Battle of Sabine Crossroads 1864

Maj. Gen. Banks

Having, almost literally, stumbled over the box containing my 15mm ACW figures I thought it was high time I got them back on the table.  So I put together a small game for the club based on the Battle of Sabine Crossroads (or Mansfield if you prefer) from April 8th 1864.

I had to make a few slight adjustments to the Union order of battle to deal with the fact I don't actually have any Union cavalry - so the lead cavalry division suddenly became infantry but otherwise I tried to stick to a good representation of the forces using the original Fire and Fury rules.  I had the Union deploy historically but allowed the Rebels a freer hand.

Lt. Gen. Taylor

The Union forces under Major General Nathaniel P. Banks had been advancing up the Red River. They split their joint Army and Navy force and marched towards Mansfield up a single track through the woods. Recognising the enemy’s weakened position, the Confederates under Lieutenant General Richard Taylor had selected the Sabine Crossroads to meet them. Deploying their troops in the woods along the edge of the open ground between the Sabine Crossroads and Pleasant Grove to hide their exact strength and disposition from the enemy the Confederates had to beat the enemy and capture their wagon train to halt their advance.

Brigadier General Albert L. Lee commanding the Union advance division found the Confederates in position overlooking the open ground between the Sabine Crossroads and Pleasant Grove.  He sent a messenger back to General Banks but Bank chose to disbelieve Lee and ordered him to continue his advance.  So our battle commenced with the entire Confederate force deployed at the end of the woods and the two Union brigades from Lee's Division having taken positions in the open ground in front of them.  The Union 4th Division, XIII Corps under Colonel William J. Landram was still in march column advancing up the track towards Pleasant Grove with the remainder of Banks' men someway back amongst the massive wagon train which was blocking the road.

The Confederates saw the substantially outnumbered the lead Union Division and so charged out from the woods towards the Union lines.

Bagby's Cavalry charging Dudley's Union Brigade

Randal's Confederate Brigade assaulting Lucas' Brigade

Mouton's Division advance in the centre

Clearly some of the Union troops were taken by surprise as Dudley's Brigade only managed a desultory fire at the incoming Confederate cavalry and the ensuing melee saw the Union troops thrown back and the Rebels breaking through toward the advancing Union column.  The Union right managed to put more resistance and threw the initial Confederate brigade back.

Fortunately the Confederate cavalry didn't have the legs to hit the Union infantry column which gave them time to deploy.  After their initial rebuff Walker's Texas infantry Division regrouped whilst the Union infantry took the chance to fall back towards Pleasant Grove.

The Rebels regroup for a second attack

Bagby's Brigade charge into Vance's infantry Brigade

Bagby's Rebel horse weren't so lucky this time and Vance's Union infantry fired a decent volley before the cavalry charged home and managed to see them off.  But Lucas' Brigade wasn't so fortunate when Walker's Texans assaulted them a second time.

With Vance's Brigade having checked the Union cavalry it gave time for Emerson's Brigade to form line and cover the retreat of Lucas's rather battered infantry.  Then the fight for Pleasant Grove began.

With Landram's Division hard pressed defending Pleasant Grove, Union reinforcements in the shape of Brigadier General Robert A. Cameron and the 3rd Division of XIII Corp began to advance alongside the wagon train.  But they had a long way to travel up through the woods and the Confederate attack wasn't slowing.

With the sheer weight of numbers telling Landram's Division bravely fought on and, despite having been outflanked by Rebel cavalry they were holding up a large part of the enemy infantry.

The remnants of Dudley's Brigade, who had fled from the first Confederate cavalry charge,  were being pursued by the cavalry and decided to turn and make a fight of it.

A devastating volley checks the cavalry

But with the Union centre shrinking this small act of defiance wasn't going to be enough.

Finally the weight of Confederate fire and numbers took its toll and the grim determination of Vance's Brigade couldn't hold them.  The Union troops fell back but were outflanked by the advancing Rebel cavalry and were caught in an unenviable position.

With the lead Union Divisions crushed and the Rebels pillaging the front of the wagon train it looked like it was all over for the Union.

But finally hope was in sight as Brigadier General William H. Emory and the 1st Division of XIII Corp began arriving and forming up behind the stream.

Emory's Division arrive and form up

Seeing the danger the Confederates formed themselves up on the ridge overlooking the Union position and dared the Federals to advance!

The Confederate right

The Confederate left

With battle lines drawn and dusk beginning to fall the Union left advanced towards the Rebel lines.

A fight began on the Union left and the Rebels put up a hell of a fight with charges being made by both sides.  Waul's Confederate Brigade almost single handedly held up the main Union attack.  And with the Confederate cavalry having regrouped and advancing around the flank of the Union their position began to look slightly precarious; however, the light failing allowed the Union troops to withdraw leaving the Confederates to celebrate their victory.

WW2 Weekend at Dover Castle

We popped down to Dover Castle over the weekend to see their WW2 themed weekend.  They had quite a number of re-enactors and various events including a rather entertaining little skirmish.  Here are a few photos:

A German medical unit

An RAF contingent with a Spitfire

A few improvised defences covering the entrance

The skirmish was set up on the green in front of the entrance to the inner bailey.  The premise was that a small British recce unit had become lost and was ambushed by a German patrol:

Sitting duck?

Incoming!

Returning fire

The Germans advance

Achtung!

Jerry gets his comeuppance!

The Lardies Summer Special is here!

The latest Special from the Lardies has just landed.

Coming in at 130 pages, it's packed with Lard centred goodness including 20 scenarios, 7 sets of rule additions or expansions and and several articles.  A full contents list is on the product page on their website.

Whilst it's a potential for more distraction, I've always found these specials an excellent read and pretty decent value for the content you get.

So if you're interested in any of the Two Fat Lardies products get over to their site and download the special - it's only £6 for the PDF!

1st Corps - Erhhart E-V/4

I just spotted that 1st Corps have announced the release of the Erhhart E-V/4 armoured car for Partizan:

This looks particularly interesting as it would be useful for my stalled WW1 Eastern Front project and also the interwar German revolution project which I have been thinking about starting.

I've been thinking about their Minerva armoured car to go with my Brigade Models Belgians but the separate crew only come with the later Adrian helmets and so I'd need to do some head swaps or modify some other figures.

Covenanters - Advancing

As I mentioned in my project update, I have been continuing (albeit slowly) with my Montrose project. Here is my first Covenanter foot unit:

As with my Royalist units the figures are from Redoubt Enterprises and the flag is from Project Auldearn 1645 (which I would highly recommend visiting if you are at all interested in this period!).

More to follow as I finish the Covenanter infantry and then it will be onto the horse, artillery and the officers.

Wargames Weekend - The Photos

Project Progress

It was back at the beginning of February that I last did a project update so I thought it was high time for another one.  Progress has been a little patchy largely due to the annoying intrusion of real life with working being rather hectic which, mixed with a never ending stream of decorating, has left me with much less time for gaming.

28mm French and Indian Wars

As you may have notice from previous posts I plumped for the North Star figures to start this project off.  Having cleaned them up they're currently away for painting and so I won't see those back for a while.
As you may have notice from

I picked up one of the 4Ground pre-finished laser cut MDF buildings at Salute and will be putting that together some time in the next few weeks - so expect a post on the results.

Other than that I'm afraid I haven't really made to much other progress on this one but I suspect that once the figures come back you'll see a resurgence of interest!

28mm Early WW2 Poland

I do have a bit of progress to report here - having pulled together a roughly platoon sized force of Warlord Games' figures (actually it's an understrength platoon as they were huge!) they're now in the process of being based.  The hold up with these has been the lack of suitable bases for some of the support weapons - something I have now sorted - and the desire to get my Montrose project actually finished!

I've still got an anti-tank gun and the TKS to assemble and paint which may take a little while but I'm hoping these will be ready to hit the table when Lenin next visits in the summer.

28mm Montrose

So after having made some notable progress with the Highlanders and Irish foot things stalled a little with this one.  I picked up a piece of historical fiction to help generate some renewed interest and, blow me down, it actually worked!

The Covenanter infantry is almost finished with only the pikes to paint and attach and then I'll be on to the horse and officers.

I am still mulling over which set of rules to use.  I'm planning to try the Canadian Wargamers Group ECW set For God, King and Country first but if these don't find favour there's always Pike and Shotte which we previously tried with my Tudor Ireland figures.

15mm Marlburian

Apart from having played another game I'm afraid there's not much to report here...

28mm Indian Mutiny
I've picked up some more metal for this project at Salute - some more Sepoys and some Gentlemen Volunteers so they've joined the painting queue just behind the Naval Brigade and the native infantry.  Whilst there's some way to go before they all hit the table it does mean that I do have all the figures I think I need for the moment.

I've managed to pick up a couple more buildings too and I plan to make some small earthworks to allow for some siege scenarios - which may well materialise before the next batch of painted figures.  Of course there's still the need to pick on some rules...

15mm WW2

Whilst the planned expansion into later WW2 hasn't actually materialised in any measurable way, I have been accumulating some terrain, mostly from 4Ground again, to enhance my early war games.

I managed to pick up a couple of new buildings at Salute - the Church and the Grand Stone Hotel - and hope to be putting those together over the bank holiday weekend.  Having also picked up some roads from eBay I have been inspired to put on a couple of games recently and I'm thinking about another scenario which should see my basing up some more figures.


28mm Dark Ages

Other than having thought about this a couple of times the rebasing and repair of my existing early and later Dark Ages figures for Dux Britanniarum and Saga respectively hasn't actually come to anything as yet.  Of course rebasing isn't my favourite activity and it will mean reorganising the storage arrangement so I suspect that hasn't helped.  So hopefully this will see some progress later in the year.

28mm Crusades

So I set up the trial game of Deus Vult but (cue long list of excuses) never actually got around to actually playing the game before I needed the games table for something else.  I suspect I need to find some inspiration to get me back into the mood for the period but as it's likely to prompt more spending (which I don't have any budget for) I suspect I'm not going to be in a mad rush!

28mm Old West

This one came a little out of the blue as it wasn't on this years plan.  But having spotted Dead Man's Hand from Great Escape Games was being released around Salute I decided to pick up a copy.  And given my fondness for 4Ground buildings, the fact that they have a range of pre-finished ones to support the game didn't help my resistance!

As you may have seen I've put the first of the buildings together and was rather happy with it so I took advantage of their recent 10% off offer and have ordered another couple.  I've also picked up a gallows from Battle Flag, which arrived today (excellent service there!) so that's in the queue for assembly.

I've sorted out the existing Brigade Games and Foundry figures I have along with my old collection of assorted Dixons ones and plan to do some rebasing as they're all on different bases.

So from a standing start this project is moving forward at quite a pace!

28mm Greek Myth

With Lenin having brought over an instalment of my Foundry and Eureka figures and also having had a game of the new 7th Voyage rules from Crooked Dice, I beginning to think this might be the impetus for this old project to get some new legs.

I am seriously thinking of getting my own copy of 7th Voyage and have rooted around in my unpainted lead mountain I've managed to find a few more figures too.

And then there's that lovely ship that Grand Manner do ...