Confederate Order of Battle for the Campaign First Manassas

 

I have not managed to post at all on this website since before Xmas. Life has got away from me a little bit with my parents who are unwell and family. 

I hopefully have some blue water for a few months and can refocus on this project. The "state of play" is that it is turn 1 of August 1861. I am off on holiday to Mull with my wife and a few friends in the first week of May. A great target would be to get the first big battle done by then or have it ready to be soon after my return. 

I have now purchased 6 of the cheap plastic fold down tables. I do have a silver wedding anniversary next year coming up so hopefully they won't go to waste as bars or buffet tables if we had some sort of celebration here. Another huge order of roads, creeks and hills from my basic scenery supplier of choice S&S in the UK have arrived. They are superb and will do me a lifetime at all scales up to 15 mmm. I have also purchased a large amount of foam board for creating contours under my printed terrain cloths. 

I have started to plan out the roads and main creek from a number of resources. On the above photo Henry House Hill is the small hill in the in the rectangle of roads on the left hand edge of the table. 

I have had one supplier disappointment. Geek Gaming Mats printing machine broke (according to their website and information) and once it was replaced I made the exact same order of two more  "Autumn" fleece 6 x 4 mats so that I could make a huge 12 x 6 foot table. Unfortunately the new prints are coming up a different tone as you can see in the above picture. It's not terrible I know but I can see it and and it is offending my OCD ! I am investing in kit for a retirement of gaming but I don't have bottomless resources. It will be fine once the whole table is "dressed". If I add a little bit more to the look for each battle and continue to paint my bases I should be able to create some wonderful Civil War "soldier porn" of legendary Scott Mingus proportions ! This is all aspirational unless I get my head down and paint. They only have to paint themselves once and the scenery is super fun.

I think I just need to set aside 2 hours for three times a week and one of the weekend days for the rest of May. The rest of May and June should provide some good opportunities but I am conscious that the anniversary of creating this site may soon roll around with my having taken a year to game the first month. It really doesn't matter though. Back to the main event !  

Confederate Order of Battle 

The Confederates  at the historic battle were comprised of two "armies" which were made up in effect of single Corps sized components. By the 21 July 1861  the Army of the Shenandoah under Jo Johnston had managed to slip away from the Union forces outside Winchester and move across by rail to Manassas Junction. This was occurring from about 3 days before the battle with the final forces arriving as the battle was occurring. Famously Jackson arrived at Henry House Hill as General Bee's brigade was falling out. They rallied behind Jackson and the Virginians "standing like a Stone Wall" and the tide was turned. 

In my campaign Jo Johnston has been at Manassas Junction since the second week of July. Jo Johnston was the senior general and will take overall command of the forces on the day. I will allow however Beauregard also to act as a "corps" commander (without an HQ up to his counter command span 3). Like the Federals I will model each division counter as 2 or 3 "named" brigades and list the regiments as appropriate and provide each division with a divisional commander. 

The main difference I can see in the starting Corps permitted by the V&Bayonet campaign rules for the early war is that confederate Corps have a small cavalry reserve whereas Union corps have a small corps artillery brigade as a reserve (usually rifled pieces so parrot guns). Cavalry is modelled from counters in my campaign as separate purchases under the War Between the States boardame rules. My union Order of battle has provided them with 5 brigades of artillery (roughly ten batteries). I don't believe that the Confederates had less artillery per se. The difference in the model corps in the V&B campaign reflects the greater preponderance of Confederate cavalry in the early war which is already a "thing" in my game with the cheaper confederate cavalry points. I think I will allow confederate HQ's (only) not leaders) an artillery reserve but limit this to a SB-H PT brigade rather than rifled field artillery at this stage of the war. I am not purchasing artillery within the boardgame recruitment cycle so I just have to come up with something fair and representative. Overall union artillery was superior in numbers and effectiveness in the war as a whole as I understand it. Certainly in terms of "kit" and quality of ordanance until large amounts of Union material was captured. There was no criticism of confederate gun crews but they were hampered by inconsistent charges with a tendency to explode early and confederate battalions were known during the war to plead with the artillery not to fire over their heads ! 

Army of the Potomac & Army of the Shenandoah (operates as two small Corps on the tabletop) 

The big line from the Order of Battle and Unit Tracker for Manassas reads as follows. As the counters are not marked "0" against their PT status they have all clicked up to "1" in their time based progress from Green to Veteran status :-

C2409 Manassas Junction, Beauregard****3-3-1, Depot 6-6, 1stCorpsHQ, ST4, C1 (Stuart  Cavalry 2-5) I6 (3 x 4-4 PT NE) I7 (2 x 5-4 PT NE, 4-4 PT NE), I5 (4-4 PT NE, 2 x 3-4 PT NE), Corps Artillery 2-5 R-F , Divisional Artillery 2-5 SB-F PT, 2-5 SB-H PT and J.Johnston****3-3-1, I5 (4-4 PT NE, 2 x 3-4 PT NE) I5 (Stonewall), (Jackson "Stonewall" Brigade (50%)  6-5, 4-4 PT NE) Divisional Artillery 2-5 SH-H PT) (High morale 6-5 first stonewall brigade is allowed from House Divided campaign rules set up and now augmented within a mixed brigade).

So the confederates have 14 brigade stands in total and I think the Union 13. I am assigning Divisional commanders for the sake of the game effectively promoting some of the brigade commanders from the actual day to command groups of  around 3 brigades. 

Confederate Forces at Manassas 

Joseph E Johnston overall command - this essentially has no "game" effect on the tabletop 

Army of the Potomac  (technically a Corps) - P.G.T Beauregard - "1" 

Corps Artillery - Alexander 2-5 R-F PT - Purcell (Virginia) Artillery, Lynchburg (Virginia) Artillery

First Division - James Longstreet "1" 

 

We have a mini galaxy of confederate 2,3 and 4 stars appearing on the battlefield for this battle. I will take the time over coming posts to do my usual introductions but for now I will consign myself to a few pictures. I spent an inordinate amount of time introducing Lyons for the union for the battle of Rolla only to have him suffer the same fate as in real life ! Once elevated by General Lee a little later in the war Longstreet was one of the few commanders in the confederate roll call of the Army of Virginia not to come from that State. He was a Georgia man.  

Divisional Artillery - Shields - Washington (Louisiana) Artillery 2-5 SB S-H PT

Bonham First (Carolina) Brigade 4-4 PT NE, 11 th North Carolina, 2,3,7,8 South Carolina 

Milledge Bonham was appointed major general and commander of the forces of South Carolina at the outset of the war. He commanded the first brigade at Manassas. In 1862 he resigned his commission to take up his post as a representative for South Carolina in the Confederate congress. 

Ewell Second (Alabama/Louisiana) Brigade 4-4 PT NE 5,6 Alabama, 6,8 Louisiana 

Baldy Ewell is another star making his appearance. A regular army officer like many he resigned his commission at the outset of the war when his native Virginia seceded. Throughout the war Ewell petitioned the Confederate government for black slaves to be freed in return for service in the Army of the Confederacy. He was raised as a child in Manassas so should have known the ground well. In the actual battle his brigade was guarding one of the fords a long way downstream and did not see actual combat which was concentrated in and around Henry Hill. 

Jones Third (Mississipi) Brigade 4-4 PT NE 17, 18 Mississippi, 5th South Carolina 

Stuart's Cavalry 2-5 

Second Division - Jubal Early "1"

Jubal Early began life as the commander of the 24th Virginia Regiment but I will give him a one of the divisions for Manassas as he was promoted immediately after the battle. I will hand over command of his brigade to Kemper.

Divisional Artillery 2-5 SB-H PT

Kemper First (Virginia) Brigade 5-4 PT NE 7th Louisiana, 13th Mississippi, 7th and 24th Virginia 

Cocke Second (Virginia) Brigade 5-4 PT NE 8,18, 19 28 and 49 Virginia 

Wheat Third brigade 4-4 PT NE 1st Louisiana (not yet the crack "Wheat's Tigers" I don't believe who gave service in the valley but I will paint them as fancy zoaves for some variation from grey and butternut and a little elan, 4th South Carolina

Third Division - Nathan Evans "1"

Divisional Artillery 2-5 SB-H PT

Holmes first (Arkansas/Tennessee)  Brigade 4-4 PT NE 1st Arkansas, 2nd Tennessee

Garland second (Virginia) Brigade 3-4 PT NE 5th North Carolina, 1, 11, 17 Virginia 

Wade Hampton's South Carolina "Legion" third brigade 3-4 PT NE 

Whilst unassigned in the ORBAT for Manassas we will designate the Hampton Legion as a brigade and give it a run out at Manassas. The "Legion" was a fully independent force consisting of cavalry, artillery and infantry but for the purposes of the game we will assign it as a brigade to one of Beuregard's divisions. 

Army of the Shenandoah - technically a "corps" Joseph E Johnston "1"

Corps Artillery Pendleton 2-5 R F 

First Division Thomas Jackson "1"

I have promoted Jackson to command a division early for game purposes. He can gather the the forces to hold the "Stonewall" on Henry Hill. It is unclear as to whether Bee below was refering to a physical stonewall on the battlefield or describing Jackson as a stonewall. In any event the name stuck and was passed on from the man to the Brigade he led.

Divisional Artillery Rockbridge Artillery (Brokenbrough) 2-5 SB-F PT

First "Stonewall" Brigade (Virginia Cummings) 6-5 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, 33d Virginia

Second Brigade (Georgia) Gardner 4-4 PT NE 7th, 8th Georgia

Second Division Bartow "1"

Divisional Artillery (Culpepper/Staunton Virginia Artillery) Imboden 2-5 SB-H PT

First Brigade Bee (Mixed) 4-4 PT NE 4th Alabama, 11th 2nd Mississipi 

"Mississipi ! There is Jackson standing like a stonewall. Let us determine to die here and we will conquer ! Rally behind the Virginians". And the rest is history. 

Second Brigade Kirby Smith 3-4 PT NE 1st Maryland, 3d Tennessee 

Third Brigade Col. Fisher/Gibbons (tbc)  3-4 PT NE 6th North Carolina, 10th Virginia 

That concludes the Union and Confederate orders of battle. With 27 individual brigades to model I need to paint now something like 480 10 mm figures as well as an awful lot more artillery and caissons. This will actually break the back on the painting I need to do for a long while with the game. They will not paint themselves butI will try and both enjoy the exercise and listen to some more educational material on the War. 

See you in hell Billy Yank ! See you in hell Johny Reb !