American 'Month-Day' convention of dating. I use this convention exclusively for ACW and AWI, or any other war games in which US Americans are my 'main' characters. For all other war games, I use 'Day-Month' (For my varsity lecture notes, I began early to label my pages with year-month-day as a six-digit string...very easy to keep things in order, that way).

At any rate, their own losses so far negligible, A.P. Hill's two Divisions drove Reynolds all the way back to Seminary Ridge, where they joined Buford's remnants. Of Howard's Corps, Barlow was driven fairly into the down - blocking Steinmetz's advance, leaving Schurz all alone against the might of three Confederate Divisions.

They could not stay there long. Back and through the town they fled.

Very soon the Confederates were pressing up against the north and west faces of the town, with Heth's Division attempting to storm the Seminary Ridge. East of the town, Early's Division faced Culp's Hill, as yet unoccupied, and not too far distant.

By now, the evening twilight was drawing in. Heth was stalled in front of Seminary Ridge, Pender still some distance off to his left, and the Corps artillery in support from McPherson's Ridge. Rodes was beginning to drive through Gettysburg itself from the Carlisle Road, and early poised to push on to the high ground south of the town.

Such was the situation as nightfall ended the action.

For some reason, my memory had conflated this action into what I thought would be a single posting.  But I find I took a few more pics than I had thought.  Somehow they fetched up in two different places in my archives. So Part 2 will have to await another time.

This first day's action turned out, much to my surprise, very one-sided.  Not only had the Confederates the numbers, the goddess Hexahedra smiled upon them with a benignity reserved solely for the Divinely favoured. Early lost an SP, and I think Heth lost merely his 'plus'. The Union lost both cavalry SPs, and there wasn't very much remaining of Reynolds's corps, either. Howard's, too, had been knocked about, though they had more often than not resulted in retreats through the town.

Now, I had Reynolds and Howard on the road at the beginning of the action, but the battle was to develop according to this schedule:

Turn 1 (08:00-9:30) - Buford in place on McPherson's Ridge, with 1SP cannon. Half of Heth arrives
Turn 2 (09:30-11:00) - Reynolds enters the action.
Turn 3 (11:00-12:30) - Howard forms line to right of Reynolds. 

                                   - Dice for arrival of Rodes: 5 or 6 required
Turn 4 (12:30-14:00) - Rodes and Early arrive, Rodes on Oak Ridge, Early down Harrisburg road
Turn 5 (14:00-15:30) -  Pender arrives with remainder of III Corps artillery down Chambersburg Pike
Turn 6 (15:30-17:00) -
Turn 7 (17:00-18:30) - I Corps Rally on cemetery Ridge.
Turn 8 (18:30-20:00) - Nightfall

At the end of the day - 'overnight' - formations would receive back half the previous days' SP losses. Two lost 'pluses' would count as a whole SP. I kept count of the respective losses by Confederate Division, and by Union Corps. I rather think that when I do this one again, I might have to 'pose code' the Union army corps, or perhaps use some sort of labelling. The question remained how I was to conduct the second day's action. 'Old Pete' Longstreet was up with two of his Divisions; Ewell and Hill, both, also had their 'missing' Divisions ('Alleghany' Johnson's and R.H. Anderson's) in hand. Should it begin at 8a.m - or wait until Longstreet's ponderous preparation were ready? 

I decided upon the latter, but therein lies a further problem: the time scale. Now, I had settled upon 1 turn to 90 minutes. That simply won't do. A three-move battle would take us from 4pm to 8.30 - well after sunset, though it might not yet have been full night. An hour per move isn't much of an improvement: 4 turns only.  

We'll end here with a little bit of an appetiser: early action on July 2.

To be continued...