Longstreet's Assault: Turns 1 and 2

 I played out the first two turns of my large Regimental Fire and Fury game. On turn one the artillery of both sides blasted away at each other and a host of infantry targets. Robertson's rebel brigade attacked Ward's men around the Devil's Den with limited success.

On turn two, Kershaw was killed by cannister fire as he led his brigade against the Peach Orchard. Benning's men were able to drive back de Trobiand's men, but then suffered from massed artillery fire.

Law's Brigade advances up Big Round Top to try to flank the Union position.

Robertson's men storm the Devil's Den

Benning faces left to attack de Trobriand's Brigade in the Peach Orchard and Wheat Field.

Kershaw's crack brigade of South Carolinians crosses open ground to attack Birney's division

Another shot of Birney's command.

Turn two: Robertson makes progress in driving in Ward's men. Robertson is wounded and will have to sit out the next turn.

Benning's Georgians continue to pressure Birney's flank.

Kershaw's men are within striking distance. The Union artillery has been pretty much silenced by the more numerous rebel guns in this sector.

de Trobriand's threatened flank.

de Trobriand establishes a new line hoping to stall Benning's attack.

Two brigades from Barnes's division of II Corp arrive along with a battalion of artillery and quickly move to support the crumbling flank.

Martin's V Corp artillery hastily unlimber and punish Robertson's Texans.

Longstreet's Assault: The Setup

 It has been a long time since I have had an ACW battle. I decided to tackle a large one to get as many figures on the table as possible.

I used Brad Butkoich's excellent resource as a guide.

The map was quite helpful.

Lots of background information gave me a good picture of the situation.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the book is the detailed army rosters that are provided, giving details such as weapon type and morale status along with the number of men in the unit.

My table was just the right size to fit the features of the map on to. I used my old Geohex to generate the contours and then put my mats over that. It was a bit tricky trying to keep the Geohex pieces from moving while placing the mat over them, but it worked out. If anything, next time I will make the features higher.

Once the mats were down it took me about an hour to place the roads, fields, fences, structures and woods. It was coming along quite nicely.

Next, I generated the labels for all of the units. This took awhile, but I enjoyed getting intimately acquainted with all the various commanders and their units.

Finally, the troops were placed in position as close to historically as possible.

An overview of the table looking west from Big Roundtop.

Law's brigade of Hood's division.

Robertson's brigade of Hood's division.

Benning's Georgia brigade in support. Anderson's is in the background.

Ward's brigade.

The Confederate gun line made up of batteries from the artillery reserve.

Looking north down the Emmitsburg Pike.

McLaws' division.

McLaws' divisional artillery.

Birney's position at the apex of the salient. The Peach Orchard is in the center rear of the picture.

The Wheatfield

Burling's brigade in support

From behind the Union line.

Vincent's brigade in position on Little Roundtop.

The 20th Maine, the "end of the line."

Another shot of the entire table.

I am fortunate to have space in my garage for my table, so I can leave it up. It will probably take a while to fight this out to a conclusion.