14th September 1861: Victory at Woodwards Farm

Behold, great news from the front, today we rejoice in the victory of Colonel Thaddeus P. Scrivener of XIth Brigade whose troops today repelled a large force of Confederates under Colonel Barksdale who had advanced as far as Woodwards Farm in Kentucky and had prepared their positions to repel us.

Seeing the enemy dispositions and noting their weakness our hero, Colonel Thaddeus P. Scrivener, deployed the 8th Ohio infantry and 12 Battery of the Ohio Light Artillery to screen the enemies front while he took the head of the 14th Ohio Infantry, 3rd West Virginia Infantry and 1st West Virginia Cavalry in a flanking manoeuvre.

The Rebel Deployment

Using a cunning ruse to distract the enemy horse, Scrivener at the head of his troops pushed ahead with the flank attack.

Our brave troops push on

The Confederate infantry tried and tried again to shatter our lines with futile charges, but the march around their flank continued. Soon under terrible fire from our steadfast troops in the fore and those in the flank the Confederates quit the field in disarray with great loss in men and material.

Thaddeus P. Scrivener is a true hero of our times. On to Nashville!

The Barksdale is outflanked

In terms of Longstreet:

We played the Walled Farm engagement with myself as the attacker while the Confederates under James were the defenders.

For reasons known only to himself, James set himself up back from the walls, so I took the opportunity to screen with one regiment and my guns while the rest of my force advanced around and then into the wooded area on his flank.

The union screen takes its position

James tried to counter with his cavalry, but in successive turns I used the  Confusion and Old Rivals cards to confound them.

Artillery supports our brave boys

Early on James tried a couple of charges, using the Rebel Yell card in one instance, and I was able to repel them so we both earned a couple of Epic Points each for these, James for charging and myself for repelling, although we forgot to roll for Heroes after these!

I also managed to kill both of the Confederate 6-pdr cannon with rifle fire.

Tempted from the safety of the wall our screen advances on the foe.

Pinned to the fore James committed his reserves to try to clear me from the woods and was repelled, in a final onslaught. Although during this charge phase he accounted for my Howitzer by charging with his cavalry.

Things are looking bad for Barksdale

At the end of the game James had lost 22 bases to my eight so a round thrashing for the dammed Rebels. I'll round up the post-game phase in my next post.

The pictures are a little dark, the lighting is not so good at the White Hart.