Research for the Battle of Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri - Detailed Order of Battle - Tabletop Terrain

 

Above : Rolla Courthouse today (from a public site on the City of Rolla) 

I am paused at the end of phase 1 7/61 in my game creating a tabletop and the final units for the battle of Rolla. This is my early alternative to the Battle of Wilson's Creek. 

 I give full credit to Wikipedia without which I would not get very far for quick research. I need to understand how to get access to the National Archives of the United States and State Archives - I prefer prime sources ! In particular I am really keen to get my hands on a copy of a map of the Central Counties of Missouri from about this time. I expect it was created to assist with the railroad survey. I love all this history. I am from the UK but it feels like "our" history as well. Every family of British origin in the United Kingdom has forgotten parts of it scattered all over the world. Fully a third of all soldiers fighting in Civil War armies were first generation immigrants. British Immigrants had been streaming to the Colonies and then the United States in increasing numbers for two hundred and fifty years. The Mid-West and its new frontier for settlement was a focus for migration from Central Europe and in particular Germany and Scandanavia as well. That's reflected in the Union armies of the Mid-West in particular. 

So I have been having fun researching the place of a battle that never happened. For this first battle of my campaign it feels as if it was meant to be. Historically Price's forces actually withdrew further to the South-West around Wilson's Creek and Sigel's 3rd Missouri Regiment (the beloved German American General  - "We fight Mit Sigel") took possession of the town bloodlessly on  3 June 1861 after the fall of Fort Sumter in May. 

The town was strategically important for the fight for Missouri as it is the terminus or extent of what was to become the South-West Pacific Railroad from St. Louis to the West Coast at the outset of the War. The Phelp's County Courthouse, which was completed in 1860 was a Union hospital serving casualties from the battles of Wilson's Creek in August 1861 and Pea Ridge the next year. The town was host to a concentration of up to 20,000 Union troops. As well as the railroad  from St Louis there was a road which ran from St. Louis to Rolla which is now the interstate I44. On my campaign map the railroad peters out as it did in 1861. 

Rolla is located in Phelp's County Missouri, a County that was only created in November 1857. The first farms were settled along the rivers in this area in 1819. The town itself was named on the suggestion of one George Coppedge from South Carolina for his home town of  "Raleigh".  The townsfolk agreed after a discussion but only if it could have a simpler spelling - "Rolla". A dispute over which town would be the seat of Phelp's County between  newly arrived "Easterners" in Dillon and "Westerners" in Rolla was settled in the confederate leaning "Westerners" favour by the Missouri legislature in November 1860.

As Fort Sumter fell the townsfolk came out for the confederacy. The area's circuit judge James McBride left to take up a position as a General under Sterling Price. Outside the courthouse a group of men tore down the star spangled banner and raised a confederate flag stitched by the women of Rolla. The mob then went to  the offices of the Rolla Express, a paper owned and run by a union sympathiser Charles Walter and forced him to stop his presses. The  belligerent Southern mob then patrolled the town forcing Union sympathisers to leave. 

I am not sure I need too much of an alternate history - we have fertile newly confederate ground for the Missouri State Guard to defend ! Sterling Price together with the circuit Judge James Mcbride does not leave but begins to take up positions to protect the town. Union sympathisers turned out of their homes  begin to arrive in St Louis. Lyons decides to move before Sterling Price can be reinforced from Arkansas and Louisiana to the South . Lyons moves his men by railroad to the next stop on the railway at St James. His Federal force of 4,000 cavalry and infantry is just ten miles from the town and begins to march to seize back control of the crucial railway terminus. The fight is on for the gateway to the rest of Missouri and in particular Springfield to the South West. 

So both sides want the railroad terminus. Price to maintain a way to move troops toward St. Louis to physically re-take Missouri and Lyon's to begin to stage and build logistics in order to eject the Confederates from the State altogether. The battle for Missouri will begin 6 weeks earlier than occurred historically. It "feels" historical and thank you whoever wrote the description on Wikipedia of events in Rolla at the outbreak of the Civil War. 

Order of Battle and Painting Progress 

I have time to "flesh out" some colour  on the orders of battle I am completing for the tabletop for the two sides at Rolla. I am going to give the second infantry brigade to another lawyer turned soldier William Slack rather than James McBride. Slack has a good story. 

Confederates 

The game counter line in the tracker  should now reads as follows :-

A2014 Rolla, Price***2-1, C2, M4 (Weightman 4-4 PT NE,  Slack 4-4 PT NE,  Cawthorn Cav 2-5 SS PT, Rives Cavalry 2-5 SS PT,  Guibor 2-5 SB-F PT)

I am assuming that the battle is too early for any State regiments to have arrived from the "Army of the West" across Arkansas and Louisiana. Price will have at his disposal the Missouri State Guard and other locally raised confederate volunteer Regiments. I will not treat Militia counter bases as "militia" under the V&B rules (i.e. apply a disorder marker from the outset)  :- 

Price Command 

Price ** Divisional Commander - Exhaustion 5 

(1) Militia Brigade Base 1

Col. Richard Hanson Weightman - Missouri State Guard Infantry Brigade (1st-4th) M4  [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] PT NE

Above : Weightman (see site footer)

Colonel Hanson-Weightman was killed at Wilson's Creek. 

(2) Militia Brigade Base 2

Brigadier General William Slack commanding Various Missouri  Infantry Regiments  M4 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] PT NE

Slack was lawyer and member of the Missouri General Assembly. He had served as a young captain in the Mexican War and was appointed a Brigadier General of Militia to command one of the small "divisions" of the Missouri militia at Wilson's Creek in Price's hotch-potch army of 12,000 men. Slack distinguishes himself at Wilson's Creek and is in the thick of the action buying time for the confederate army to organise itself after the initial assault and receiving a wound to the hip. He is then appointed by the confederacy to the command of the second Missouri Brigade in the "Army of the West". He dies on 21 March 1862 aged 45 from a further wound  sustained at the battle of Pea Ridge on March 7 1862. He can lead my second Missouri Militia infantry base at the Battle of Rolla. 

(3) Militia Cavalry Brigade Base 1 

Colonel James Cawthorn - Missouri State Guard Cavalry Brigade - M5 [S] [S] PT NE - Armed with muzzle loading carbines (treat as muskets with 2" range). 

2 and 3 strength point cavalry are treated as Light Cavalry under rule 23.1.1 of Volley and Bayonet RtG. Lights Cavalry is on a massed base initially. The bases can break down into cavalry skirmish bases. A massed Light Cavalry base dismounts as a linear infantry base. Skirmish Cavalry bases dismount as skirmish infantry bases. 

(4) Militia Cavalry Brigade Base 2

Colonel Benjamin Rives commanding various Confederate Militia Cavalry Regiments including the Rives, Majors, Browns and Campbell's cavalry  - M 5 PT [S] [S ] (see rules above) 

There are two artillery batteries in the Missouri State Guard and Militia regiments - Bledsoe's and Guibor's Battery. I will combine them but give the command to Captain Guibor, another veteran of the Mexican War who was originally arrested in the Camp Jackson affair (the attempt to secure the Missouri state arsenal for the confederacy). After being paroled and ignoring this on a technicality Guibor then commands his Missouri battery and fights a long and distinguished war. Guibor is wounded, captured at Vicksburg and fights on to eventually surrender in South Carolina with the remnants of Joe Johnston's army in March 1865. 

(5) Guibor -Missouri State Artillery 2-5 SB-F PT 

My Bases for the Confederates then now all have names. 

Union - Lyons Command - Exhaustion 5 

Lyons*** -  Corps Commander 

The game counter line in the tracker should now read :-

A.      Lyons ** C1, I3 (Sigel 3-5, Andrews M5 3-5, Sturgis Cav 2-5 SS, Totten Art 2-5 SB-F PT 

(1) Infantry Brigade 1 

Franz Sigel 1st and 2nd US Infantry & 3rd and 5th Missouri Infantry M5 [ ] [ ] [ ]  

(2) Infantry Brigade 2 

Lt Colonel George Lippitt Andrews 1st Missouri Infantry, 2nd US Infantry M5 [ ] [ ] [ ] 

(2) Cavalry Brigade 1 

Sturgis 1st US Cavalry & 2nd US Dragoons M5 [S] [S] (Treat as Light Cavalry rule 23.1.1 V&B RtGlory - Breach loading carbines) 

Sturgis was a cavalry officer in the Mexican war and served in the cavalry throughout the Civil War until eventually having his command routed by Nathan Bedford Forest at the Battle of Brice's Mill in 1864, 

(3) Artillery Brigade 

Captain James Totten 2nd US Artillery Brigade & Backofs Missouri Light Artillery - SB-F PT  M5 [ ] [ ] 

Totten was an artillery officer in charge of the arsenal at Little Rock and was surrounded and captured at the outbreak of the war. Transferring to Lyons command he remained in command of the 2nd US Artillery. He was noted as having a colourful style of cursing while giving orders to his battery, so much so that bystanders would form to listen to the show ! He was commanding a siege battery at Mobile when the war ended in 1865. He remained in the US Army but eventually was court martially in 1870 for insubordination and conduct unbefitting an officer. He died in Missouri in 1871. I am assuming he was a big drinker. Totten can lead the US Artillery in the West for now ! 

Table Top 

Rolla itself was not a large town in 1861. There is the road and railway to place on the board leading away to the North-East towards the Union staging point at St James and on to St. Louis. Any map of the area does not suggest anything major in terms of hills - the Ozarks are away to the South. There are no large areas of woods or wilderness areas. I will "dress" the battlefield in gentle hardscrabble farmland and small woods with crops appropriate for July. Given the size of the two forces a 6 x 4 table should be more than adequate. It is the West so it will be less manicured than say South Carolina or Virginia which had been populated by whites for over two hundred years. 

There is no need for any complicated RtG random system plan. Neither side is possessing sufficient commanders or units to attempt anything complex. The Confederate forces will deploy to defend Rolla itself and the Union side aim will be to expel them from Rolla and to secure the Confederate line of communication back to Springfield. 

Other Battle Rules 

I am using the Volley and Bayonet ACW campaign rules for battles. Relevant rules are as follows :- 

The battle will commence at 1 D6 plus 5 am in July and end at 8 pm. The Union forces will appear at 7 am at the LOC in March Column and deploy. 

The side in posession of the battlefield will recover 2/3s of their lost strength points. Strength points will be rounded up when being transposed back to the counter strength. The actual bases can be amended accurately on the roster.  An orderly withdrawal with a rearguard will allow a retiring army to recover 1/2 of its losses including artillery. An army that retires in disorder or rout will lose all of its artillery and  only recover 1/3 of its strength point losses. 

Finally after the battle each side will be able to test for battlefield promotions. I will apply the principles in the Volley and Bayonet ACW campaign rules for promotions from Green to Veteran and Veteran to Crack. The Green to Veteran promotion can affect all of the stands in a single division counter. The division must have either taken or given casualties.  Crack promotions would affect only one stand whose division would need to engage in combat and become exhausted without also suffering a loss of morale. So this in theory could apply to Lyons command at this stage.  Crack divisions can also be created through a reoccurring promotion on a quarterly basis. Two counters in each army can also receive a promotion to veteran through training after each phase. It does seem that "Green" status is quite easy to lose after the first battle but as noted I am not applying this for Militia or garrison units.