Antietam Battle Report: Hooker's Attack

 

Action in the Miller Cornfield

Back on October 9, 2024 I set up my game table to do a solo play of the ACW Battle of Antietam

Hooker's Attack

The battle of Antietam is best split up into a number of smaller actions during the battle rather than trying to fight the entire battle on one table. Smaller? I decided to recreate the opening of the battle with the morning attack of Major General Joseph Hooker's First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. As you probably can guess, I used my 54mm Confederate and Union troops from last year's Pickett's Charge war game at Historicon.

I used battalions to represent brigades in both armies. This allowed me to put the entirety of Hooker's and Jackson's division on my two game tables (6 ft x 15ft and 5ft by 12ft). The orders of battle are as follows:

Hooker's I Corps (3 divisions)

  Doubleday's Division (3 units) + 2 guns  / Patrick, Gibbon and Phelps

  Meade's Division (3 units) + 2 guns / Anderson, McGilton and Duryee

  Ricketts' Division (3 units) + 2 guns / Hartsuff, Christian and Seymour

Mansfield's XII Corps (2 divisions)   --- Optional for larger game

  Greene's Division (2 units) + 2 guns

  Williams' Division (3 units) + 2 guns

Stonewall Jackson's wing of the Army of Northern Virginia

  J.R.Jones' Division (4 units) +2 guns -- Grigsby, J.Jackson, Penn, and Starke

  Lawton's / Early's Division (4 units) + 2 guns  Early, Hays, Douglass and Walker

D.H. Hill's Division (2 units) + 2 guns --- optional  ---- Ripley

Hood's Division (2 units) + 2 guns --- optional --- Wofford and Law

In summary, the Union army has 14 brigades and 10 guns; Jackson's wing has 12 brigades and 10 guns. If this seems like too many units for the game table, then Mansfield's corps and the Confederate divisions of DH Hill and Hood could be eliminated from the game rosters.

For my game I used the Confederate divisions of Jones and Lawton and only Ripley's brigade from DH Hill's division. This gave me 9 CSA brigades. I only used the three divisions of Hooker's corp, each with 3 brigades. This gave me 9 USA brigades.

The table top set up. The split of my game tables is approximately at the lower end
of the East Woods and runs horizontally to Grigsby's location in the West Woods.

Hooker's stepping off point at the edge of the North Woods. The Hagerstown Pike runs
down the center of the table. Off in the distance one can see the Dunker Church where
the Hagerstown Pike intersects the Smoketown Road. Miller Cornfield in the mid-distance.

The Smoketown Road (right) marks the left flank of Hooker's Corps

The intersection of the Smoketown Road and the Hagerstown Pike in front of the Dunker Church.
This marks the back table edge of the Confederate army.

Let The Battle Begin - my report

On Turn 1 the battle kicked off with mostly long range artillery firing from both sides. Ripley's and Walker's CSA surprisingly move forward into the East Woods, hoping to bog down the Federal advance in that area. I didn't want this to happen, but the dice dictated otherwise. Doubleday's Division of Hooker's Corps advanced across a broad front.

Union artillery lob shells up the Hagerstown Pike to open the action.

Turn 2 sees the brigade of J. Jackson (not Stonewall, but the "other Jackson") marching forward on the CSA left into the West Woods. Walker's brigade charges the Union brigade of Seymour in the East Woods and wins the melee. On the CSA far left, they watch Gibbon's Iron Brigade advancing over open ground. The Iron Brigade opens up with its first fire of the game (aiming at Grigsby's CSA brigade in the West Woods) and completely whiffs on its target. Booooo!!!!

Gibbon's Iron Brigade unleashes some ineffective fire. 
(The 14th Brooklyn regiment is standing in for the Iron Brigade)

Turn 3: The action is starting to heat up as both sides come into rifle range. In the East Woods, Seymour's Union brigade had fallen back on Turn 2, but they gathered themselves together and counter-attacked Walker's CSA brigade. Seymour wins the melee and Walker's brigade routs.

Walker's and Ripley's Confederate brigades storm into the East Woods, where
they run into two Union brigades of Seymour and Christian, from Ricketts' division.

Meanwhile, Doubleday's Division (USA) attack is not going well as the Iron Brigade can't seem to hit a barn door and Patrick's brigade routs after receiving some musket fire. The prompts Meade to send his whole division of three brigades forward to help Doubleday.

Meade's division enters the Cornfield. Hartsuff's brigade from Ricketts' division
emerges from the East Woods, moves up the Smoketown Road, and attempts to 
outflank the Confederate defenders at the edge of the Cornfield.

Turn 4: Back to the action in the East Woods, Ripley's CSA brigade has to fall back as it is now faced off against two Union brigades (Christian and Hartsuff) and doesn't want to get outflanked. Walker rallies his brigade and they form a new line with Ripley's retreating Confederates.

Walker's Confederate brigade in the East Woods

Doubleday's brigades continue to have problems as Phelps routs out of the Cornfield and the Iron Brigade fall back to keep their flank covered. Now Doubleday has two brigades routing and the Iron Brigade's wheels are stuck in the mud. But wait! Patrick rallies his brigade. Hays' CSA brigade also routs out of the Cornfield.

Phelps' brigade enter the Cornfield (right), but do not stay there for
long as two Confederate brigades open fire.

Turn 5: With the West Woods no longer threatened by Doubleday's division, Jones shifts his division to the right and anchors his flank on the Hagerstown Pike to reinforce the Confederate center. Taliaferro advances up the Pike and wheels right so that it can pour enfilading fire into any Union troops traipsing through the Cornfield. In the center, Lawton moves his reserve brigade (Early) into the gap created by the rout of Hays' brigade on the previous turn. On the Confederate right flank, Lawton orders Ripley and Walker to retire from the East Woods and form a new line. He positions his artillery to give it a clean shot down the Smoketown Road.

Taliaferro's brigade wheels to the right to enfilade the Federals advancing 
through the Cornfield.

What is going on in the Cornfield at this moment? Ricketts hived off Duryee's brigade from his command, transferring the brigade to Meade's command. Duryee's Zouaves march smartly into the Cornfield. The other three brigade's in Meade's division are now advancing into the Cornfield and threatening the vulnerable Confederate center. It looks like we might have a Union traffic jam developing in the Cornfield.

Duryee's Zouaves make for a stirring sight as they enter the Cornfield.

Doubleday is still having problems getting his division to move forward. Inexplicably the Iron Brigade continues to fall back to its starting line. Patrick notices Confederates leaving the West Woods so he advances his brigade towards the woods. Phelps finally rallies his brigade. Meanwhile, Penn's CSA brigade routs out of the West Woods.

Grigsby's brigade of Jones' division seems to have things well in hand in the West Woods.

More action in the West Woods. Doubleday's Union division is 
running away from the hot fire zone.

A section of a Napoleon battery drops trail in the middle of the Hagerstown Pike.

At the end of Turn 5 the Union army had five brigades stacked up in the center (the Cornfield) and they are faced off by only two Confederate brigades: Douglass and Early. So Stonewall Jackson shifts Starke's fresh brigade to the center to back up the Confederates who are contesting the Cornfield. The CSA brigades of Hays and Penn are trying to rally behind their lines, near the Dunker Church. There, they come under the gaze of Robert E. Lee and he is not feeling very giddy at the moment. Over in the East Woods, the severely depleted Confederate brigades of Walker and Ripley are struggling to form a new defensive line to fend off the Union advance through the East Woods.

Game summary through the first five game turns

On the Union side, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Ricketts' division (on the left) seems to have taken control of the East Woods and Meade has a mass of troops gathering in the Union center. The bad news is that Doubleday's division on the Union right is struggling to make a difference in the battle.

The Confederates are not feeling very good about their position at the end of the turn. Their right flank has been pushed out of the East Woods and the center is in trouble with two brigades routing out of the Miller Cornfield. Fortunately, Stonewall Jackson's left flank in the West Woods doesn't seem to be threatened any time soon, thank you very much Abner Doubleday. This enables him to shift two brigades into his center to confront Meade's attack.

Let us resume the report of the battle

Turn 6 saw lots of rifle firing but neither side was gaining advantage. Penn's CSA brigade rallied near the Dunker Church.

Turn 7: Union firing was beginning to take its toll on the Confederate forces. The Confederate right is destroyed as Walker and Ripley rout again near the East Woods and they are out of action for the rest of the game.

Turn 8: Jackson moved his last fresh brigade, Starke, over to the Smoketown Road - East Woods area and hoping that this will be enough to stall the advance of Rickett's two brigades (Hartsuff and Seymour). The Confederate center was still holding up, but the brigades of Early and Douglass were starting to see their numbers whittled down. At least Starke was there to back them up. The action was coming to a standstill in the West Woods on the Confederate left.

Jackson shifts Starke's brigade from the West Woods to the center.

Meade now had four brigades in the Cornfield (center). Hartsuff and Seymour seem to have hunkered down in the East Woods (left). Doubleday had two brigades trying to rally (Iron Brigade and Phelps) and his third brigade (Patrick) had no interest in advancing forward.

The final decision

I decided to end the game after Turn 8. The Union had enough troops to break the Confederate center, but they couldn't unwind the traffic jam of soldiers in the Cornfield and so they couldn't bring their whole weight to bear in their attack. There was no more fighting in the West Woods and the fight in the East Woods was petering out.

The losses were fairly even as the Confederates had 5 brigades of doubtful status and 1 brigade gone for the day. They had 4 viable brigades remaining in the game. The Union army had 5 viable brigades, 4 doubtful brigades and 1 brigade gone for the day.

I saw that neither side had enough of an advantage to stage a convincing win and I really didn't want to carry the game out to the last man.

This was a very balanced scenario that contained a lot of back and forth action. I think that it would make for a good convention game. All in all, this was a fun game to play.

vvvv

Kenosha Civil War Museum & ACW War Gaming Days

 

My two game tables at the Kenosha Civil War Museum event.

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE

Friday I traveled 30 minutes north of Schloss Fritz to Kenosha, Wisconsin Civil War Museum link, where I set up a smaller version of my Pickett's Charge ACW 54mm wargame. It took me about three hours on Thursday to take down the Antietam game on the home pitch and repack everything for the game show. Then on Friday, it took another three hours to set up the Pickett's Charge game. Needless to say I was completely knackered by Friday night.

Due to the limited number of tables available and a smaller gaming area, I had to reduce the size of the Pickett's Charge game from three parallel tables to only two parallel tables. Both tables measured 16ft long by 5ft wide with a 3ft wide aisle between the tables. I am used to using 6ft wide tables so I wasn't sure how well this might work out. With a smaller table area, I had to reduce the Confederate army down from two divisions to one, using only Pickett's division of three brigades. So I lost one-third of my usual table area and reduced my gaming forces by 50%. There would be room for three players per side rather than five or six players per side.

The Confederate starting position on the Emmitsburg Road table. Cemetery Ridge 
is the table on the other side of the aisle.

The Cemetery Ridge table, where the Union army was deployed, looking
across the aisle to the Emmitsburg Road table.

The Emmitsburg Road with the Codori Farm at the far end of the table.
Pickett's Division of three brigades are deployed in their stepping off position.

To my surprise, the game almost looked better using the two tables and half the number of figures that I used when I ran Pickett's Charge at Little Wars and Historicon in 2024. One of the tables would have the Emmitsburg Road and the Confederates starting position about 20-24 inches from the road. The other table represented Cemetery Ridge and it comprised mostly the Copse of Trees, The Angle and the Bryan Farm. Each side would have three brigades with 3 regiments in the Union brigades and 4 regiments in the Confederate brigades. I increased the number of artillery pieces in the Union army to compensate for having fewer than normal regiments. As an after thought, I added two more regiments to the Union defenders giving them 11 regiments compared 12 regiments for the Confederates.

The game played faster with the elimination of the third Seminary Ridge table. The Confederates no longer had to cross six feet of table width just to get to the Emmitsburg Road table. One Confederate brigade (Kemper) reached the road on Turn 1 and the brigades of Armistead and Garnett reached the road on Turn 2. The Confederates came under Union artillery fire from the get-go and by Turn 3, with most of them crossing the post and rail fences of the road, they were within small arms range. So things were happening at a faster pace than in my previous games.

Corner of the table vignette showing a Union medical field station.

Meade's HQ. Meade, Hancock and Warren discussing the day's events.
Several Iron Brigade soldiers are on guard duty.

A Union artillery battery of two 3-inch ordnance rifles

114th Pennsylvania Zouaves deploy behind breastworks.

Alonzo Cushing's battery of 3-inch rifles deployed in The Angle.

The Codori Farmhouse and barn at the end of the Emmitsburg Road.

We had four players in the game. I assigned three of them to command the three brigades in Pickett's Division. The fourth player commanded half of the Union forces and I commanded the other half.

The players picked up the rules right away and one of them found all of nuances (and loop holes) in my rules. For example, I had been telling players that they are better off standing and firing at the Union soldiers rather than charging home because the defender gets to fire off a volley at the incoming chargers. One of the players brought it to my attention that this shouldn't matter because in the sequence of play, the Union soldiers get to fire at the Confederates before the Confederates get an opportunity to fire back, So they are going to get fired at first regardless of whether they charge or stand and fire. In another instance, one of the Confederate players was going to charge into the flank of my Union regiment. I was certain that I must have gigged the unit getting hit in the flank, but I couldn't find it on my rule sheet. The player found the exact rule which stated "units charged in the flank or rear do not get to fire at the charge."

One rule that I plan to change involves the melee system. The Union soldiers get a melee hit when they roll a 5 or 6 on a D6 whereas the Confederates inflict a hit on a roll of a 4-5-6. This gives the Rebels a clear advantage in melee. I had this rule because I wanted the Confederates to have a chance to maybe sort of win the game, but this difference has proven to be too biased in their favor. (It's probably why it seems that the Confederates have been winning more of these games than they should). Therefore I will change melee hits to a 5 or 6 for both sides to balance things out.

It was a good game. Those sneaky Confederates attacked the Union left flank with two brigades (Kemper and Armistead) and avoided the Copse of Trees sector in the middle. I was commanding the Union brigades on this part of the table and I failed to notice that Armistead's brigade shifted to the right and joined Kemper's brigade in overwhelming the Union left flank by sheer numbers. They managed to get a complete break through of the Union line and cut off the key Baltimore Pike road behind Cemetery Ridge. While the Union right flank fended off Garnett's brigade, and the center at the Copse of Trees was secure by virtue of it not being attacked, it seemed to me that the Confederates had achieved an overwhelming victory on Cemetery Ridge (of course, I had to advise the winning Confederate commanders that the entire Union VI Corps was waiting for them on the other side of the ridge).

I like the way that this game played out and I think that I will continue to use the two table setup instead the three table set up whenever I run Pickett's Charge at a convention. I will also change the melee rule.

I have one more game scheduled tomorrow (Sunday February 23rd) and hopefully enough visitors arrive  so that all six of the games have players to play the game. I had a good time talking to visitors and curiosity seekers all day. A number of people were visiting the museum and were not aware that there were going to be some war games going on. They asked me lots of questions about where the soldier figures came from (I had a list of 5 or 6 companies that sell these plastic figures), the size of the figures (1/32 scale or 54mm), how many figures did I paint and how long did it take me (over 1,000 figures and one year of painting time), did I make all of the terrain (pretty much yes) and where did I find such colorful game mats (Cigar Box Battle Mats). There were also lots of questions about the size of the historical war gaming community in the USA (I gave them some information about HMGS and its satellite regional organizations). Other topics included GI Joe/Action Man size figures and Airfix HO figures (you would be surprised at how many people played with the HO figures in their youth). So all in all, it was a great day for me.

There are plans to hold this show at the museum next year, probably at the same time (last weekend of February) and I will definitely be coming back to host a game. Someone told me that we had about 40 people playing in the games and there were six games available for anyone interested in rolling dice.

After my game was over and all of the figures were put back into place, I had some time to roam around the museum for a look-see. I was in a hurry so tomorrow I hope to spend more time looking at the exhibits in more detail.

NOTICE:

I have lots of pictures of my Antietam game that I solo played this week and I plan to offer up one or two blog posts about that game in the coming week.

Battle of Antietam Game: Hooker's Attack in the Cornfield

 

My tabletop setup for the Antietam war game.

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE

Yesterday I cleared the Ancients off of my game tables (that took about 2.5 hours) and set up the table (about 2 hours of set up time) for my ACW 54mm game featuring Hooker's attack through the Miller Cornfield.

I made a four minute video in which I take you for a tour around the battlefield tabletop. I have not included any video of the playing of the game, which could get rather boring to watch. Here is the You Tube link to the video, below:

My Antietam Game You Tube Link

I am using the infantry regiments that I painted for the Pickett's Charge game last year, but rather than using them as "regiments", they are representing "brigades" in both armies. For example, General Meade has three brigades in his division so there are three units of painted figures, each representing one of his brigades.

This set up gives me 9 brigades per side for the game. These can be divided into three brigades per side, each of which are commanded by a player. Thus there are three players per side in this game.

My plan is to play this as a solo game over the next two days and then I have to tear it all down and pack it away so that I can carry everything to Kenosha, Wisconsin  where I am hosting the game in a local Civil War museum. How cool is that!

Here is a picture of the game flyer for the convention. If you happen to be in the area on Saturday February 22nd or 23rd, the please feel free to stop in, see the museum and watch or play in some of the  Civil War games that will be hosted. I believe that there are six games scheduled. I will be hosting my game on both days.

I will be running my 54mm Pickett's Charge game that you may have seen at last year's Little Wars and Historicon conventions. It will be a smaller version of those games because there is only space for me to set up two 5ft by 18ft tables instead of the three 6ft by 20ft tables used at LW and Historicon. I will probably have only Pickett's division on the Confederate side versus a similar number of Union troops. I might be able to slip in an extra Confederate brigade if the table top area permits.

Here are several more pictures of the game table and terrain set up. I will play the game solo and probably post an after action report next week.

The Dunker Church lies at the intersection of the Hagerstown Pike (left) and the Smoketown Road (right).

The Dunker Church

Union artillery crew look down the Smoketown Road towards Dunker Church.

Union artillery battery positional view down the Hagerstown Pike. The Miller Cornfield is seen of the left.

The Smoketown Road leading up the the Dunker Church (white building) in the background.
The lefthand road is just a smaller local farmer's track.

The Miller Farm - the stepping off point for Hooker's attack.

I hope to see some of you in Kenosha this weekend.

Battle of Antietam: Hooker's Attack

 

Antietam diorama in 1/72 scale. This is an amazing piece of work and
regrettably I can not recall the name of the individual's work so that I can give him credit.

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE

I have been watching Bill Molyneaux's Battle of Antietam wargame on YouTube in recent days and it has gotten me interested in developing my own scenario for the opening battle in the Miller Cornfield. The game will be conducted using the large 54mm toy soldier figures that I painted over the past year for my Pickett's Charge game.

The Miller Cornfield at Antietam in June.

The Confederate Texas Brigade counter-attacks through the Miller Cornfield
Figures from my former 28mm ACW set of armies.

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Miller's Wheatfield? 54mm figures.

Here are a pair of links to Bill's YouTube battle of Antietam, Parts 1 and 2

Antietam Part 1

Bill's War Game World

Confederate artillery battery fires at Union troops in the Cornfield.
54mm Britains Deetail figures

Confederate artillery at Antietam, also known as "Artillery Hell".
Britain's Ltd. 1/32 scale soldiers

Antietam is a huge battle, but it can easily be broken down into a series of individual corps actions over the course of the day:

(1) Hooker's opening attack through the Miller Cornfield

(2) Mansfield's XII Corps supporting attack for Hooker's attack 

(3) Sumner's Union II Corps attack

(4) Union VI Corps attack by Sedgewick 

(5) French & Richardson's attack on the Sunken Lane

(6) Burnside's IX Corps attack across "the bridge"

(7) Arrival of A.P. Hill's division saves the day

Each of these phases of the battle could be developed into a fun and interesting scenario that reduces the scope and the number of wargame figures that one would need rather than trying to fight the whole, larger battle.

I decided to gin up a scenario for Hooker's Attack In The Cornfield suitable for my 54mm ACW figures. The Union attack by Hooker's I Corps is one of the iconic pieces of fighting in the Civil War and appears to be evenly matched so that either side, Union or Confederate, could win the game. Presenting the game at the regimental level would be a huge undertaking in the number of troops that would be needed and, more importantly, would require more table space than I have in my basement wargaming room.

So I decided that one of my 30-figure regiments would stand in for one brigade of soldiers. With approximately 3 brigades per division in Hooker's I Corps, and 3 divisions, I would need 9 of my painted "regiments" to represent the Union side.

The Confederate side is a little more difficult to understand because brigades were scattered all over Stonewall Jackson's battle line, rather than finding all of the brigades in a Confederate division deployed in an orderly side by side formation. 

Here is the order of battle for the Confederate forces on the left wing of the army, commanded by Stonewall Jackson. Some of the original brigade commanders have been replaced either from becoming a casualty during the fight, or in the cases of J.R. Jones (for Jackson) and Lawton (for Ewell), elevated to division command. Ewell was back in Richmond, VA recovering from his leg amputation suffered at the Battle of Groveton while Lawton was elevated to replace Stonewall Jackson when the latter moved up to wing command. Note: each battery of artillery will be represented by one cannon model with crew.

Stonewall Jackson's Left Wing Command

Jackson's Division (J. R. Jones commanding)

Jones's Brigade (Grigsby commanding)

Starke's Brigade

Taliferro's Brigade (J. Jackson commanding)

Jones' Brigade (Penn commanding)

Division Artillery (6 batteries)

Ewell's Division (Lawton commanding)

Early's Brigade

Hays' Brigade

Lawton's Brigade (Douglass commanding)

Trimble's Brigade (James Walker commanding)

Division Artillery (6 batteries)

Reinforcements - Hood's Brigade

Wofford's Texas Brigade

Law's Brigade

Ripley's Brigade (from D.H. Hill's division)

Thus Stonewall Jackson's command begins the game with 8 brigades of infantry and 12 batteries of artillery, represented by 12 cannon models. You could make the arrival of Hood's two brigades and the detachment of Ripley's brigade from D.H. Hill's division to Jackson's command optional.

*********************************************************

Hooker's Union I Corps

Hatch's Division (Doubleday commanding)

Hoffmans' Brigade (replacing Doubleday)

Gibbon's Iron Brigade

Patrick's Brigade

Phelps' Brigade

Division Artillery (4 batteries)

Rickett's Division

Duryee's Brigade

Christian's Brigade (Lyle commanding)

Hartsuff's Brigade

Division Artillery (2 batteries)

Meade's Division

Seymour's Brigade

Magilton's Brigade

Gallagher's Brigade (Anderson commanding)

Division Artillery ( 3 batteries)

So Hooker's I Corps will have 10 brigades of infantry, each represented by one of my "regiments" of painted figures. There will be 9 cannon models, each representing one battery in the I Corps.

The Game Table and Battle Map

I based my scenario and game table map using the map that I found on Wikipedia, which I believe uses the map created by The American Battlefield Trust. I hope that I got the citation correct. I enlarged this map as much as I needed on my desktop computer and put a piece of light see-through tracing paper over the screen. Then I traced the terrain features onto the paper and used the drawing to create my game table map.

Here is a crude map of the Cornfield terrain features that I will transform into a table top map. The Union I Corps attack will  deploy in the north at the top of the map and attack south towards the "V-shaped" intersection of the Hagerstown Pike (running north to south) and the Smoketown Road (running diagonally from NE to SW). Where the two roads meet lies the iconic Dunker Church which was a landmark that became the focus of both armies during the battle.

Map depicting the terrain for my table top layout.

Other terrain features are the North Woods at the top of the map; the East Woods at the right side of the map; the West Woods on the lower center left part of the map. The Miller Cornfield is in the center of the map surrounded by the North, East and West Woods.

Here are two photos of the Dunker Church, one taken just after the battle and the a more contemporary image.

Contemporary photo of the Dunker Church after the battle. Confederate casualties are shown.
Union forces wouldhave attacked from the right and moving to the left in this picture. You can
just barely make out the position of the Hagerstown Pike by the location of the fences.

The Dunker Church at Antietam National Military Park
Sharpsburg, Maryland. Photo: NPS
The Hagerstown Pike is in the foreground.

Brigade Deployments

Brigade deployments are shown in the map below. Union brigades are in blue and Confederate brigades are in red.

I haven't finalized the map of my game table layout, but I would imagine that on the lefthand side, I will not have Nicodemus Heights on the table. The righthand table edge will probably be at the eastern edge of the East Woods. My game table is 6ft wide by 15ft long and I can, and probably will, use a parallel table measuring 5ft wide by 12ft long so that I can have more table width. The Hagerstown Pike will probably mark the edge of both tables with the aisle running in between along that road. And then imagine that the map will tilt or rotate several degrees to the right. Of the two game tables, the smaller 5ft by 12ft table will be on the left side of the maps above and the larger 6ft by 15ft table will be on the righthand side.

Here is the math with respect to the width of the tables:

Each regiment of mine is 15 to 18 inches in frontage. I don't have the exact measurements in front of me because the figures are packed away into their storage containers at the present. But my recollection from my Pickett's Charge set up was that a brigade of two regiments in the front and one supporting regiment in a second line took up approximately 36 inches of space. 

Another table layout to consider is to play the game out on the horizontal axis. A 15ft wide by 6ft deep front table could encompass the entire Miller Cornfield and the East Woods. The back table would have most of the West Woods, the Dunker Church and the intersection of the Hagerstown Pike and the Smoketown Road. I find myself leaning towards this option because (1) I can place the entire frontage of Hooker's attack on one table and (2) the fighting in the West Woods and the Dunker Church are really not the focus of my game.

Comments on deployment, below, relate to the table option of playing the game on the vertical axis with two parallel game tables.

Union Deployment

In my Antietam game the brigade will now be represented by just one of my painted regiments and three regiments will now represent the three brigades of one division. So Doubleday's Union division, comprised ob Gibbon and Phelps' brigade in the front, supported by Patrick's brigade in the second line, will take up a frontage of approximately 36 inches or 3 feet. This includes a little bit of spacing between units so that the brigades are not lined up end to end in a perfect linear formation with no maneuvering space. Next to Doubleday, we have Rickett's Division comprised of the brigades of Duryee, Hartsuff and Christian. Meade's third division has the brigades of Magilton, Anderson and Seymour and it would be lined up behind Doubleday's and Ricketts' divisions on the tabletop. Thus a two division frontage takes up 6ft, which is the width of my primary game table.

Now I am going to make a slight change to the Union order of battle that will facilitate the play of the game. You will note that one of Meade's 3rd Division brigades, Seymour, is located far away from the rest of the division as it is deployed in the East Woods whereas the other two brigades are positioned in the North Woods at the start of the battle. At the same time, one of Meade's other brigades, Magilton, managed to slide its way into the front line of the ICorps' attack. So I am going to give Rickett's 2nd Division the brigades of Magilton, Duryee and Seymour and Meade's 3rd Division will now own Anderson, Hartsuff and Christian. This places brigades under a command closer together and thus easier to manage during the game.

Just kind of eyeballing things, Doubleday's 1st Division on the right of the I Corps line will have Gibbon's brigade and Patrick's supporting brigade deployed on the smaller 5ft by 12ft table on the left table. Phelps' brigade will be on the larger 6ft by 15ft right table, just above the Cornfield. Rickett's Division will see  Duryee lined up north of the Cornfield, with Magilton's brigade behind him; while Seymour's brigade will start in the East Woods. 

Thus the larger righthand table will have Phelps, Duryee and Seymour in the front line and taking up a frontage of 54 inches out of a total of 72 inches of table width. This should allow room for Union artillery to deploy and give the infantry some space to maneuver on the table. Magilton will line up behind Duryee. Meade's three brigades will form a third battle line behind Magilton.

On the smaller lefthand table we will deploy Gibbon's Iron Brigade on the front line with Patrick's brigade deployed behind him. This table has 60 inches of width with only one brigade in the front occupying 18 inches of space. This provides a lot of maneuvering area for Patrick to move forward and line up to the right of Gibbon and present a two brigade frontage on the smaller table.

So far it looks like we will have plenty of table space for the opening attack on the Cornfield. Of course, the Confederates have a say in all of this too.

Confederate Deployment

The Confederates will have three player commands in the game consisting of Jones' Division on the left and Ewell's (Lawton) Division on the right, with Hood's Division in reserve. As with Hooker's Union I Corps, I need to make some adjustments to the CSA order of battle to keep proximity of brigades in a division. The main problem is that Lawton's Division has Early's brigade is deployed on the far left while the rest of Lawton's Division is deployed on the center and right of the table. So I will add Early's brigade to Jones' Division (deployed on the left table) and transfer Starke's brigade to Lawton's Division. Thus the CSA has two division commands on the front line with a third division command under Hood in the rear. Since Hood only has two brigades (Wofford and Law) I will add Ripley's brigade to Hood's division.

Conclusions and Summary

I am looking forward to setting up my game tables and giving this scenario a go. I will use my 54mm ACW armies and employ the set of rules that I used in my Pickett's Charge war game at Historicon. I have never set up a game where a regiment/battalion takes the place of a brigade so I am keen on seeing how this mechanism works out.

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There's Some Thang Going On At Gettysburg

 

General Hancock arrives at Cemetery Hill on the evening of July 1, 1863.
Painting by Don Troiani

So I almost missed the anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. Well, I did miss Day One on July 1st, but an hour before midnight on the 2nd I am making this post to commemorate the event.

Back in 2020 or 2019 my daughter Lelia and I visited Gettysburg as well as a number of other Eastern Theater ACW battles. Below are two pictures that I took of the McPherson's Ridge area which saw the opening shots fired on the first day of the battle.

McPherson's Farm where much of the action took place on the First Day  of
the Battle of Gettysburg. I took this photo around 5PM in the evening and 
captured a view of the dramatic sky.

The Chambersburg Pike leading into the town of Gettysburg.
McPherson's Barn is on the right.

Back here in the present, I spent much of the day making wheat fields to use in my Pickett's Charge war game at Historicon this year. Here are three different iterations of wheat fields that I made:

Left side is the Third Generation wheat field. It is a simple flat board with tufts of wheat.
The Second Generation wheat field consists of irregularly shaped bases.

The First Generation wheat field was made of strips of coir material from a "welcome mat"
that I bought at Home Depot. I glued the one-inch strips of coir onto a base and then
sprinkled clippings from the door mat onto the field/ The Third Generation wheat field
can be seen in the background.

Here is the Third Generation of my wheat field construction ideas. I think that 
I like this version the best. It is supposed to depict the wheat field after it has 
been harvested or trampled down by soldiers passing through. The base is made
from a piece of cork backed dinner table mat. I then spread my mixture of "goop"
(wallboard paste mixed with brown acrylic paint) onto the cork side of the mat
and then let it dry overnight. The next day I dry brush a light tan color over the 
now-dried goop. Then I clip off cuttings from the coir welcome mat and sprinkle
these clippings onto the board. I use spray on photo adhesive for this step, but
while glue works just as well. I have glued some small pieces of the door mat onto
the board to represent random areas of the field that were not cut down and  harvested.

Battle in The Wheat Field. July 2, 1863 on the second day of Gettyburg

General Barksdale leads his vaunted brigade of  Mississippi
regiments through the Peach Orchard and on to the Trostle Farm.
This was Day Two action.

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