Confederate Forces in the Border States in the West July 1861

 

Above : Planter and Slave Owner, former Governor of Missouri Sterling Price (see site footer) 

The first Confederate command to put in place on our Western Theatre Map belongs to Mexican War veteran and former Governor of Missouri Major-General Sterling Price. Despite Price being  a tobacco plantation owner and slave owner he originally and publicly opposed to Missouri leaving the Union when the Deep South seceded. All the while however Price who led the State's militia was conspiring in private to sieze the arsenal in St. Louis and to take Missouri out of the Union by force. This led to the initial collision with the forces of Union general Nathanial Lyons discussed in an earlier post. Lyons attacked Price's camp at the battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10 1861. Price Counter is ***(2-1) so initiative 2 and combat value of 1. I am using the historic leader counter rules with leaders appearing at their historic times. I guess if you root for the South you will want to Jackson to survive Chancelorsville and for the North for Reynolds to survive the first day of Gettysburg. 

Prices forces are based at Rolla and consist in counter terms of a regular 2-4 cavalry division and four M1-2 "points" of militia. On the V&B tabletop these will convert to two cavalry brigades (2-5) which will dismount as linear infantry with a single point being able to operate as skirmishers. Our miltia would begin life as a single M4-2 counter with 4,000 troops modelled as 2 x 4-2 brigades PT/NE with probably a DG attribute each and/or divisional smoothbore guns as appropriate in the same manner as the union forces (I will not set out my artillery equivalency for every force from now on but these will deploy as per my initial theory in line with confederate artillery strengths in the model V&B divisions and operate as designated gun "DG" attributes or on table artillery brigades or small batteries. 

The only other confederate deployments on MAP (which broadly covers  the border state theatre of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky are two more militia deployments of 2 counter points respectively (which will model on the tabletop as brigade bases 4-4 PT/NE possibly with "DG") at Nashville, Tennessee and New Madrid on the Mississippi. The confederates make a strategic mistake in the early war by entering Kentucky. Again the confederates will need to consider whether they should honour Kentucky neutrality or take the risk of entering the State which will push it firmly into the Union camp as I understand the rules.