[color="Red"]Turn 15: Early November, 1861:[/color]
Milroy vanishes, Beauregard moves too slowly!! (Well this was very unfortunate. I just went for the big left hook and completely missed on this one. I failed to notice that Soundoff had enough MC in Stafford to rail out of the region and escape. Milroy now sits in Hampton Roads. Great move by Soundoff there. But the depot is still intact.
Union forces pushed back at Battle of Lexington!! (Morrell, the "dissapearing division" moved from Strasburg, through Harrisonburg, to Lexington I believe in an effort to link up with Hurlbut in Covington. Holmes and Ruggles held their ground in the hills around Lexington. Losses were relatively equal. Morrell lost around 930, Holmes around 640. Before this battle, the Laurel brigade engaged Morrell causing considerable casualties as well. Morrell's in pretty bad shape as far as I can tell.)
Thousands of Yankees approach Richmond from the south!! (Like I mentioned before, Milroy was able to escape and now sits with Hooker on the Penninsula. There are 3 divisions between the two of them...probably around 23,000 troops.)
Winder stopped cold at Vincennes!! (I took out the entire garrison except for its last militia regiment. This was quite unfortunate, at least I'll be able to tear up the rails.)
Confederate gunboats withdrawal in face of Union Ironclads!! (My small fleet in the confluent is pushed back. Now Soundoff controls that vital water cross-roads. This could be in preparation for an advance on Henry and Donelson, no telling though.)
Watie approaches St. Louis from the north!! (Stand Watie is doing a pretty good job burning and breaking, but he's not causing enough trouble for Soundoff to take notice. I hope to change that soon.)
Confederate States hold first election!! (not much, but a welcome boost to my National Morale. Now I need to win a major battle and swing things more heavily in my favor.)
Orders...again splitting the east into two segments...first in the Richmond/Fredricksburg district.
Alright, alright. Well, here's the good news. I don't think Soundoff is aware that I have two full divisions of reinforcements en route to the operational vicinity around Richmond. The bad. I have neither an intact railhead in Fredricksburg, nor enough rail points to move the entire A.O.P by train. So...this leaves me with little choice but to try and react to what I think Soundoff is doing.
I had one very keen curiosity when I looked at the map this turn. What on earth is Soundoff doing with his Army HQ there in Maryland?? After staring at all the possibilities for about 10 minutes...I arrived on two conclusions. Since winter is close at hand...He's probably looking to get a Depot set up somewhere close to Richmond the two most likely locations are at Tappohannock and Williamsburg. I expect Soundoff will take Banks by boat to either of these locations.
So, in order to counter this move I've decided to send Beauregard with three divisions under Magruder, Longstreet and Bee, to West Point. There they will be joined by the newly arrived divisions of Bragg and Hardee (who were transferred from the west via teleport this turn). From this position I can attack Soundoff in either Williamsburg or Tappohannock, I can defend from an attack from either of these locations...and lastly I'll still have a rail link to Richmond if somehow I end up out of position. All told, there should be around 30,000 troops and 150 guns meeting in West Point.
Johnson is detached from the army with Jackson's strong division in tow and left to deal with McDowell and Hamilton, who I expect have closer to 20,000 troops between them as is not shown in the screenie.
G.W. Smith is ordered to defend and retreat. He is heavily outnumbered and will more than likely lose if attacked, but I don't want to give the area away without a fight...perhaps bloody Hooker a bit before a more large scale engagement takes place later on.
Huger is ordered to march west to Suffolk and prevent himself from being cutoff in Norfolk. This is to counter any attempt Milroy might make at crossing the James.
Lastly, Whiting and the cavalry are ordered west on a path that would protect the rails from Richmond to Culpepper. Whiting will attack Schulz if he can catch him. He'll be joined by the Laurel Brigade in Charllottesville.
Alright, in the western sector:
As I was evaluating the turn I was at first quite discouraged by what I saw on the map, but after taking a closer look at the supply filter I noticed that Morrell's division was WAY low on supply. Considering this, I can only surmise that if even active this turn...Soundoff will try and either move Morrell back down the valley and setup winter quarters in Winchester...or he will make a mad dash for Charlottesville to pick up the much needed supply.
In either case, I'm sending Holmes and his bloodied troops by rail to block Morrell in Staunton. This will also put Holmes in a better position to receive supply from Lynchburg once winter fully sets in.
I also expect that after my move into Christianburg with Kirby Smith, Soundoff might try to cut him off from Virgnia with Hurlbut. to counter a move like this I've ordered Smith to withdrawal east and set up a defence around Salem, VA. I've also orded Bushrod Johnson and about 6,000 reinforcements east from Knoxville to deal with Blenker in Christianburg. Hopefully I can force a retreat before the end of the year.
In the West:
The only thing noteworthy here is to mention how I plan to escape with Winder's troopers. He was in some pretty hard fighting around Vincennes and won't be sticking around to wait for a response from McClellan or whatever other forces Soundoff might have hiding further north.
I've split his regiments up. one regiment and the artillery will stay with Winder. The rest will take separate paths back to Rome, IN where hopefully I'll be able to reform and retreat back into Kentucky. I will be blowing the rails though.
The rest of the theater is playing out pretty quietly. It's obvious Soundoff is concentrated heavily on Virginia right now.
In the Far West:
Pretty cut and dry. Watie will move south to take out the rails around St. Louis. If anyone comes out to meet him, he'll hopefully put up a good fight.
Van Dorn's reinforcements are finally finished and marching north to join him. As you can see, the MC situation in Missouri is a total cluster f*%k. This will certainly make things interesting in the next campaign.
Reinforcements:
Nothing much, just some more militia in Arkansas and a couple of cavalry regiments in North Carolina.
SO
Where will Banks and the Union Army of the Potomac end up?? Can Holmes trap Morrell in Staunton?? Will Winder escape Indiana?? Stay tuned...
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) operations at the scale of a grand campaign.
