The American Civil War, Brigade Fire & Fury, 28mm 

For a while now, I’ve been building up units for the American Civil War. At first I was just doing Union troops, but when ‘Sean 2’ moved away with his Confederates I had to raise them too. This was their first outing. Sean (formerly ‘Sean 1’) and I wanted to play a small game, as we’re still getting used to the re-designed 2nd edition of the rules. At the start we planned to use the old Fire & Fury rules, but we soon switched to these ones after trying them. This game was a refight of the Battle of Iuka (September 1862), fought in the wilds of Mississippi during the Corinth campaign. This was ideal for us, as with just four brigades a side, and a meeting engagement, it was an ideal ‘learning curve’ game. As you can see from the map above it was fought in the woods, interspersed with large clearings, and so it would get us used to the ‘fighting in woods’ part of the rules. Yes, I know. I need more trees – a lot more! Anyway, in this, Sean had two Divisions under Gen. Rosencrans, which were marching north towards Iuka up the Jacinto Road. Each division had two brigades, and a couple of gun batteries. Meanwhile, Gen. Price was heading south on the same road, with Little’s Division of four brigades. At the start, at around 5.30pm, the leading one was deployed in supported line, covering the division’s advance. When contact was made, Sean’s second division (Stanley’s) still wasn’t on the table. So, Brig. Gen. Hamilton’s division had to hold the line. The little hill above, where the leading brigade (Sanborn’s) are crossing was deemed ‘key ground’ – and therefore an objective. Like an idiot I put it at the edge of the table though, and had to stretch across as far as I could reach for much of the game! Sean quickly deployed there, and battle commenced! The opening shot was actually one of my Reb artillery batteries, shooting up the Jacinto road at the Union  batteries unlimbering on the hill. Of my four brigades, Martin’s – the one in ‘supported line’ above wheeled and headed for the Union troops on the hill, while the rest moved up to support them. For their part the Union troops held the hill, with their two gun batteries deploying on the left of Sanborn’s brigade.The first real clash of steel came when Martin’s brigade charged up the hill at Sanborn’s Union line. the Rebs were bounced though, and fell back slightly, disordered. The two Union guns also wrecked my battery on the road, so I wasn’t really getting off to a good start! Things got slightly better for the Confederates though, when Hebert’s brigade came up, and fire from Martin’s brigade drove Sanborn’s Union troops off the hill in disorder. They then wheeled to face the rest of the Union army coming up the road towards them. Meanwhile, Hebert’s brigade charged the guns on Martin’s flank. The divisional commander, General Little led the charge in person. This was a little rash, but it paid off – the guns were overrun.That meant that ‘Meeting House Hill’ was now firmly in Confederate hands. All I had to do was to hold it until darkness fell – just a few turns away.  A brief melee with Sullivan’s Union brigade deployed in line at the foot of the hill didn’t really work, but the next turn the Union troops were driven back, breaking formation to flow around the reinforcements – Stanley’s division, coming up the road.Both General Rosencrans and General Price were now at the front, exhorting their troops to greater efforts – and placing themselves in danger. Surprisingly though, neither of thew as killed in this short battle. By now the two smaller Confederate brigades were coming up to support the larger ones already in action, while Sullivan’s two brigades were doing the same. Deploying them though, would take time, especially among all those trees. However, by now it was twilight, and firing ranges dropped, while troops manoeuvred more cautiously. Both sides still had a two brigades which hadn’t even got into the fight, but it was becoming clear they wouldn’t achieve anything before the pitch darkness ended the battle – and the game. Both sides blazed away at each other, but again the woods hindered the effectiveness of all this musketry, while the guns  – we now had two batteries apiece – couldn’t really find somewhere to deploy. Those damned trees kept getting in the way!  Still, Sean managed to get one of Stanley’s two  batteries into action before nightfall. I didn’t get mine anywhere near the fighting. Eventually, night fell, and the firing slackened and stopped. Game over! We counted up the casualties, which were surprisingly light. In the end the Union lost 6 stands, and the confederates lost 5. So, neither side had reached 8 stands – the heavy casualties level – but it still meant a Victory Point to the Confederates. That, plus another for holding the ‘key position’ of the hill earned the Rebs a victory of sorts.This though, being a ‘learning curve’ game, wasn’t really the point. For us, Iuka was all about learning and having fun! 

Tags: Fire & Fury