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AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

By R. Neil Smith Introduction When I came to the United States from Scotland in 1996 it was to study the American Civil War at post-graduate level. Before I came over, I inquired as to where I should study the conflict, to be told immediately, go to the South. With Polybius advice on visiting the sites of history echoing in my head, I asked why. Theyre still fighting it! the professor replied. As exaggerated as that answer was, I soon found out when I arrived that few wars in western history resonate through time as much as the War between the States as I was quickly rectified on the correct nomenclature for the conflict by polite southerners; the W ar of Northern Aggression by those more wrapped up in their seemingly ongoing defeat. Rarely has a war so shaped the destiny of a nation as much as the conflict that took place between 1861 and 1865, across a vast array of landscapes, and fought at all levels by hundreds of thousands of men, and some women. Despite modern historical searches for reasons why the Union won, some that stretch credulity , my inescapable conclusion has always been that losing on the battlefield led to the death of the Confederacy . Indeed, one historian wrote that the Confederate nation and the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee became synonymous, and when Ulysses S. Grant finally ran the latter to ground, the former vanished into Lost Cause memory . And that is what some southerners question: how could we lose? The South had the generals; the character; the cause; the everything, except the resources. As another historian put it: God was on the side of the biggest battalions. The North wore

An Invitation to The

Part 1

down the South in the form of two armies under the command of US Grant in the East and William Tecumseh Sherman in the West. Both were willing to bring the hard hand of war down on the South, and

Sherman, who would also say that war is hell, promised to make Georgia howl. But to the southernerwell, William Faulkner said it best when commenting on the Confederate disaster at Gettysburg:

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it is the instant when it is still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armstead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen year old boy to think this time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago...
William Faulkner

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Faulkners quote is an apt one for wargamers no matter what period they recreate on their tabletops; the moment before the ramp comes down on a D-Day landing craft; the silence as the of ficer raises his whistle to signal over the top at the Somme; or any number of rousing speeches given by Roman generals. There is always that moment of anticipation: the dice roll around in your hand, you blow on them, wondering why someone would dare challenge your battlefield supremacy. Other wars too have the elements we enjoy so much in war gaming: the uniforms and flags that add colour to the field; charismatic commanders; stunning victories and defeats to admire and lament; the violent essence of battle that only the best commanders and players can manage with the help of lady luck or friendly dice. The contention in this article is that the American Civil War contains all of those components. Moreover , the Civil War is accessible not only in

the Polybian sense but in the virtual sense, so that although we cannot be there, we can almost literally look over the shoulders of those who fought for their cause irrespective of its righteousness. Overview The American Civil War broke out in the wake of the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860. The southern slave owning states were terrified at the prospect of abolition and voted to secede from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. Soon enough shots rang out at Charleston, South Carolina, then across the nation in a bloody conflict that pitted brother against brother and father against son. The first significant battle came at Manassas Junction in northern Virginia. The Union army was routed, a feeling they would come to recognize time and again through the first two years of the war . In 1862, Robert E. Lee took command of the

Army of Northern Virginia and proceeded to rout a veritable conveyor belt of promising but weak Union generals at the Seven Days Battles, Second Manassas, and Chancellorsville, before overplaying his hand at Gettysburg, being forced on to the strategic defensive from which he never recovered. The war was more balanced in the west. The Union took New Orleans and advanced down the Mississippi, while they retreated through Kentucky and Tennessee before recovering and counter -attacking. But from out of the west emerged the two battlefield saviours of the Union: Sherman and Grant. Sherman pointed his army like a dagger at Atlanta. Grant came east, crossing the Rappahanock River with his troops in 1864; his tar get was Lees army. Grants grand Army of the Potomac, bolstered by thousands of newly enlisted African-American soldiers, engaged Lee in the Wilderness, an aptly named almost impenetrable forest of slender trees and underbrush north of Richmond, Virginia. The armies tore at each other relentlessly, the Union drive being brought to a standstill. But this time instead of retreating back to the safety of the North, Grant ordered his men to advance south. His shocked and jubilant troops marched and Lee raced to block them at Spotsylvania, on the North Anna, anywhere he could, but he was finally driven into the defenses of Petersburg. In perhaps the great military irony of the Civil War, Lee, who constantly sought a Napoleonic battle to knock the Union out of the war and on to the peace table, now saw his army bleeding dry in trenches more akin to the western front of World War I. The Confederate dam that had held so long finally broke in March 1865, and Lees army outgunned, outmanoeuvred, and exhausted capitulated at Appomattox Court House on 9 April. But for a few skirmishes and the assassin s bullet that killed Lincoln in his hour of glory, the Civil War was over.

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If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.
William Tecumseh Sherman SOURCES My friend told me recently that he does not wargame the American Civil War because he has no connection to it, and I suspect that is true for many war gamers. But what connection do we have to any of the wars we recreate? As I scan my neatly boxed armies, I dont have a direct connection to any of them; not the Zulus, Custer s 7th Cavalry, my pirates, the Imperial Romans, none of them. Except, I have studied them all or I have a cultural connection to them; they are a part of me through my own efforts to make them so. The same goes for my 15mm American Civil War armies. My initial interest to study the war and to invest in wee bags of metal both came from Ken Burns magnificent documentary series on the war that I watched when on Christmas break from university. The movie Glory was released not long after, and I was hooked.

Reading followed. If you like reading military history, the American Civil War has you covered and then some. I recommend starting with McPherson s Battle Cry of Freedom, but from there you can follow almost any path or interest you desire. There are books on campaigns, armies, and battles; biographies on commanders, the great and the less so; regimental histories, memoirs, and soldiers diaries. You might also wander into the minefield that is social history; slavery, women, community studies etc. At some point you will encounter War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (O.R. for short), now online. Be warned, though: if you explore the O.R. tie a rope to yourself, you may never come out. And there are more books published seemingly every day to add to your mountainous collection, not to mention the plethora of content on the internet, wellinformed and otherwise. For a more immediate experience, you can follow the dictates of Polybius and see where it all happened, if the developers do not beat you to it. There is a surprising

amount of Civil War sites to visit, from the well preserved major battlefields lovingly cared for by the National Parks Service Gettysburg, Antietam, Manassas - to scenes of smaller battles where, if you are lucky, you will meet an old-timer who knows exactly what happened and where to find the evidence, to vignettes of minor dramas such as a trench and gunpit in Athens, Georgia, where the town militia organized to fend off Shermans cavalry in 1864. Almost everywhere you visit in Virginia contains memories of some Civil War event; even my local shopping mall in Charlottesville has a sign memorializing a long-for gotten skirmish that took place before Dicks Sporting Goods moved in.

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The truth is, when bullets are whacking against tree trunks and solid shot are cracking skulls like eggshells, the consuming passion in the breast of the average man is to get out of the way. Between the physical fear of going forward and the moral fear of turning back, there is a predicament of exceptional awkwardness.
Private David Thompson of the 9th New York Infantry, Battle of Antietam.

might be better choices. With the release of the excellent Perry range of plastic 28mm figures, expenditure for the larger scale is also becoming more manageable. Nearly every significant manufacturer has a range of ACW figures and you should consider mixing and matching for the correct aesthetic feel of Civil War armies, especially on the logistically challenged Confederate side for most of whom the concept of uniforms was somewhat alien. Terrain too is easy to find or build from scratch and there are many photographs of the American landscape online from which to seek inspiration. The American Civil War was fought mostly across rolling rural terrain, so a simple grassy board will work. Many terrain manufacturers make generic ACW period buildings and some of the more distinguished Civil War landmarks. Trees, hills, and fields are fairly standard, but one unique aspect of the American landscape is

Getting Started Now your interest has peaked and you are back from the library, we can turn to the logistics of war gaming. Here too, ACW gamers are well covered. The first question is one of scale. This will depend on your budget and available room and time, but 15mm works well for the bigger engagements, although some of the newer 6mm figures are well worth considering. For smaller battles and skirmishes, or big fights if you have lots of space, 20mm and 25/28mm

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the zig-zag fencing found particularly in the east; I used a box of decapitated matches, dyed, then glued in three rows, to make mine. Also consider the railway modeling fraternity for useable buildings, trains, and af fordable rail track. Finally, bear in mind that the landscape changed little during Americas formative domestic conflicts; therefore, what works for your ACW gaming will probably work for the American Revolution, French and Indian Wars etc. Painting figures is always a challenge and again depends on your level of involvement. The Union armies are easier but less fun. They wore dark blue jackets, light blue trousers, dark blue kepis or black slouch hats. In many respects, as the better equipped and supplied army , the Union was much more uniform. Nevertheless, there were some differences, particularly in the beginning when no one had much of a clue what mass volunteer armies

should wear for what was supposed to be a short war . The most notably distinct units were the Zouaves, based on French colonial troops, with multi-coloured uniforms, baggy pants, and brightly coloured headgear. As the war dragged on, however, Union forces discarded much of their accoutrement and went for comfort over style. The American Civil War has often been referred to as the war between the Blue and the Grey , but for most Confederate infantrymen grey was an ideal or something officers wore. The foot-soldier, the barefoot soldier in many cases, wore what he had, homespun clothing dyed in butternut or other earthy colours. Their ensembles were completed by blanket rolls and slouch hats, again in most cases. The Confederates had Zouaves too, but less of them. When painting the Confederates, therefore, deploy the full range of browns and greys for clothing, the more irregular looking the better.

Artillerymen on both sides dressed similarly to infantrymen with some differences. They tended to be more uniform throughout the war . The cavalry came from the wealthier classes; therefore dressed more uniformly, but here too the Confederates were more irregular . Books and internet sites abound for all aspects of Civil War clothing and when in doubt visit the various outlets for Civil War re-enactors whose webpages always have great photographs. Civil War regiments carried two flags into battle. One was the national flag, although the famous Dixie flag did not come into being until after First Manassas when their Stars and Bars was easily confused with the Union Stars and Stripes, leading to some unfortunate friendly fire incidents in the smoke of battle. The other flag was usually the state flag and most regiments and divisions formed under the flags of their states. The cavalry carried guidons, triangular flags

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designating their units. Again, book and internet references abound for flags. The point to remember when it comes to uniforms and flags is that it is the exceptions that make the rule, so nose around for those little differences that will enliven your tabletop. Both sides wore similar equipment, usually consisting of a leather cartridge box, haversack, percussioncap pouch, tin canteen, bayonet scabbard, and belt. This was particularly true after major Union defeats early in the war when victorious Confederates scavenged the dead. The basic infantry weapon was the rifle-musket. The Confederates, as you might expect by now , carried a greater variety of weapons, but those without picked up weapons on the battlefields too. The cavalry carried carbines into the field, which were shorter than the rifle-muskets but worked in much the same way . They also carried sabres, and the American Civil War is one of the last wars where cavalry came together in sabre melees. Towards the end of the war , breechloading rifles became more common and revolving pistols were handy for close quarters combat. Both sides deployed the M1857 Napoleon twelve-pounder cannon as their chief artillery weapon, but more accurate rifled cannons became widely used, especially by the Union. In questions

of men and material, it should always be borne in mind that the Union greatly out-produced the Confederacy in every department. Robert E. Lee s address to his troops on their final surrender encapsulated succinctly the disparity between the sides: After four years of ar duous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. Finally, a note on flesh-tones; most men who fought in the Civil War were white, but from 1863 AfricanAmericans joined the Union ranks in their thousands and fought with distinction at many critical battles thereafter. In addition, twentythousand Native-Americans took part in the Civil War and the Cherokee were principal protagonists in the war for the Oklahoma territory a fascinating mini-campaign in itself. Having bought your soldiers, checked out your library books, and googled everything American Civil War, how do you play with all those lovingly painted, if scruf fy, troops? Part II of your invitation to the American Civil War looks at strategies and tactics, the great commanders and their soldiers, and the battles they fought.

Further Reading (no apologies for southern bias) Battle Cry of Freedom - James MacPherson General Lees Army - Joseph Glatthaar Army of the Heartland & Autumn of Glory Thomas Connelly The Confederate Nation - Emory Thomas Confederates in the Attic - Tony Horwitz

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