Leader Revisions

[runyan99]

Actually, I have a few suggestions regarding the Confederate starting orders of battle.

1. Lower all rankings of Major Generals to Brigadier Generals. It is too easy to alleviate command problems. You should be limited to an army under Beauregard, and a corps under Johnston. You should be encouraged to merge the two, and balance forces to alleviate command penalties, without easily creating a second corps from the Potomac forces. Any commander with lowered command ratings should be on the verge of promotion, that one battle (i.e., 1st Bull Run) would have them promotable to new commands. This way, in order to reorganize forces you have to actually go through combat.

2. Some missing Brigadiers should be applied to brigade command if they actually served. For example, Longstreet should be in command of his brigade in 1861, yet does not appear until later. His rank should be brigadier, and appear in command of his brigade (he should have enough seniority to be quickly promoted once engaged in battle). Ewell, Jones and Early come to mind as others who should probably be deployed with their brigades. This may serve to improve the starting Confederate situation in lieu of Federals having Divisions.

I basically agree. Now that the DivHQ revision is more or less in place, I think it is time for a careful revision of the leader's ranks, availability dates, and such. Also possibly the number and times when divisions are available on both sides to be formed.

Pocus has indicated some interest to tackle this this week, so the intent of this thread is to focus the discussion in one place for the convenience of the devs.

Going down the Confederate chain of command, here are the changes I would make to the CSA leadership in the April '61 campaign.

Joe Johnston and P.G.T. Beuregard - No changes. Although both were I believe historically brigadiers at the time of Bull Run, and promoted to full general in August (Five new full generals event), for game purposes it is just as well to leave them as full generals from the start.

G.W. Smith - One of the first Confederate Major Generals, and J. Johnston's second in command during the Seven Days. Maybe okay as is, but probably needs his seniority as a major general bumped up from 51.

Stonewall Jackson - Should start as a brigadier attached to his brigade with a seniority of 3, so that one good battle makes him promotable. Add an event making him automatically promotable in early October '61.

Theophilus Holmes - Should start as a brigadier, not a major general, attached to his brigade if it is in the game (I forget). Oh, and his name is misspelled in the game as Theopilius, with an extra i.

M. Bonham - Same as Holmes above.

Richard Ewell - Ditto

Jubal Early - Ditto

D.R. Jones - Ditto

James Longstreet - Should start the game with his brigade when the Army of the Potomac appears, and perhaps automatically promotable in October '61.

More to come.

[runyan99]

Since the CSA would get these brigadiers with their brigades at start, the historical thing to do would be to give them 0 divisions initially, then give them their first 6 in early October '61, which seems to have been a time of promotions and reorganization in the army.

A few more

Simon Buckner - Buckner commanded a whole division at Donelson in Feb '62, and yet he is not available in the game until July of '62. Add Buckner to the '62 brigadiers pool in January.

Robert Hoke - Hoke wasn't a brigadier until January of '63 yet arrives in the game with the '61 pool, I believe. Move Hoke to '63 brigadiers pool.

Edward Porter Alexander - Another early arriver in the game who didn't even hold a combat command until Fredericksburg. Move Alexander's entry date from the '61 to the '63 pool.

Charles Winder - Another early arrival in the game, part of the '61 brigaders who wasn't promoted historically until March '62. Move Winder to the '62 pool.

Robert Ransom - Last I checked, this leaders name was still misspelled in the game as Ramson.

Does anyone want to take a look at the USA side? For one thing who is this new major general C. Hamilton? I did a google search, and I still cannot figure out who he is...

[Jabberwock]

Ben McCulloch should start in April '61 in Houston (since San Antonio is off map)

As I've noted elsewhere, Grant should start in Cairo in September '61, locked until November.

[runyan99]

Here are the three new corps commanders 1.05 added to the April setup.

D. Birney - David Birney wasn't historically promoted to brigader until... Feb '62. Remove Birney from the '61 pool and move him to the '62 pool as a brigadier.

R. Milroy - Robert Milroy was promoted to brigadier in early September '61, so remove him from this April '61 pool and add him back in september as a brigadier.

C. Hamilton - Still not sure who this guy is.

[Winfield S. Hancock]

Runyan,

I spent most of the weekend making a mod with many changes for Union leaders -- arrival dates, promotability to higher rank, changed combat values, and new characteristics.

It's late right now and I am going to bed, but I will try to post my many changes and rationale here for these changes sometime tomorrow. Suffice it to say, there were a number of ahistorical arrival dates I needed to change, and also there are a number of very obscure generals that I deleted in the USA leader event file, and replaced them with men like Orlando Willcox, Geary, AJ Smith, Joseph Mower, Alfred Terry, and many others who not only had divisional but also corps command during the war, but were for some reason not included in the file of leaders the Union gets every game.

By the way, Charles Hamilton commanded the 3rd Division, III Corps in the AOP during the Peninsula campaign, was relieved of command by McClellan, went west, commanded the 3rd Division of Rosecran's Army of the Mississippi at Iuka, then resigned from the Army in April 1863. Not much of a commander, I gave him the HotHead characteristic and low ratings in my mod.

[jimwinsor]

Since the CSA would get these brigadiers with their brigades at start, the historical thing to do would be to give them 0 divisions initially, then give them their first 6 in early October '61, which seems to have been a time of promotions and reorganization in the army.

A few more

Simon Buckner - Buckner commanded a whole division at Donelson in Feb '62, and yet he is not available in the game until July of '62. Add Buckner to the '62 brigadiers pool.

Robert Hoke - Hoke wasn't a brigadier until January of '63 yet arrives in the game with the '61 pool, I believe. Move Hoke to '63 brigadiers pool.

Edward Porter Alexander - Another early arriver in the game who didn't even hold a combat command until Fredericksburg. Move Alexander's entry date from the '61 to the '63 pool.

Charles Winder - Another early arrival in the game, part of the '61 brigaders who wasn't promoted historically until March '62. Move Winder to the '62 pool.

Does anyone want to take a look at the USA side? For one thing who is this new major general C. Hamilton? I did a google search, and I still cannot figure out who he is...

"Hamilton, Charles Smith (1822-1891)

An ambitious officer, Charles Hamilton was not above using political pressure to gain advancement. A West Pointer (1843) and Mexican War veteran wounded at Molino Del Ray, Hamilton returned to civil life in 1853 as a farmer and flour manufacturer. He served for six days as a colonel, 3rd Wisconsin, before being appointed to the first batch of brigadier generals on May 17, 1861.

His later assignments included: commanding 3rd Brigade, Banks Division, Army of the Potomac (October 8, 1861-March 13, 1862); commanding 3rd Division, 3rd Corps, Army of the Potomac (March 13-April 30, 1862); commanding 3rd Division, Army of the Mississippi (June 18-October 1862); major general, USV (September 19, 1862); commanding 3rd Division, Army of West Tennessee (October 24-30, 1862); commanding Left Wing, 13th Corps (November 1-December 18, 1862); commanding Left Wing, 16th Corps (December 22, 1862-April 1, 1863); Army of the Tennessee; and also temporarily commanding 16th Corps, Army of the Tennessee (January 10-February 5, 1863).

During the siege of Yorktown when McClellan removed Hamilton from command of his division, tremendous political pressure was brought to bear on the commander of the Army of the Potomac. He stood firm however, and Hamilton was dispatched to Pope's Army of the Mississippi. After a credible showing at the battle of Iuka, Hamilton, on the first day of Corinth, failed to take advantage of an exposed Confederate flank. He made up for this mistake, at least in part due to vague orders, the next day with a flank attack. That winter Hamilton started lobbying for command of the 17th Corps and privately wrote his senator that Grant, who had apparently pushed his promotion to major general, was, in fact, a drunkard. Grant complained to Washighton of Hamilton's maneuvering to take over McPherson's Corps, although he did not know of the drunkard charge. In April, 1863, Hamilton, under pressure, submitted his resignation, which was accepted on the 13th. He returned to Wisconsin and resumed his manufacturing career and was subsequently appointed U.S. marshal by President Grant."

[runyan99]

I spent most of the weekend making a mod with many changes for Union leaders -- arrival dates, promotability to higher rank, changed combat values, and new characteristics.

It's late right now and I am going to bed, but I will try to post my many changes and rationale here for these changes sometime.

Please do.