Victory!

It is my honour to inform the President that my army has this day won a great victory on the battle-field near a place called Cutler’s Farm. We were engaged with General Lee’s forces from first light and though they made a fearsome assault on my left with General Jackson’s Corps, we bravely stood our ground and fought the enemy to a standstill.

On my right General Longstreet tried in vain to get around our flank but was held and then thrown back by Porter’s Corps. The arrival of the Corps of Sigel and Heintzelman at Sharpeville by mid-morning then enabled me to change my stance from one of defence to offence. My Regiments rallied and pushed forward and the enemy troops became greatly demoralised and started to withdraw in some disorder.

As our glorious army has now amassed 10 VP’s the campaign has been concluded with victory for the Union. The Rebel army is in full rout and being pursued by Buford’s cavalry, many of the enemy prisoners are disheartened saying they wish they had never fought for the Confederacy and that they would be glad to see the Union restored. I expect my forces to be before the gates of Richmond very shortly where I plan to accept Lee’s sword in surrender!

General John Pope
Army H.Q. Sharpeville, Virginia
2nd August 1862

Sharpeville Turns 18 - 21

It's 8.00am on 2nd August and we have our next battle. Dave has pushed forward Hood and Kemper into the area between the Jones Farm and the Barnes Farm, forcing a contact with two of Porter's Divisions supported by the Artillery Reserve.

Rather than withdraw and concede a Victory Point I've decided to make a stand and bring on a battle. This next encounter is likely to include every brigade in both armies and may be our biggest battle to date!

Initially Dave is likely to have the advantage of a tight concentration of forces and I anticipate that he will launch a full-scale assault rather than pussy-footing around as he did in the last game. However, if my forces can survive the first few turns of the onslaught I am confident I can pull off a win that will also end the whole campaign in victory for the North!

Update - I've uploaded a new map showing the locations of forces following the Union "March to guns" turn. The previous map was wrong due to some poor staff work at General Pope's HQ!

Sharpeville Turns 16 - 17

Perhaps General Pope missed his West Point class on "expect the unexpected" because Lee has played a blinder and done the one thing I definitely did not expect!

Instead of moving south into the open terrain below Sharpeville Dave has moved his army north to try and squeeze around between the north of the town and the edge of the map (maps, like gaming tables are never quite big enough!). Luckily for me though I thought to spend some CP's scouting the road that runs north from the Barnes Farm and discovered Jackson and Stuart at the crossroads there.

I know that Longstreet is not far behind Jackson and the stage now seems set for another battle although this probably won't happen until after the night turn next turn.

Sharpeville Turns 14 – 15

This has been a frustrating couple of turns! The euphoria at HQ following the victory at Sharpeville quickly disappeared when it became obvious that we had lost contact with Lee’s army. I have spent virtually all my Command Points since then moving and scouting with my cavalry to try and relocate Dave’s infantry.

The situation at the end of Turn 14.

Tompkins rode all the way down to the bend in the river below Stevensburg without making a single contact with the Rebels so I concluded that the enemy had definitely not moved south. The only enemy met (by Bayard) were Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry north of the town and presumably forming the Confederate rear-guard.

Tompkin's scouts Anderson and Kemper - Anderson's Divison has not yet recovered full combat effectiveness hence the white colour of the unit marker.

I then rushed Tompkins back north towards Sharpeville in something of a panic and was eventually rewarded with the discovery of Anderson and Kemper of Longstreet’s Corps just west of Mason’s Ford. It would appear that Lee has afterall simply pulled back to the east.

My intention now is to follow up and maintain close proximity to the Confederates.

Sharpeville Turns 12 - 13

I am starting to think that the Rebs may be attempting to totally disengage by moving east rather than south and then west towards Fremont as I had thought. If this is the case then I am in danger of losing contact with them completely.

Last turn my cavalry scouted Fitzhugh Lee's troopers and Kemper's Division on the road to Stevensburg but this turn I can no longer locate Kemper so he may have already passed east through the town.

Heintzelman's Corps has reached the town of Fremont and has also recovered to full combat effectiveness. Next turn I intend to use my whole CP allowance on scouting if necessary to locate Lee's main body.

Sharpeville – Turn 11

Well, I have to say that I was pretty lucky to come away with a victory at Sharpeville given that the entire Confederate army was present on the table right from the start. It was a bit of a risky strategy to engage the enemy as I did but it paid off – this time anyway!

The remnants of Heintzelman's battle weary command moving west out of Sharpeville on their way towards Fremont. General Pope is saluting them as they pass by his HQ.

So what’s next? I’m still tied to defending the towns of Sharpeville and Fremont and this limits my ability to manoeuvre because I cannot risk letting either VP site fall into enemy hands. My suspicion is that Dave will feint towards Fremont and then strike again at Sharpeville hoping I have shifted most of my Corps away to the west. To counter this I intend to move Heintzelman’s shattered Corps to Fremont and bring up Sigel’s fresh troops in his place. I will also pull back slightly from Sharpeville to give the illusion of a weak position there.

My deployments at the end of move 10. The units shown in white are Heintzelman's "battle weary" divisions. These formations will have minimal combat effectiveness until they are rested.

It will take Dave a move or two to get his forces ready for any offensive action and this should give me plenty of time to reorganise my own troops and scout the enemy positions.

Sharpeville Turn 9

Having located Jackson’s Corps I’ve decided to go ahead and attack the enemy in the hope that not all of Longstreet’s force will be able to make it to the table in the coming battle. Our rules for battles allow the defender to have a full “march to guns” move after a contact is declared and also choose the terrain squares that will be represented on the tabletop (the contact square must be one of the four central squares).

The area outlined in black is the battlefield Dave has chosen. Any forces outside the battle

area may attempt to "march to guns" if they have sufficient CP's available.

As attacker I have only half the usual number of CP’s to expend in my own “march to guns” turn to try and get as many of my off-table units as possible to the scene of the action - I threw a 6 on my CP die roll giving me the maximum 7 CP’s. The movement limitation meant it was not possible to bring up Sigel’s Corps but, with Heintzelman and McDowell already on the table area, I have just enough allowance to bring on Porter and Tompkin’s Cavalry.

The battlefield - time to study the terrain and make plans!

This will give me a healthy 21 infantry brigades, 2 cavalry brigades and the artillery reserve available for the coming struggle, although the off-table troops will have to arrive and deploy onto the battlefield in column of march. What scouting I have managed to do suggests that Longstreet will not be putting in an appearance along the southern table edge and is more likely to be in a position behind Jackson – well, that’s what I hope!

So, the action will now transfer to Brother Against Brother where the forthcoming Battle of Sharpeville will soon be fought.