Battles of the Civil War - The Battle of Wilson's Creek

[CountArach]

Chapter 5 – Dawn's First Light
August 10th, 1861 – 0502 – Dawn

You decided to wake the men an hour before dawn, with the thought that they would then be able to sleep in the trenches. However, many of the commanders are saying that their men are restless and they are nervous about the coming battle. Many of them have never seen a battle before. However, it is too late to do anything about that.

Dawn has come and it reveals some interesting things. During the night about 900 men have moved up to take a position on Rain’s left. This means that there are now about 3400 men on Bloody Hill. They seem to have only a few cannons. These have started to unlimber and will likely open fire within the next hour.

It also reveals the whereabouts of the cavalry you sent out last night. They are exactly where they were told they would be led to. They are at the town of Dixon. They appear to be holding until they can take stock of the situation. Any orders you wish to send are unlikely to reach them for another couple of hours.

You have sent out your cavalry to Gibson’s Mill, as well as a few men to observe your flanks. They will report throughout the day. You can expect your first report very soon.

Now that the day of the Battle has arrived, you must decide specifically where you want your Brigades. The Fourth will stay in reserve until they receive further orders.

There is one Hour until Dawn. You must decide what to do:

NOTE: I was going to give you maps, but I thought that it would make it more interesting if you only had your commanders’ reports to go by. Good luck Another thing is that the Confederates only have 10000 men total, when both their armies are included.

Decision 1 – Artillery Batteries
Your batteries are behind your lines and have started to unlimber. You must decide what target to shoot at for the moment. This can be reassessed later.
Option A – Target Infantry that is on the Hill
Option B – Target the Artillery on the Hill.
Option C – Target the Cavalry on the Hill.
Option D – Do not fire; wait until you can see some other targets.
Option E – Other

Decision 2 – Cavalry commands
Your cavalry regiment, the Rangers, have arrived at the town of Dixon and are currently idling there. You can send them a message if you wish
Option A – Order them to hold
Option B – Order them to attack
Option C – Order them to attack lone artillery
Option D – Do not send a message
Option E – Other

Decision 3 – Deploying your Brigades
You must decide exactly how you wish for your Brigades to be deployed. Currently it is set up with Sigel’s Second Brigade in the centre, Sturgis’ First Brigade on his left and Andrews’ Third Brigade on his right. Sigel’s Fourth Brigade is in reserve.
Option A – Leave it as is
Option B – Other

Decision 4 – A Rousing Speech
You can give your men a speech this morning. This is a free task. I am going to allow anyone who wants to write this speech. If you don’t want to, don’t worry.

[King Kurt]

Decision 1 – Artillery Batteries
Your batteries are behind your lines and have started to unlimber. You must decide what target to shoot at for the moment. This can be reassessed later.
Option A – Target Infantry that is on the Hill

On the assumption that we have a good supply of ammo - as per earlier in the thread - we should open fire on the target to give us best effect. Counter battery fire was never very successful and cavalry, although a tempting target, can easily move out of the line of fire. Infantry win battles, so let's start wearing them down, It will also possibly provoke them into action and a rash attack.
Decision 2 – Cavalry commands
Your cavalry regiment, the Rangers, have arrived at the town of Dixon and are currently idling there. You can send them a message if you wish
E - We have to be a little careful here. Dixon is to the south and the Rangers are probably to the rear of the other part of the rebel army. they should be ordered to move up the eastern banks of Wilson's Creek and to skirmish with any rebel forces they find. Their role is to distract and hinder and possibly to pull some forces away from the main fight.
Decision 3 – Deploying your Brigades
You must decide exactly how you wish for your Brigades to be deployed. Currently it is set up with Sigel’s Second Brigade in the centre, Sturgis’ First Brigade on his left and Andrews’ Third Brigade on his right. Sigel’s Fourth Brigade is in reserve.
Option A – Leave it as is - this puts a regular regiment on both flanks, so helping solidify our position.

Decision 4 – A Rousing Speech
You can give your men a speech this morning. This is a free task. I am going to allow anyone who wants to write this speech. If you don’t want to, don’t worry.
I'm not sure how effective rousing speeches before battle were in the Civil War - it was the short speeches during battle which were most effective - but I might have a crack at writing something

[Franconicus]

Decision 1 – Artillery Batteries
Your batteries are behind your lines and have started to unlimber. You must decide what target to shoot at for the moment. This can be reassessed later.

Our cannons haven't taken their positions during night.
I hope their position are at least fortified!
It is still dawn. Peppering the hill (which is covered with trees) will not be very effective. Let's wait until the rebels attack. Then we can concentrate our fire. I think there will be a mixed bulk of infantry and cavalry. This will be the right target! Let the men rest or prepare their position, if they haven't done so!
Option D – Do not fire; wait until you can see some other targets.


Decision 2 – Cavalry commands
Your cavalry regiment, the Rangers, have arrived at the town of Dixon and are currently idling there. You can send them a message if you wish
Tricky. It looks like we outmaneuvred our cavalry. We need them back home to cover our flanks. Right now the enemy has loads of cavalry and we have almost none. However, will they make it back and will they make it back in time?
I am not sure what to say. Maybe somebody else has a good idea. If I had to give an order, I would tell them to attack the next best rebel unit to distract as much cavalry from the north and the march around the eastern flank and come back home.

Decision 3 – Deploying your Brigades
You must decide exactly how you wish for your Brigades to be deployed. Currently it is set up with Sigel’s Second Brigade in the centre, Sturgis’ First Brigade on his left and Andrews’ Third Brigade on his right. Sigel’s Fourth Brigade is in reserve.

Does that mean: 1st west, 2nd center, 3rd east. Then it is fine!

You can give your men a speech this morning. This is a free task. I am going to allow anyone who wants to write this speech. If you don’t want to, don’t worry.[/QUOTE]

For the German soldiers Major Osterhaus is the right person to make a speech. He did that in 'real life' and was named after that speech!!
For the English, I guess King Kurt will do it fine.

[Don Corleone]

If it's not too late to join in and add my two cents (yes, I've read through the entire history).....


-Question 1: Artillery targeting.
Option B – Target the Artillery on the Hill.
Why? Our men have just spent most of the night digging trenches in wet, mucky earth. They're tired and they're scared. We're asking them to hold a defensive position against a numerically superior enemy. Once the rebel guns start firing on them, morale will plummet. We need to duel the opposing guns to silence them. We have equal positioning advantage (our artillery and theirs are both on high ground). We have roughly equal numbers of guns. However, our artillery crews are much more experienced than theirs are. If we engage in an artillery duel, we can probably win it and silence their guns, helping to maintain the precious morale of the men in the trenches. Save our grapeshot (the anti-infantry rounds) for when Rains begins to advance.

-Question 2: Franconious, the bulk of our cavalry is in Dixon, but we do have a couple of regiments anchoring our flank along the stream. Not that I think Rains is dumb enough to try to cross that stream and scale the hillside under fire. Meanwhile, Rains will be sending for artillery reinforcements. The cavalry can pick them off as they come up. I say Option C. The bulk of the cavalry down at the mill should seek to pick off artillery reinforcements coming up and we should hold off on any decisive action with them until they begin issuing reports.

Now, the big question 3, deployments...
I think we're preparing for a frontal assault, and that makes sense, that's probably what we're going to face this morning. That means the center unit will bear the brunt of the assault. This disqualifies Sigel from holding the center. He's the only brigade that is comprised entirely of recruits. Sturgis (1st brigade) and Andrews (3rd brigade) both have a regiment of professionals (the 1st US infantry & the 2nd US infantry, respectively). Of the two, Andrews has the larger force by far. He should hold the center. Sigel should hold our right flank (West, away from stream) and Sturgis should hold our left flank (East, towards the stream). The idea here is simple. When they lead their frontal assault, it will be a test of morale. They're definitely going to lose on numbers alone. The question is whether our boys have the stones to sit tight in their trenches and keep shooting when 3000 men come marching at them. We don't want the recruits holding that job.

In short, the center of the line has to hold. Option B: Other. Otherwise, our left flank will be caught between the advancing army and the stream. We must put our best troops there. Andrews (3rd) in the center. Sturgis (1st) on our left (East) flank, with the 1st US infantry abutting Andrews men and the 2nd MO infantry covering the hillside leading down to the creek.

In case anybody's interested, here's our reduced OOB, now that we've detached our cavalry and artillery.

-1st Brigade (Sturgis) 450 men total.
- 1st US infantry (300 men)
-2nd Missouri Infantry (150 men).

-2nd Brigade (Sigel) 990 men
-3rd and 5th Missouri (990 men).

-3rd Brigade (Andrews) 1050 men
-2nd US infantry 275 men
-1st Missouri Infantry 775 men

-4th Brigade (Deitzler) 2400 men (Reserve)
-1st Iowa 800 men
-1st Kansas 800 men
-2nd Kansas 600 men
- Home guards (200 men) detached: guard duty on hospital and HQ.

Does anybody else see what I'm getting at? We've placed 1/2 our men in reserve! Is it possible to switch Deitzler and Sigel's brigades? At the very least, could we detach a regiment out of Deitzler's brigade and assign it to Sigel?

[Don Corleone]

Assuming we can't detach and reassign Deitzler's regiments, here's what I propose (sorry, no time to edit the battlefield map).

I'm going to position in two lines, first by brigade, then by regiment...


2nd Sigel <---> 3rd Andrews <---> 1st Sturgis

3rd/5th MO <---> 2nd US <---> 1stMO <---> 1st US <---> 2nd MO

(Sigel deployed obliquey, to guard our right flank)

Notice how the 1st MO is anchored on both sides by a veteran regiment. The relatively small 2nd MO will defend the stream ford. I said the 3rd/5th should be deployed obliquely, but in reality, they should probably form a crescent, guarding the entire western hillside.

I really hope we can detach a regiment from Deitzler. It would definitely help!

[Franconicus]

Well Don, you are right regarding the frontal assault. This is what we have to expect. However, it is not sure, that the rebels will do it. They could also try to flank our line. Then we have to have a strong reserve.

I doubt that the rebels will do the first assault with more than 2,000 men. Our front line together with the artillery is strong enough to give them a bloody welcome. I doubt that the rebel cannons can do much damage beside moral.

Once we repelled the first rebel assault, I think this will boost our moral. Depending on casualties we can deploy our reserve then.

[King Kurt]

Don Corleone
At the risk of waking up tomorrow with a horse's head, can I question a couple of your choices?
Why target the artillery? - counterbattery fire in the Civil war was never very effective, so why not fire at the infantry. They are not in trenches so will suffer accordingly - case shot or solid shot will inflict casualties and might provoke them into an attack - we are outnumbered, but the rebels have to concentrate their forces, so they will have to sit under fire until the others arrive. That could provoke an impetuious attack.
While I understand your thinking re the regulars being in the centre to bear the brunt of any attack, I feel that they would be better served by being on the wings, ensuring our flanks hold. The centre also has the benefit of a reserve behind them, so I would think Sigel's brigade would be quite sound there.

[Don Corleone]

Don Corleone
At the risk of waking up tomorrow with a horse's head, can I question a couple of your choices?
Why target the artillery? - counterbattery fire in the Civil war was never very effective, so why not fire at the infantry. They are not in trenches so will suffer accordingly - case shot or solid shot will inflict casualties and might provoke them into an attack - we are outnumbered, but the rebels have to concentrate their forces, so they will have to sit under fire until the others arrive. That could provoke an impetuious attack.
While I understand your thinking re the regulars being in the centre to bear the brunt of any attack, I feel that they would be better served by being on the wings, ensuring our flanks hold. The centre also has the benefit of a reserve behind them, so I would think Sigel's brigade would be quite sound there.

Hee hee, no problems King Kurt. Question away.

My rationale behind the artillery duel is mainly around morale. We may not take out too many of their guns, but at the very least, they'll be forced to respond, sparing our infantry from being targeted. I can't imagine their inexperienced artillery crews will sit there with shells dropping around them, calculatingly firing on our infantry. We may not actually destroy many of their guns, but we may actually cause their artillery to rout.

Besides, grape shot and other anti-personnel fire is only good to about 200 yards. I'm sure they encamped outside our range. I agree once their infantry advances within range we should change targets, but right now, firing at their infantry will not get us much bang for our buck.

You do raise a good point about whoever our center brigade is having the reserves at their back. Perhaps the 2 of you are correct. I just don't think you can overcompensate for rookie-fear in a battle. What's more, isn't there a long stretch between where our line turns northwest and that set of woods up there? Will Andrews be stretched thin trying to hold that much ground?

And truth be told, I've always assumed that reserves were supposed to be 1/4th to 1/3rd of your available infantry, depending on how conservative you are as a commander, but I may be wrong on that. Is 1/2 a more appropriate value?

[Franconicus]

I wonder if our artillery can do any harm on this distance as long as the rebels are stretched and somewhere behind the trees.

However, I even doubt more that the rebel cannon balls can do much harm to our men. Moral is an issue, but that early in the war enthusiasm is still high. These men were high motivated, had professionals at their sides and quite good commanders. All they had to do is sit behing the barricades and fire. Do not forget that the rebels have to corss open field, even a creek under fire, This will be much harder.

I say spare the balls. We cannot do much harm now. If we stay quiet, the rebels will underrate us even more. The effect of the bombardment - once the assault - will be much higher.

The front is quite small. I do not think they can deploy all their men. They will attack one division after the other. The more at a time, the better!