Fighting in the Trenches - Baird - June 2nd

By 10:15 a.m. Confederate skirmishers pulled back and the main Confederate line rose up in a general attack on the Federal line near White Fox Tavern. There is heavy fighting in the trenches on the Federal left.  More soon...

WIA3 Downloads Available

WIA3 is coming in January 2013. Downloads of the manual and initial maps are available on the sidebar.  The competitive campaign simulation will have some new features include:

1. Forced Marches and Withdrawals: This will bend authenticity a little to allow armies to concentrate quickly when they decide that they want to fight. It essentially turns the campaign simulation into a vehicle for generating tactical battles. Armies can also decide to withdrawal from the field and disengage to fight another day if they find their military situation unfavorable.
2. Limited Maps: The armies will start the campaign with only a few maps out of the many localities in the operating theatre. The will acquire maps as the campaign progresses, but most localities start off as a crossroads with an unknown terrain and settlement size.
3. Artillery: Using canister as an offensive weapon will be disallowed in this simulation. (No rolling artillery up into canister range of the enemy's line. Canister will be used defensively and 122nd Ohio's latest artillery mod will be in use. (Guns fire a few rounds of canister and then retreat.)
4. Victory Conditions: A points system will be employed that combines control of a location and casualties inflicted. An army may also win through the destruction of the enemy base of supply, but each army will have a substantial force in reserve guarding it.
5. Attrition: There will be no re-enforcements or recruitment.

There will be no limit to the number of turns for a tactical battle. The two side can continue to fight on the same map until one side has had enough.

Driving in the Skirmishers - Early Morning Phase - June 2nd

BAIRD - 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - June 2nd

At 6:00 a.m, the skirmishers from the 28^th and 34^th Texas who spent the night in the woods between the Baird Farm advanced and engaged Federal skirmishers to their front.  The 28^th Texas was north of the Greenville-Midway Road and engaged the 246^th Ohio. In the woods south of the road, the 34^th entered a lively exchange with the 201^st Indiana. The 163^rd Indiana was across the road and was not immediately engaged by enemy infantry, but Oliphant’s Louisiana Battery was advanced to the western end of the Baird Farm, positioned across the road and opened fire on the Indiana Infantrymen.

 As skirmishing started in the woods, Captain Sides’ Battery D, 3^rd Illinois Light Artillery opened fire on Otis’ Kentucky Battery. Sides was firing from a fortified position prepared on the night of June 1^st on the far left of the Union line. Otis’ men had not prepared their position in the fields north of the Baird house, but he was quickly joined by the St. Petersburg Battery under Capt. Wickson and Gage’s Arkansas Battery of twenty-pound parrott rifles. Wickson and Sides had engaged each other before at close range across Tulip Creek on May 10^th, but this morning they began firing at a range of about 650 yards.

 

As the skirmishing picked in the woods and the artillery duel on the Federal left / Confederate right started, firing was also heard in the vicinity of Betheny Church. Martin’s and Marple’s Brigades had skirmished there the previous afternoon and parted with the church and its cemetery in no man’s land between them evening set in. Marple seemed intent on cause a distraction in the Confederate rear, while Martin was clearly under orders to keep Marple contained.

The Federal skirmishers in the Baird Woods put up a strong fight against the Confederate line and gave no ground through the first hour of the morning. By 8:00 a.m., however, it was clear that there was a larger force moving up behind the Texans. The 246^th Ohio was suddenly faced with a brigade of Missourians passing through the 28^th Texas and driving them back towards the Federal main line. On the road, a Kentucky Brigade came out of the woods and engaged the 163^rd Indiana, as the 201^st Indiana was attacked by a brigade of Georgians. Oliphant's Battery moved down the road and repositioned behind the Kentuckians,  about half way between Baird and White Fox Tavern. The skirmishers, all from Bryan’s Brigade of the 3^rd Division, XXVI Corps were eventually forced back, out of the woods and behind the safety of the Federal main line.

 

 

The advancing Confederates had to negotiate the woods and a hill that led upward towards White Fox Tavern and the Federal line. As the infantry advanced, the artillery fire across the fields to the north began to decrease. Two of Wickson’s guns had been forced back and all but one of Capt. Sides’ guns were also retreating from their position after heavy loss from enemy shrapnel.  On the Federal right, Capt. Diehl’s 29^th Ohio Independent Battery was able to fire a few rounds into the left of a Confederate Brigade as it appeared briefly at the edge of the southern edge of the woods, but the Confederates moved back into the woods and out of Diehl’s line of sight. Just before 10:00 a.m., however, artillery opened up near White Fox Tavern as Richardson’s Battery (Battery F, Kentucky Light Artillery) opened up with canister on a Confederate Kentucky regiment that appeared from the woods in skirmish formation and opened fire on 2^nd Division regiments in earthworks on the west side of the road near the tavern.

 

 

As Capt. Richardson’s guns opened fire across a small road leading west from the tavern, Capt. Mead’s Battery (Battery C, 3^rd Illinois) was across the Greenville – Midway Road south of the tavern and was engaged by a Louisiana Regiment that appeared suddenly in the woods to their front. Capt. Mead’s right section retreated as his center section poured fire into the enemy and drove them back.  A Georgia regiment advanced in skirmish formation into a road junction near the Tavern and engaged, while a Missouri regiment engaged the far left of the Federal line. 

At 10:00 a.m. the Federals had driven back two of the regiments that had struck their main line and were pouring heavy fire into two more. There was, however, the gleam of bayonets and sound of advancing men coming up the hill behind the skirmishers…..

 

And so June 2^nd will continue during the 1^st week of December….

 

Hospital Reports - 31st May 1864

There was limited intelligence available to the two sides at 31st May. Here are reports from the hospitals of each Corps, for the period of 15th - 31st May 1864.

XXVI Corps Hospital Report 31st May 1864

II Corps Hospital Report 31st May 1864

Night of 1st June 1864

At long last, WIA2 is moving again.

On June 1st, Randall's Confederate cavalry brigade was at Harold and tried to move southward, but was blocked by Kraft's cavalrymen at the junction near Mt. Carmel Church. Kraft's men got the best of Randall's Brigade, which was unable to proceed southward and pulled back into a defensive position on along a wood line on a hill near the junction of the Sulphur Springs and Whittington Roads.

Further south, Confederate infantry in Raymonds was ordered to march on Greenville and Federal infantry in Greenville was order to move on Raymonds. The inevitable happened and they met in a patch of woods between a tavern and a farm owned by a man named Baird.

The 3rd Divisions of each corps were in the van, lead by their 1st Brigades. This led Bryan's Federal brigade of Rooney's Division to run into Wales' Brigade of Gowan's Confederate division. The fought in the woods, with Wales eventually being driven back, but leaving a strong skirmish line. The Federals did not advance, but also threw out a skirmish line in the woods.

To the rear of the Confederate line, Marple's Federal cavalry brigade arrived from Midway to meet their nemesis, Martin's Brigade, at Betheny Church. The skirmished, but Marple was unable to advance beyond the church.

At evening, a Federal line was reported near White Fox Tavern and a Confederate line near the Baird Farm. Cavalry were facing each other with the church and its cemetery in between them.

1st June 1864 - Coming Soon

I have been a bit behind on running the next turn in the sim. I have prepared the May 31st returns for II Corps and will be working on the returns for XXVI Corps tomorrow. The sim will resume over the weekend....