Up to Late May 1863,
I completely misjudged what Murtagks would do this turn, but things are nonetheless going rather well for the Confederacy.
In Virginia Murtagks is concentrating his stacks; a sign that something may be about to happen, but as of yet nothing has happened. On the high seas I am sinking just shy of 100 Money a turn and about half that in WS which is pretty great.
In the West there has been action.
Milroy/Smith with the Union rearmost Corps turned around and chased JE Johston back into Missouri
- 84_Out of Illinois.png (2.03 MiB) Viewed 13284 times
This is fine. I'll play that game indefinitely to tie down his five divisions with two of mine.
ABSJ finally scored a victory against a retreating Sherman.
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I was hoping to mop up in this area whilst Grant and Beauregard maneuvered around Nashville, but Murtagks surprised me here.
Instead of securing the north of the river, beating my fleet and then trying to cutoff/take Nashville and Ft Donelson Grant simply leapt across the river with his huge stack.
- 82_Grant_Move.png (2.99 MiB) Viewed 13284 times
I was hoping to stop him with my gunboats, but I guess it doesn't quite work that way. I think one may need to be in position before the movement starts.
This caused me great concern. I know that Beauregard wouldn't gain a huge amount of entrenchment around Nashville before the start of the battle so Jubal Early got back on the rails to go to Murfreesboro to keep Nashville's supply line open.
Murtagks surprised me yet again here by moving across the Tennessee river into western Tennessee leaving my entire Army of the Tennessee on the eastern side with the crossing blocked by his ironclad fleet.
This clearly put my two divisions in Western Tennessee in a horrible position. I chose to boat them out in a staggered fashion to rescue them since I knew Murtagks' fleet was out of the way.
Murtagks' move was very bold and unexpected, but also extremely risky.
The first problem was that Early could move straight back into Kentucky and destroy more than half of Murtagks' cavalry and retake bowling Green in the process.
- 85_Cavalry Gone.png (2.2 MiB) Viewed 13282 times
The main problem however is a logistical one.
This is the situation that these moves leave the Western Theater in.
- 86_Western_Tennessee.png (3.37 MiB) Viewed 13282 times
Forrest can now destroy his second new supply depot in Kentucky, Cairo is mine, I have destroyed the depot and my partisans are now raiding Illinois and Indiana.
this means that Grant is completely cut off from friendly supply sources.
My spare units are converging on the now-fortified Memphis, Richard Taylor can dig in on Cairo and Beauregard should make it next to impossible for Grant to return to Eastern Tennessee/Kentucky. This boxes Grant in on all sides.
His options are now to quickly smash one of my defensive positions whilst he has the supply and combat power or to retreat along the river towards Indiana and Ohio.
If he opts for the former I hope to beat him in a string of decisive battles and destroy the Union's Western armies. If he opts for the latter I will try to inflict as many casualties as possible during his retreat and he will be back where he started in 1861.