Woodscrew Armies Campaign - Bidwell's Holding Action

 

Bidwell's road block

As Tenth Army marched south to face the southern Chinese Column, General Jackson detached a small force under his senior brigade commander to guard against Chinese moves from the north.  He needed time to defeat and drive off the Chinese right wing, the south Column, thence to retrace his steps to face the main Chinese army.  A suitable battleground for a holding action seemed to be a village - another desolate semi-abandoned spot - nestled between two plateaux of high ground and through which, veering southeastwards, the road passed.

The detached column comprised:

Commander: Brigadier-General Isaac J. Bidwell
37th Brigade - 24 infantry figures, 2 MG crew figures, 2 light artillery figures = 31
Part 10th Cavalry Brigade - 13 troopers, 2 flying artillery figures = 15
210th Pioneer battalion = 4 figures

Total, including command: 51 figures (8500 all ranks) 2 Artillery, 1 MG

The pioneer battalion at once set to work tracing out some hastily built field works in the high ground flanking the village. To the left of the village, stood the main body of 37th Brigade: 4 battalions and the brigade artillery. The two remaining battalions were thrown forward on the right of the road to lurk within a small piece of woodland in the plain.  Behind  them the field work on the high ground housed the cavalry's flying artillery. The troopers, mounted for the moment, stood in reserve close by the road to the rear, though their facing anticipated a Chinese flanking move around the woods on the right. The Brigade machine guns occupied a small work between the village and the wood. Having completed their work, the pioneers garrisoned the village, which formed the point of the V-shaped front.

Union view of Chinese arrival 

They were barely in time. A day and a half, and half a morning, Bidwell had been allowed to complete his preparations. Scouts scanning the back trail reported a large Chinese army advancing slowly and steadily southwards. Quite without cavalry they were unable to prevent Union observation, and their own scouting revealed almost nothing. Meanwhile, coming up from several miles to the south they could hear the muttering rumble of distant guns. Clearly, Jackson had found his enemy.

Seeking to keep his forces in motion, T'ai Kun Wu had decided not to wait the two or more days for the North Column to join him but set out as quickly as his slow-moving forces permitted to pursue the Union forces down the southeast road. Lacking horse, he was forced to use some of his regulars to form strong flank guards, the 1st Regular Unit on the right (west) and the 2nd Regular Unit on the left, distant from the road roughly a mile. His best troops, the 8th 'Blue Leopards' led the van along the road, followed by the artillery and the three conscript units. The 3rd Regular Unit brought up the rear.  

The whole West Column force comprised:

Army Commander: T'ai Kun Wu
1st Regular Infantry - 28 figures (M/L Rifle)
2nd Regular Infantry - 28 figures (M/L Rifle)
3rd Regular Infantry - 28 figures (M/L Rifle)
8th 'Blue Leopards' Light Infantry - 19 figures (single shot B/L Rifle)
10th Conscript Infantry - 19 figures (S/B Musket)
11th Conscript Infantry - 19 figures (S/B Musket)
12th Conscript Infantry - 19 figures (S/B Musket)
1st Artillery - 2 figures (M/L Rifled Ordnance)

Totals: 163 figures (27,000+ all ranks), 1 artillery.

The Chinese view.  

Once again I had recourse to C.S. Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios for this one: #4. Holding Action.  Although the disparity of numbers is a deal less in the published scenario, I figured that the Union superior individual firepower, plus some field works, would go some way to level the battle ground. Of course, at numerical odds of more than three to one, it was never likely that Bidwell's command could hold indefinitely - nor did they. The approach of the Chinese Army was also programmed: the order of march, and the timing of arrivals of the main column and the flanking units.

First action - skirmishers of 2nd infantry against
two Union battalions in the woods

It was about mid-morning of 20th July that the Chinese West Column came up to Bidwell's road block.  The country hereabouts being easy going, and as the trail veered southeastward, the left flank guard unit arrived a good half hour before the column along the road. They at once threw out a skirmisher screen as they drew closer to the wood where awaited the two Union battalions. In the ensuing little battle, the skirmish line was quickly driven in, but the Regulars pressed on to close the range and bring more musketry to bear. Outnumbered more than three to one, perhaps the Union's quicker rate of fire and the cover of the woods might have stood off the 2nd Regulars for a considerable time.  

Magnificent shooting by the Chinese regulars!
Enough to drive the Union out of the wood.

But someone had trained the Chinese regulars well. Though taking fearful losses themselves from Union rifle and gun fire, their superb musketry cut down more than half the Union infantry and drove them quite out of the woods. Rather than plunge into and through the trees after them, 2nd Regulars began to skirt the woodland with the view to coming down upon the Union right flank.

(It occurs to me I ought to explain that last picture.  I use a volley group and 'die range' system for shooting. It the range the shooting was taking place, the volley group for the Chinese muzzle loading rifles was 6 figures, and the die range, 3.  So the unit threw 4 dice (24 rifleman figures) counting pips on any roll of 3 or less.  The unit could reasonably have expected to score 4 hits - halved owing to the cover of the trees.  But instead they rolled eight hits, halved to four.  The 'normalising' roll that follows made no change, so the Union riflemen in the woods lost 4 figures.  That was a tremendous score for the Chinese, though they lost very heavily as well.) 

Looking west...

All this while, the remainder of the Chinese column was pouring onto the field.  The 1st Regulars on the right arrived at about the same time as the head of the main column. Wishing to husband his best formation, the 'Blue Leopards', T'ai Kun Wu drew them to the right off the road in front of the woods, to make way for the artillery and the conscripts.  

Chinese columns pouring onto the field...

Shaking out into line, 1st Regulars advanced steadily towards the dug in 37th Brigade on the hill. Switching their target from the 2nd Regulars, where the guns had done some execution, the Union light artillery took some time to get the 1st Regular's range. As the enemy were approaching the Union line at a rather acute angle, the latter had perforce to refuse their left flank to bring their rifles to bear.

Duel between 37th Bde and 1st Regular Infantry

By now the wings were becoming fully engaged: on the Union left, the main body of 37th Brigade against 1st Regulars; and on the right, the half-brigade of Union cavalry were facing off against 2nd. In the centre, the Chinese conscripts had deployed into brigade columns, rather than lines, partly in the interests of speed, and partly because T'ai Kun Wu planned to storm the Union centre with the whole weight of conscripts in successive columnar attacks.  

Battle on the wings, build-up in the centre

As it transpired, the outcome of the attacks on the flanks were more or less resolved before the central columns could be fairly engaged. Mostly behind breastworks and backed by artillery, the main body of 37th Brigade made short work of the enemy below. Their withering fire scythed down the regulars like grass. Within the half hour, what was left of 1st Regulars broke and ran back the way they had come. The Union had lost fewer than 200 men; the Chinese loss seven times as great. But following that unit a large column of over 3000 was rapidly approaching.

Devastating Union shooting - enough to disintegrate 
1st Regulars

On the other flank, the dismounted cavalry had advanced to meet the approaching 2nd Regulars as the latter came around the woods. Knowing their repeating carbines to be outranged by the Chinese muzzle loaded rifles, the Union horsemen were eager to try conclusions. 'Boys, this will be short but desperate,' quoth Colonel Otho Strahl of 59th Regiment, 'Fire at will!'

Firefight between 10th Cavalry and 2nd Regulars

It surely was. As expected, the Union carbines, supported by enfilading gunfire (which actually proved ineffectual), exacted a severe toll upon the Chinese infantry. In return, having already given indications that the Union had to deal with a fine and well led unit, the Chinese regulars' fire, slower, but with double the numbers of firearms proved devastating. The cavalrymen lasted no longer in the firing line than the 1st Regulars at the other end of the field. Greatly reduced, they scrambled back to their horse-holders.

For their part, 2nd Regulars had also had their fill of this battle, and backing off from the gunfire from the flying artillery on the hill, drew off behind the woods. All things considered, that unit had given as good as it had received - a record that was not lost upon the vigilant T'ai Kun Wu.

Bidwell's command begins to pull out in good order

By this time it was becoming apparent to Brigadier Bidwell that his line could not be held much longer against the steady build-up of Chinese strength. The earthworks on the left having served their purpose, he pulled back the Brigade infantry, leaving the guns in place for the moment to keep the enemy in play. The infantry was to reunite with what was left of the detached battalions behind the village. The pioneers' wagons already sent off, that battalion was also ordered to evacuate the village, and the machine gun group to abandon its works. From its lofty height, and with nothing more to fear from the northern flank, the flying artillery turned their attention to the column (10th Conscript) approaching the town.

Brief rearguard action by infantry
 as the artillery makes off

As the following column, the 11th Conscript Infantry, surged up the slope, the 37th Brigade artillery limbered up and made off just barely in time.  Nor did the 10th Cavalry's flying artillery tarry overlong within their works.  Drawn up across the road, the Union infantry covered the unpanicked but hasty retreat of the guns, knocking over a few Chinese coming on past the village.  The last of the Chinese regulars and the 'Blue Leopards' were too late to affect the outcome.

Union withdrawal

Distancing themselves from close pursuit, Brigadier-General Bidwell's command drew off in good order down the road.  Bidwell congratulated himself upon holding up three times his number for the best part of a day, and well within the losses he was instructed would be acceptable.  For his part, T'ai Kun Wu called a halt a little beyond the village just taken, though the day still retained an hour of daylight.  The distant gunfire to the south had fallen silent sometime before the noise of this holding action had ceased.  

End of the action

As the Chinese were left in possession of the field on this occasion, they were able to gather in a higher proportion of stragglers, and to take several prisoners of war as well. Their overall loss was about 2500, almost all from 1st and 2nd Regular Infantry. The Union loss was less than half that - fewer than 1200, though approaching 200 were listed as 'missing'. Those unfortunates were later to find themselves marching under guard toward Yangzigu.

In his tent that evening, General Jackson had just begun penning his report on the battle he was to call 'Weshall Pass', when a dusty and dishevelled rider pulled in to camp. Without undue ceremony, he was ushered into Jackson's tent. During almost a whole day's action (so Jackson was generously inclined to believe) the Chinese armies from the north had been held back. And now, having drawn off in good order, Bidwell was marching to join him.  

Picking up his pen to resume his report, he was interrupted again by a second messenger. This one had been riding for days with a small escort up the road from the border. His army was to receive reinforcements, he was told.  17th and 19th Brigades from 5th Army. Having been recently engaged in fighting at the other end of the country, they would be under strength - just 80% of its riflemen - though the supporting arms were complete.  They were still some distance off - he imagined that the 17th would be crossing the border about now, 6 days away, then, and the 19th had not yet left the railhead.  He was pleased with their commanders, too, one of whom he knew personally, the other by repute.  He would be glad of the reinforcement.

But... he was not going to wait for them.  There was an enemy column not a day's whole march from him, and probably marching south.  Tomorrow, he would meet it at ... he glanced at his rudimentary map - Liaoyan.   Yes.  That was the place...

To be continued...