Early June report is back and Late June 62 orders are ready for submitting.
Before I commence I should I'd like to say one thing about the way I play. I'm too long in the tooth now to be much concerned over winning or losing. Providing I dont make too much of a 'pigs ear' of things and I have fun - thats enough. I've long since got out of my system the need to worry about whether my troops have line of sight or can really do a flank attack from that angle (tabletoppers will know what I'm on about). This does lead me to play the game in what some might consider a peculiar way. I've already said in a previous post that I will not use the auto relocate facility for commanders but neither will I transfer divisions or brigades from one corp to another just because the one I wished to move has become 'inactive'. Its always seemed to me that if you dont like the 'inactive' feature of the game then disable it in the options menu rather than sidestep it ingame. I will though sometimes detach a division from a Corp for a particular mission or reassign it but it will be to somewhere else. Anyway thats just a useless bit of information on my style.
So back to the report. And to
Virginia My Corps, thankfully unmolested, made it to their designated positions, north of the Rappannoch. But would you just look at the weight of those Confederate forces shepherding us North.
Theres Stonewall, Bragg and Smiths Corps at Charlottesville. Phew how I so dont want to meet that force on a dark night in June. In the centre at Albermarle there is Granny with Smiths command (obviously moved from Fredricksburg) Replacing him at Fredrickburg we have a new Corp under Earl Van Dorn - he's been doing too well to be promoted a two star
I reckon I'm fortunate that neither Jackson nor any of the two corps with him were on assault mode for I have a piddling little cavalry regiment bedded down in Charlottesville that appears to be holding up at least 80,000 seasoned rebel troops. Dont think I'll survive this set of orders with them but its pleasing to see
My own battered corps have started to recover some losses and strength but nowhere near enough. Should Johnny Reb press on in force I'd be hard pushed to stop them. I think Franklins command on my left wing should be safe from attack this time around so I may stand him down from blue\red stance to blue\orange. Its a bit like DefCom1, 2 etc....I love it
I dont think that Earl Van Dorn's corp is strong enough to assault him and whilst he could be joined by Lee's army command and Smiths Corp it would require them to march.....so no co-ordinated attack on Stafford.
Its Jackson thats the real worry. With so much Confederate weight on my right wing and given his
'fast mover' trait I'm threatened with a quick dash by his corp to Winchester. I've only a motley Brigade holding that city. If Barksdale were to make the move and succeed then Harpers Ferry comes under immediate threat as does the possibility of a march across my rear, straight to Washington. If Winchester were to fall at this stage as I see it my only option would be to retreat to the Potomac. That would leave my opponent knocking on the Union front door.....not a pretty picture to conjure with.
So I'm going to make the only move I think I can. Grant is ordered to hold at Fauquier. Whipple and Berry are ordered to move to Clarke with Hamilton being commanded to move to Winchester. In all a shunt Northeast for three of my Corps. I dont like it but at this stage I believe my options to be severely limited. All I pray for is another conservative move by Barksdale.
There was a series of cavalry moves on the part of the Rebels into my territory in the east. Obviously to cut up rails but more importantly to gather valuable reconnaissance information as to the state of my reserves.....currently I have none
I managed to stop two of them dead in their tracks so to speak but three have managed to bypass my forward pickets. There is the 3rd Mississipi outside of Wilmington. the 1st Louisiana at Media (I've hit this unit twice but not managed to destroy it) and the 4th Black Horse Regiment which eluded me at Culpeper and is now at Chester. The one pleasing bit of information is that one of the enemy cavalry regiments that Barksdale sent tangled with my forward pickets at Manassas. The battle report showed him I had near on 149,000 troops in the region. That may give him food for thought about making any sort of attack on the front line this time even though he will easily pick up that my cohesion levels are still poor.
Further east in
West Virginia Well Porters Division arrived to strengthen the Covington defense but Nathan Forrest decided to try to retake Christiansburg. Fortunately for me General William F Smiths extremely small command, though severely outnumbered saw him off. Three cheers for Smiffy....hip hip...ah well perhaps not. Consequently I'm altering my plans slightly and sending Porter forward to Christianburg to join him. Who knows if things in this theatre keep going this way I might just might be able to force the Confederacy into diverting valuable resources from the east. To this end I'm also sending a couple of recovered cavalry units from Covington to Lynchburg. It still seems to be only garrisoned by a militia unit. I'm not intending to assault.....just seige for a turn and try to worry Barksdale a wee bit.
As you can see from the Tennessee\Kentucky image its a stand off for the time being, at least for me. I just dont have the troops available to head for Nashville. Neither do I have enough to secure my lines of advance and perhaps head for an easier target with Thomas's corp (such as Carthage)
Fosters force comprising of Humphreys 24th Division (off map) did take Lexington (good ol' boy) Sadly thats left me rather weak at Louisville so I'm moving a cavalry regiment from Louisville to garrison Lexington for the time being - yes I know its a poor use of cavalry - but needs must when the devil drives. Fosters command is ordered to return to Louisville.
That leads us nicely onto the situation slightly east.
X marks the spot where Polks 2 division corp was. So whats the little tinker up to now I wonder? Well my guesses are one of two....the big sweeping arrows (arn,t they pretty?) I think he's either headed for Nashville with perhaps the possibility of shunting either his command or Bonhams further east to counter my efforts in West Virginia.....
OR.....and this is the option I favour....he's moving on St Louis. I cant see the sense in having moved Cheathams division up the Mississippi to join him at Charleston just to move him back again...too much like country dancing that would be. So I favour St Louis. Fortunately for me in the St Louis area there is
'MUD MUD glorious MUD' everywhere so that will slow him down.
For my part I've come to a reluctant decision. I've held two divisons at Paducah for almost a year now. Doing diddly squat. I cant move forward and I've been loathe to fall back. Trouble is I need those divisions. So I'm moving a cavalry regiment from Cairo to Paducah it should take 9 days. If they manage it they can hopefully fire the depot next turn. From Keyes command I'm stripping Lyons division and starting to move him towards Bowling Green. It will take some time. When he arrives I'll be able to judge whether he'd be better employed staying in that area or moving further east Covington way. Keyes and his remaining division I'm sending to St Louis just incase I'm right about Polk. If I'm not it will not be too costly in terms of lost time fortunately transporting his command by river does not take that long.
Well this turn, against my better judgement, I decided to provide you with an image of the far west just to enable you to judge for yourself that little is happening. Moseby's turned up and there are one or two irritating cavalry units on the horizon but nothing too serious. With all of my rear towns and cities garrisoned I cant stop Barksdale from chewing up railroads but he sure does quickly run out of supplies.
So thats another turn done and dusted. What else happened? Well I lost a cavalry regiment at Dallas to Sibley who attacked with a mixed formation. Now that Milroy has offloaded the one infantry brigade and one artillery battery he was commanding at Cairo I'm shuffling him to join Butler at Buffalo as quickly as I can. It will however take him some 28 days.
This turn I've gone with Exceptional Taxes and 5% Bonds to enable me to pay a bounty of 3,000 per conscript. It should raise about 480.
Spending will be as follows
Reinforcements
Ohio
1 sharpshooter
4 x 2 infantry element and 1 6lb artillery Brigades
1 x 2 infantry element, 1 6lb artillery and 1 cavalry Brigade
Pennsylvania
1 x 2 infantry elements and 1 sharpshooter Brigade
1 x 2 infantry element, 1 6lb artillery and 1 cavalry Brigade
Connecticut
1 x 2 infantry element Brigade
New York
3 x 2 Infantry element Brigades
3 x 12lb Artillery batteries.
I'm also having to invest in 5 infantry, 2 elite infantry, 2 cavalry and 2 field artillery replacements
Intervention now stands at 84. I could use the 'Total Embargo' option again but as I have said previously I'm saving it till the figure ticks into the 90's