ACW river crossing battle

The other day we ran another ACW battle using rank & File rule set,this time using the random troop tables provided in the rules to find out what morale type our troops were, we picked the 1862 East part of the war. The aim of the battle was to control the bridges at the end of tne allotted time. Tneir was also a possibility there could be other crossing points on the river, if a 6 was rolled if any troops were in base contact with the river it would be a ford otherwise the river was uncrossable.

I aimed to control the central bridge and the right hand bridge with my mostly veteran and regular forces and the cavalry and green troop brigade were to contest the left hand side bridge. After deployment my dads unions had a similar goal with him concentrating most of his forces on his right side bridge and central one, the union cavalry opposed their left hand side bridge.

The battle proved a gruelling affair with both armies taking heavy casualties as a fierce fire fight took place over the crossing points. A ford was found late in the game by my Reb cavalry and a unit of Rebel infantry managed to cross it onto the union side but it was to have no effect on the games outcome. By the end of the game we both held a bridge each and with a late move by my dads Union cavalry the right side bridge was contested. However my Green brigade was close to withdrawing from the field after a right back and forth fire fight over the left hand side bridge.

The Left bridge which probably saw the most fierce fighting over the game.

The central bridge was held early in the game by my Rebels and despite the unions best efforts to take the bridge I was to hold onto it for the remainder of the game.

The line Rebel unit which managed to ford the river. It managed to charge into the union troops in the hill in the hope of turning the unions flank but after a few rounds of h/h combat it was forced to withdraw

The wooden bridge on tne right flank held by my Vetran Texans was to be contested late in tne game by the union cavalry as the Texans failed go drive them away with a poor round of shooting.

The Union troops finally capture the bridge on left after pushing tne Rebel troops back. Tne union battery had caused some heavy casualties on tne Reb infantry once they got deployed at close range.

My confederate artillery had been decimated during the game and this was all that remained by the end.

The middle bridge held by tne Rebs at tne games conclusion despite one last Aust by tne union brigade.

My hospital wagon was busy during the game as two commanders were shot leading the Rebel attacks on the bridges. Another Rebel commander was killed during the game. It proved to be a tough scenario for either side to win but both sides fought hard to try secure the victory which eluded them both. Once again the game ran smoothly usurping the Rank and file rule set with very little need to stop the game to check rules etc.