Night of May 30th

One of the things makes campaign simulations interesting is the battles which never happen. Federal infantry slipped away from Midway on the night of May 29^th as Confederates planned a morning assault which was never to be. The Federal commander used the “night withdrawal rule” for the simulation and withdrew by an open route to the nearest town. This gets units safely away, but keeps them at their destination for most of the next morning.

Back at Midway, Marple’s Federal cavalry brigade came in from Rockport with an aggressive stance and launched into Martin’s Brigade, first unit it encountered. They skirmished at Indian Rock, where Martin got the best of Marple and forced him back to the Raney and Becks farms to the east. The two brigades continued to skirmish heavily through the Raney peach orchard and surrounding fields and woods. Dibble came up to Martin’s support, but Marple retreated southward, rather than leaving the Midway vicinity back towards Rockport. Marple was still on the field in the evening and his brigade is encamped at the Jones Farm on Pleasant Ridge Road.

Randall’s Brigade was resting at Point Cedar for most of the day near Kirby’s Store. A lone Ohio cavalry regiment appeared to the south on the road from Midway, but then fell back without a fight and used a small trail to move from the Midway Road to the Lightfoot House on the Centreville-Rockport Road. In the evening, Kraft’s Brigade appeared from Hot Springs, was joined by the Ohio regiment, and deployed across the road along a wood line.