Gaming Gordon's Attack at Monocacy

An overview of the situation.  The Confederates have some cavalry off-screen to the south.  Union commander Wallace is on the upper right near the Covered Bridge.

Inspired by my reading and touring of the Battle of Chickamauga, I decided to purchase a good copy of an old wargame, This Terrible Sound (TTS).  It is a regimental scale treatment of the battle.  Back in my college days, me and three friends played a lot of regimental games developed by Richard Berg.  One of the highlights of my wargaming life was spending long weekends with three other guys playing his treatment of the Battle of Gettysburg, Terrible Swift Sword.

After I returned from India I did not play wargames at all for several years.  When I started playing again I gravitated toward a couple of gaming series by Dean Essig, the Operational Combat Series, and the Civil War Brigade Series (CWBS), both of which were new at the time.  In my 30's and 40's I played CWBS so much that I had most of tables and charts memorized.  I would usually roll the dice and know what the result was without looking it up.

But I did not care to revisit the regimental scale of the War Between the States.  Though I owned a couple of games by Berg, I rarely played them.  I found the brigade scale to be faster playing and just as realistic.  CWBS was my favorite gaming system for many years.  In recent years, I have played a couple of those games, following my Chasing Battlefields series of posts.  But, it will be recalled, that further study, Chickamauga opened by eyes to what a regimental treatment of that battle could offer that you simply could not attain at the brigade scale.

After CWBS finally played out (almost every major battle of the war has been published), Essig turned to what he called the Regimental Sub-System (RSS).  This was basically the CWBS offered on a smaller scale.  200 yards per hex became 110.  30 minute turns became 15.  And so forth.  I initially purchased one RSS game which I never really played, only tinkered with.  A Fearful Slaughter is the RSS treatment of the Battle of Shiloh, which is the most interesting battle of the war, for me.
 
Shiloh is a perfect battle for a regimental scale.  It involves far fewer regiments compared with Gettysburg or Chickamauga.  The game easily fits on two maps which makes it perfect for my gaming table.  The other games in the series have much larger footprints and I could only play them digitally.  But the main point here is that RSS was simply a tweaking of CWBS and still I preferred to play CWBS.  Outside of Shiloh, I abandoned the regimental scale until last year's experience with Chickamauga.

Since then Essig revamped his entire War Between the States model in a new series called Line of Battle (LoB).  The series has been around for over a decade but I never bought any of the games.  My interests had shifted to other games and topics.  I still thought the regimental scale was too small, too slow, and too much work to be fun.  After purchasing TTS, I learned that all RSS games can be easily refitted to play with the LoB system.
 
Naturally, this intrigued me.  I read through the latest LoB rules (available online here) and immediately saw how the old CWBS had been greatly streamlined to speed up play.  Since I had purchased TTS off-market (it is long out of print) I decided to offer some financial support to Essig's comparatively new endeavor.  The only game available in the series at that time was To Take Washington, a treatment of the Battle of Monocacy from Jubal Early's raid into Maryland in July 1864.  So I bought it.

This battle is even smaller than Shiloh, which means even fewer units, fewer decisions, and fewer dice rolls.  Combine this with the much improved rules of the LoB approach and you have a regimental game that is as easily playable as anything in the old CWBS.  Until the past few weeks I had not done more than look at the game's special rules and the counters.  But a YouTube video on the game recently convinced me to focus on the subject and give it a try.

I have not attempted the game's full battle scenarios.  Instead, I discovered a small scenario entitled “Short, Decisive, and Bloody: Gordon's Attack” that splendidly features the system's combat rules in a single attack.  The command rules are not necessary except for the possibility of initiative.  So, the scenario features the basics of the system in a fast-playing format.  I have enjoyed playing the 8-turn scenario several times over recent weeks, becoming accustomed to the charts and tables and the flow of game play.

Naturally, as is my custom, I have augmented my play with several books on the subject.  I have long owned the standard classic is B.E. Cooling's Early's Raid (1989).  I had not read it in 30 years and was surprised how little about the battle is actually in the text, though it covers the overall campaign very well.  To find out about the battle itself I bought the kindle edition of Determined to Stand and Fight by Ryan T. Quint (2016).  While more detailed, it still leaves much to be desired on the battle itself.  I have a kindle version of Gordon's memoirs, which are self-serving, of course.  Nevertheless they yield a few details not found in these other sources. 

 Crosshairs on the Capital (2021) by James H. Bruns is a decent strategic level study of the campaign.  It shows how Early's raid with probably 12,000 soldiers was a gamble to give Confederate forces relief around Richmond and Petersberg, protect the Shenandoah Valley and scare the bejesus out of the everyone living in Baltimore and DC.  The threat to Lincoln's already sagging popularity was far greater in the summer of 1864 than the actual military possibilities of the raid.
 
There was a plan to free some 10,000 Rebel prisoners from a large camp in Maryland and march them upon Washington.  Adding these malnourished men to Early's ranks was to somehow help the Rebs take the US capital.  What they were supposed to eat and fight with was never adequately considered.  It didn't matter.  It never happened.  It was just another desperate, hair-brained idea that did not come to fruition in this late-war publicity stunt.  

The only thing that really worked about the raid was the ransoming of several northern towns and cities and the widespread looting and impounding of Northern crops and livestock.  But even this was a marginalized achievement because the South had little in the way of transport to send these trophies of war back to Richmond where General Robert E. Lee's army struggled for sustenance.  Most of what was captured never reached Lee and was consumed by Early's Corps, who ate like kings for a few weeks.

Opening the turn, the Rebel artillery battery is highly effective against the Federal line.  A Cowardly Legs marker indicates where the Union regiment retreated from.

 

“Gordon's Attack” features the meat and potatoes of the fighting at Monocacy in the LoB format.  Most of the casualties from this battle occurred during this assault which depicts a blow by General John B. Gordon's division against two brigades and ad hoc cavalry commanded by General Lew Wallace.  The Federals were attempting to delay the bold Rebel advance upon Washington DC long enough for General Ulysses S. Grant to ship reinforcements from Virginia up to the capital.

 
Grant sent his VI and VIII Corps via the US Navy.  Two brigades of each landed in DC before Early arrived at Monocacy.  Others would follow but, for now, these troops had time to March out to Monocacy and set up a defense.  As an aside, Wallace is an interesting character because he later wrote the novel Ben Hur which was such an American literary sensation in the late 19th century.

To Take Washington gives high command ratings to both Gordon and Wallace.  Both are rated at 4-4, giving maximum capabilities in the LoB Series.  The first number is the leader's command rating and second his morale rating.  The first number has everything to do with how quickly he creates or accepts orders or operates on his own initiative.  The second is how well he manages regiments in charges of the enemy or in rallying routed troops.

Gordon's Division is of “B” morale against two Union brigades of the VI Corps that are mostly “C” morale, so there is an advantage to the South there.  Like its CWBS roots, LoB distinguishes between elite troops (A morale), very good troops (B morale), average troops (C morale), and poor troops (D morale).  Gordon also has six artillery batteries at his disposal whereas the Federals only have one.  On the other hand, Wallace has a handful of cavalry protecting his left flank.  Cavalry is of limited use during battles (it is not as effective as infantry) but it can cause some disruption if the Southerners ignore it completely.  Comparing just infantry numbers, Wallace actually outnumbers Gordon 6,400 to 5,900 troops.

LoB revises the traditional CWBS game mechanics and simplifies them (without being simplistic), combining them into one game phase.  In the older series you would move your troops and then the enemy could conduct “opportunity fire” which was followed by the moving side's combat in a separate phase.  In LoB there is only the Activity Phase.  You can fire and move as you please within certain restrictions.  You can only move half your movement points and fire in a single phase.  You cannot fire and then move.  You can mix in artillery fires as you please but a single enemy unit can only be targeted by artillery once per phase.

That may not sound like much of a difference but the effect is to absorb a lot of sub-systems in CWBS (like keeping up with stragglers separately from killed/wounded) into a single, comparatively flexible phase.  The end result is that LoB plays much faster than CWBS or RSS without losing any of the historical realism.  In fact, series designer Essig would probably argue this is actually a more realistic depiction of the command and combat of this era.

The replay featured here is sort of an amalgamation of my repeat playings.  It emphasizes all the nuances of the game with different attacks and combat types.

The turn starts with the Command Phase.  Per the scenario rules, Gordon strikes first.  He already has orders to attack so his division is good to go.  It is vital in the game system that a commander accept attack orders promptly but usually that doesn't happen.  There is a delay of a turn or two which creates this wonderful herky, jerky coordination between units in battle.  In this system, you cannot attack without orders to do so, which makes it the most realistic depiction of this type of war.  This is a direct descendant of CWBS, though this command and orders system plays a lot more quickly and smoothly.
 
The Southerners attempt to obtain initiative for McCausland's band of cavalry, who have no orders.  But a roll of “5” on two dice means the Rebel cavalry just sits there.  Gordon begins with an artillery bombardment to try and soften up the Yankee line.  This is not required, artillery can be fired any time during the Activity Phase, but it makes more sense to do it prior to advancing where one's own troops could block a given battery's line of sight.  

One of longer ranged artillery fire hits the target but the resulting morale check is passed so it has no effect.  But Lowry's battery of 12-pound Napoleons directly behind Evans's brigade of Gordon's division rolls a “7” which renders a morale check on its target, the 106th New York.  The resulting morale check roll is a “9” which proves to be destructive for the Northerners.  The New Yorkers lose one strength point, retreat two hexes and are reduced to a “Shaken” morale status.
 
This retreat yields one of LoB's many wonderful innovations.  With some minor exceptions, any time a unit retreats from combat a “Cowardly Legs” marker is placed where the unit originally stood.  Essig is a master game designer.  His latest creations (LoB and BCS) both incorporate fascinating game concepts with a bit of humor thrown in.  Terms like “cowardly legs” and “skedaddle” are valid game mechanics offered with a smile in the vernacular of the time period.
 
Essig got the term from a rather humorous quote by Abraham Lincoln which is included in the series rulebook: “If Almighty God gives a man a cowardly pair of legs, how can he help their running away with him?”  Funny.

Any unit adjacent to a Cowardly Legs marker gets a negative modifier if and when it checks morale.  This reflects the fact that when forming a line of battle, if one section of it is abandoned due to enemy fire it places additional stress on the units in line on either side of it.  Very realistic but, to my knowledge, not reflected in any other gaming system.

 

Later in the turn, the Union brigade is badly impacted by the attack, but Evans has been killed on the Southern side,  The brigade is now commanded by a replacement leader of lesser abilities.

Evans now advances with his entire brigade, attempting to engage with the bulk of his force while protecting his right flank against a possible counterattack by the Union cavalry.  Evans personally leads the 60th Georgia (500 men) in a charge against the 87th Pennsylvania (600 men).  First, Evans must pass a “Closing Roll” so that he can complete the charge, which he passes thanks to having B morale plus a leader stacked with the regiment.  Then the 87th makes an “Opening Volley” to fire at the advancing Rebels.  This results in the 60th taking one hit.  Had the roll resulted in two hits the charge would become unsuccessful because the unit would be too small to conduct it (you must have at least 4 strength points to charge - 400 men).

Additionally, Evans must check to see if he is killed or wounded.  A roll of “6” on two dice means he survives.  A roll of “9” or more would have resulted in hit, taking Evans and his command abilities out of the game to be replaced by an inferior commander.  The 87th now automatically takes one loss due to the charge and checks its morale.  The proximity of Cowardly Legs marker adds one to the roll which is an “9” modified to “10”.  This results in another step loss, a retreat of three hexes and the 87th is disorganized.  A very successful charge.

Since Evans only used 4 movement points he can continue moving after the charge.  He will attempt to smash into the previously shaken 106th New York.  Again he passes the Closing Roll.  The New York boys fire an Opening Volley which again hits the 60th Georgia.  This reduces it to 3 strength points (SPs).  Per LoB rules you cannot charge with less than 4 SPs,  So the 60th is done.  It cannot fire at the 106th because it has moved more than half it MPs.  The roll for leader loss is a “12”.  “Box cars” kills the leader and Evans is flipped to his (lesser) replacement side.  That did not go so well for the Rebels.

The 38th Georgia advances within one hex of 151st New York, which is stacked with the brigade commander Truex. The New Yorkers fire an Opening Volley, adjusted for 2-hex range which yields a miss.  The Georgians are shifted one column on the Combat Table due to range which results in a “m” - the 151st must check morale.  Since they are adjacent to a Cowardly Legs marker the dice are modified +1.  A “7” (which would have been a miss) becomes a modified “8”.  The 151st in shaken and must retreat one (which places another Cowardly Legs marker).

The 26th Georgia advances 3 hexes and fires at the 14th New Jersey.  The Opening Volley causes a step loss and the resulting combat fire misses.  The 13th Georgia advances and also fires at the 14th but misses.  Evans's brigade has three regiments left to move.  They are too far away to charge anyone so they basically set up to protect the right flank against a possible cavalry charge.  The 10th Vermont has an Opening Volley at the 12th Georgia, which scores a hit.  Then the 12th fires at the 10th which scores a hit.  The resulting morale check forces the Vermont regiment to lose another step, retreat one hex, and become shaken.  The additional hit causes the 10th Vermont to become wrecked.  It had taken casualties in earlier fighting before the start of this scenario.

As for the rest of Gordon's division, the brigades of York and Terry advance far enough to strike next turn.  A regiment in each of these brigades deserves mentioning.  York commands Hays's “Louisiana Tigers” while Terry has the remnants of the “Stonewall Brigade.”  Each of these regiments fought as full brigades at First Manassas in 1861, the latter commanded by the famous Stonewall Jackson, who received his nickname during that battle.  By 1864, there were only a few hundred men left and these brigades were mere fractions of their former selves.  Still, earlier in the war, they were among the best troops in the Southern army.  All the Cowardly Legs markers are removed during the South's Rally Phase. 

 

The Union right flank brigade successfully rolls for initiative and repositions itself to support the hard-pressed Northern line.  The Covered Bridge is "ablaze" something the player has to start in the campaign game.  The Railroad Bridge is just above Wallace.  These are the twin objectives of Gordon's attack.  

Now it is time for Wallace to respond to Gordon's initial attack.  Unlike Gordon, he has no orders at all.  Here's where the LoB command mechanics might come into play.  Without orders, all your regiments can to is remain in place and defend. Wallace is stacked with Ricketts, his division commander.  Were an order issued it would have almost immediate acceptance.  Ricketts would then pass the order on to his brigade commanders, Truex (who is presently hard pressed by Gordon) and McClennan who is covering Truex's right flank.

If the Yankees choose, no orders are required to defend in place.  The game scale is 15 minutes per turn.  It would take a turn for Rickett to pass the order to his brigade commanders.  So there will be at least a one turn delay.  Once the order arrives, then the brigade commander must accept the orders in order to act upon them, which often requires more than one turn.  This is highly realistic, a direct descendant of the CWBS I started playing over 30 years ago.

The Union player might decide to give orders in anticipation of the future.  Wallace might order Rickett to, for example, order Truex to pull back to the higher ground between Gambrill's Mill and the orchard.  Victory in this scenario is determined by whether or not Gordon captures the Covered Bridge and the Railroad Bridge, the primary crossing points for the Monocacy River.  Pulling Truex back to higher ground would put him in a position to better defend those two points and give him the capability to counterattack should the opportunity present itself.

This is how this game system makes you think, which is extraordinary really.  This is the way it felt to command troops with only couriers to pass orders along.  For the the present, both brigades must do their best to defend in place.  McClennan can prepare to defend, changing facing and moving a hex or so as needed.  On an initiative check, however, McClennan will order himself into a better position 3 – 5 hexes ahead without drawing enemy fire (use terrain to stay out of sight and/or out of range).  An initiative check on the Union cavalry yields nothing.
 
Truex's brigade is obviously the focus of this turn.  He has a wrecked regiment, three regiments are shaken and one is disorganized.  Now it is his opportunity to dole out some punishment against Evans (now a replacement leader).  Two things to note.  First of all, any Rebels within range of Truex's line will not get to fire defensively if no one moves.  Opening Volleys (defensive fire in LoB) may only occur against units that move or artillery that changes facing.  Secondly, units that start the Activity Phase in an enemy zone of control (basically adjacent to anyone who can potentially fire) are locked in place.  They cannot move until one side or the other gets a Retreat result.  This is a major change from the CWBS but more accurately reflects the nature of close-in fighting at the regimental level.

With all that in mind, two of Truex's regiments (both shaken) must stand and fire.  The shaken status does not affect fire combat (disorganized renders it ½ strength). 106th New York targets the 60th Georgia.  This causes a hit but the resulting morale check yields no result.  Next, the 151st New York fire at the same regiment and forces a morale check.  The resulting check roll is a “3” which renders a “Blood Lust” result.  The check for a leader hit is a non-result.

Blood Lust is a special morale state carried over from CWBS (as is the entire morale system).  When a regiment becomes blood lusted it will not retreat.  All retreats are ignored and the regiment will stand its ground.  If attacking, the blood lusted regiments are useful because, no matter what happens to them, they will try to continue to advance.  So, the regiment will either force its enemy to retreat or it will remain adjacent to its enemy, locked in its zone of control next turn.  Blood Lust in a unit with attack orders is nearly unstoppable.  But, Gordon can't make use of that until the next turn.

The wrecked 10th Vermont merely changes facing and remains in place.  The 41st New Jersey  fires at 26th Georgia, two hexes away.  This range shifts the 7-strength rifle fire one column, which matters because the subsequent dice roll of “7” would have yielded a hit without the shift.  Instead it becomes a morale check.  The check roll is a “6” for no result.  The Rebels got lucky there.  Had the roll been a “9”, for example, the regiment would be shaken and forced to retreat one hex, creating a Cowardly Legs.

The system rewards being aggressive by placing almost all the morale checks on the defender's side.  Newly acquired morale states will apply to the defender when his side become active.  Shaken does not penalize combat but it makes passing a Closing Roll more difficult.  You cannot close at all if you are disorganized and such state cuts your fire value in half.  Your movement is halved as well.
 
There were no examples of routs in this post, but they involve their own problems and generally require a leader to bring them back to disorganized state.  Then they pass to shaken and, finally, back to normal.  So, at best, it takes three turns (or 45 minutes) for rallied troops to fully reorganize.  Usually the leader has to make more than one roll to rally the routed troops, taking more time – which is also highly realistic.

In the North's Rally Phase all units improve morale.  Shaken units return to normal.  Disorganized become Shaken.  There are no other markers to clean up.  This marks the end of that 15-minute turn.

A Rebel regiment is blood lusted as the fighting continues.  Seems killing their leader pissed them off.  There probably should be a modifier in the game for BL's and leader loss but there isn't.

 

To Take Washington makes for a great way to learn the LoB system without being weighted down with a lot of units.  The games on Gettysburg and Chickamauga have three or four times the number of units and multiple maps that I have no space for.  If I ever have the time, I will have to play those games digitally.
 
Which is how I play all my wargames anyway these days.  I haven't used my wargame table in years.  To Take Washington features three maps.  The Battle at Monocacy neatly fits a two-map format, which would sit on my table just fine if I ever want to set it up.  To play the broader campaign game, there is a third map, which takes the game package to a higher level.

At the campaign level of the game, how the battle turns out at Monocacy impacts what can happen on the third map, which is of the Fort Stevens area in Washington DC's vast heavily fortified defensive works.  Historically, some skirmishing took place there on July 11 and 12 before Early withdrew his troops.  The game allows you to explore what might have happened had the Rebels arrived earlier at Fort Stevens and literally forced a battle for the nation's capital.

Of interest on this map are the Union heavy Parrot Rifled artillery at Fort Slocum, covering the approaches to Fort Stevens.  This artillery has a range of 30 hexes and has special attributes due to the size of the guns.  Like the forts themselves, these guns are unique to the system and to wargaming in general.  They add a bit of color to the situation with the third map taking you all the way into downtown DC should the Rebels somehow capture one of these forts.  There is a special counter for President Lincoln who was present for part of the historical skirmish.  This feature is what is referred to in wargaming as “chrome.”  It is a fancy feature of the game that makes it fun.  Will Lincoln be wounded at the battle?  Its all up to how things play out.

I can tell from just playing the scenario depicting Gordon's attack that, as a whole package, To Take Washington is a fun game, supported a fantastic gaming system that gives you a great feel for what warfare was like in this era.  I'm glad I bought it direct from the company to support Dean Essig's future games.  I hope to play some of the smaller scenarios in my Chickamauga game this fall.  The Line of Battle system is rich and rewarding and certainly one of the cleanest and most realistic games I've played in my 50 years of wargaming.  It informs my historical knowledge while being fun to play at the same time, which is what I appreciate most about this hobby.

The third map features a partial view of Washington DC and the portion of the capital's massive defenses that was approached by Early's troops during his raid.  These are the first true forts (and subsequent heavy artillery) anywhere in any regimental games of this period.

Note: Gordon's attack at Monocacy happened 159 years ago today.