This is an account of the battle we fought a little over a week ago as initially reported in our RPS thread:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/ ... burg/page4
OoB
Union
Gobbler, Cmdr AotP
- Pleasonton's cavalry corps (AI)
- I Corps (Monty)
-- TC's division
-- Alikchi's division
-- Robinson's division (AI)
- XI Corps (Gap)
-- Leffe's division
-- Ice's division
-- AI division
Rebs
1st Day Gettysburg
I and XI Corps, Gettysburg, MP Co-Op, sandbox
I and XI Corps, Gettysburg, MP Co-Op, sandbox
Last edited by Monty on Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: I and XI Corps, Gettystburg, MP Co-Op, sandbox
After Action Report
Leffe, division commander, XI Corps
From my point of view as a division commander under gap gen it all started very slowly and uneventful.
Watching the whole army wander off to different directions while marching through each other was funny for a while. But reaching my destination meant a long march following Ice's division. So I was very happy when my quartermaster suggested having dinner before any fighting would begin. I agreed and gave the marching orders to my two competent brigade commanders.
What felt like 5min later, I was abruptly bothered when several couriers brought letters with questions on where the hell my boys were marching to. As I learned, they were just about to march directly in some rebel division near cemetary hill. But miraculously, the enemy fell back before any shot was fired and I gave the order to halt and deploy into battle lines. And so cem hill was taken peacefully by the union troops with me on cem hill, ice on my left and an AI div on his left.
The rebels were seen in ghettysburg and far away to the west. The XI corps probed the enemy but had to fall back facing larger enemy troops or it would have been flanked on the far left. The enemy attacked me too, but not with much pressure yet.
Suddenly a lot of rebels emerged out of the city and assaulted my brigade on the right. My men lost most of hand-fighting and some troops routed or were captured. The enemy had many losses too, taking many cannister shots, before my guns routed too there. I lost half my command but thanks to Ice, we could hold our position. Then looking around I suddenly saw a fresh rebel brigade lurking around behind us in the south. We were in danger of being surrounded.
Some soldiers were already shouting "we are doomed!" Gap wanted to give the front troops on cem hill time to rest and ordered them back while I kept an eye to the south. But that was when the real fight just started. Wave after wave of rebels attacked us. No time to rest at all. Each time when we thought "that was tough, but we prevailed" soon another fresh brigade attacked again and again. We fought for mere survival. I was glad when I saw that the rebels to the south attacked Ali instead of us so we had just one front at least.
After cem hill, i had lost 75% of my men and 50% of my guns. What a bloody fight!
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/63...DD2F5A0248B68/
Leffe, division commander, XI Corps
From my point of view as a division commander under gap gen it all started very slowly and uneventful.
Watching the whole army wander off to different directions while marching through each other was funny for a while. But reaching my destination meant a long march following Ice's division. So I was very happy when my quartermaster suggested having dinner before any fighting would begin. I agreed and gave the marching orders to my two competent brigade commanders.
What felt like 5min later, I was abruptly bothered when several couriers brought letters with questions on where the hell my boys were marching to. As I learned, they were just about to march directly in some rebel division near cemetary hill. But miraculously, the enemy fell back before any shot was fired and I gave the order to halt and deploy into battle lines. And so cem hill was taken peacefully by the union troops with me on cem hill, ice on my left and an AI div on his left.
The rebels were seen in ghettysburg and far away to the west. The XI corps probed the enemy but had to fall back facing larger enemy troops or it would have been flanked on the far left. The enemy attacked me too, but not with much pressure yet.
Suddenly a lot of rebels emerged out of the city and assaulted my brigade on the right. My men lost most of hand-fighting and some troops routed or were captured. The enemy had many losses too, taking many cannister shots, before my guns routed too there. I lost half my command but thanks to Ice, we could hold our position. Then looking around I suddenly saw a fresh rebel brigade lurking around behind us in the south. We were in danger of being surrounded.
Some soldiers were already shouting "we are doomed!" Gap wanted to give the front troops on cem hill time to rest and ordered them back while I kept an eye to the south. But that was when the real fight just started. Wave after wave of rebels attacked us. No time to rest at all. Each time when we thought "that was tough, but we prevailed" soon another fresh brigade attacked again and again. We fought for mere survival. I was glad when I saw that the rebels to the south attacked Ali instead of us so we had just one front at least.
After cem hill, i had lost 75% of my men and 50% of my guns. What a bloody fight!
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/63...DD2F5A0248B68/
Re: I and XI Corps, Gettystburg, MP Co-Op, sandbox
After Action Report
Monty, I Corps
While Gap's corps was getting battered on their Cemetery Hill line I had my corps pull back to Cemetery Ridge to meet a surprise flank march by at least one Reb division (I definitely saw Rodes, but there may have been a second). Gobbler's cavalry managed to spoil and delay the Reb's attack so that it came in piecemeal with about 2/3 heading for TC's section of the line to the south and the remaining 1/3 menacing Ali to the north. Gobbler insisted we prevent this flank march from heading north and hitting Gap's over extended line in the rear, so I gave the ok for Ali and TC to advance and actively engage their opponents.
After a short while the flank march had been dealt with. By now Gap had withdrawn his entire battered corps to Cemetery Hill and was repulsing all comers. Gobbler had ordered me to redeploy my fresh division (Robinson's AI) to Cemetery Hill to forestall a collapse of Gap's defence, but by the time he arrived there everything was fine, so I ordered him back to the centre of my line (TC's and Ali's divisions being separated by about a mile of open ground).
With Robinson back in position at the centre of my line I decided to order a reverse-Pickett. I gave my orders to TC and Ali to stick to the flanks of Robinson's division and the corps stepped off en mass to cover the ground from Cemetery Hill to Seminary Ridge. We were mostly facing pockets of resistance from Reb infantry that had been broken once already, but the manoeuvre called for the corps to effectively strike out west before pivoting north to roll up the rest of the enemy west of Gettysburg which cost us a lot of time. TC got drawn out to face a much stronger enemy opposing him and he was practically lost from the advance about 15mins in.
Nevertheless, Ali and Robinson (AI) were able to continue the attack north and (with the assistance of Gobler's cavalry) drive off or seize the Reb grand battery that had been shelling Cemetery Hill for the entire battle. With this battle won, Gobbler gave the order for my corps to head for the major objective. Robinson (AI) was still pretty fresh, Ali's division was still intact but had by now seen a lot of fighting and TC was being fought to a standstill off to the south.
I ordered Robinson (AI) to take up position in the woods surrounding the Lutheran Seminary while I did a spot of reconnaissance. As I expected, the enemy had a fresh division sitting on the objective. I discounted any notion of carrying the attack forward and sat back while my artillery came on line. I ordered Ali to position his division behind Robinson and ordered TC to disengage from his attack and march north to Cemetery Hill. I would have liked to have concentrated my corps to the south of the railroad cut with Ali to my left and Robinson the right each putting a brigade forward and keeping a brigade in reserve. Meanwhile, the XI corps would attack from the woods on Oak Hill. Gobbler shot this idea down, however, and insisted that I deploy a division north of the cut to reinforce Gap's shattered corps. I reluctantly ordered Ali to take up this position.
With TC just arriving on Cemetery Hill, we begun the attack with only 2/3 of my corps on the field. I ordered TC from Cemetery Hill to the Seminary, but I was expecting his division to be tired from heavy fighting and the long marching, so it would be my reserve.
Robinson's (AI) division hit the enemy near MacPherson's Ridge, and had a single brigade forward with one in reserve and was battling with Davis's large regiments. After a short while I spotted the enemy redeploying a brigade (Archer's it turned out) to reinforce Davis's right so I ordered TC immediately into action on my left. Meanwhile, Ali sent me a desperate message, his division was disintegrating across the railroad cut to the north. I deployed most of Robinson's reserve brigade over the cut to the north (two of his regiments were already in action near MacPherson's Farm). Eventually, what I expected to happen, happened. Robinson's regiments deployed on MacPherson's ridge started routing from sheer exhaustion. Their morale would flip from high to broken in an instant and soon I had only Robinson's reserve brigade in action, partly south of the cut, mostly north of the cut. Off to the south was TC, now separated from the rest of the corps.
It was enough, though, because elsewhere in the Army Gap's corps had been able to swing round the enemy's position to the north and after much heavy fighting were able to gain the objective.
The four hours just flew by.
Monty, I Corps
While Gap's corps was getting battered on their Cemetery Hill line I had my corps pull back to Cemetery Ridge to meet a surprise flank march by at least one Reb division (I definitely saw Rodes, but there may have been a second). Gobbler's cavalry managed to spoil and delay the Reb's attack so that it came in piecemeal with about 2/3 heading for TC's section of the line to the south and the remaining 1/3 menacing Ali to the north. Gobbler insisted we prevent this flank march from heading north and hitting Gap's over extended line in the rear, so I gave the ok for Ali and TC to advance and actively engage their opponents.
After a short while the flank march had been dealt with. By now Gap had withdrawn his entire battered corps to Cemetery Hill and was repulsing all comers. Gobbler had ordered me to redeploy my fresh division (Robinson's AI) to Cemetery Hill to forestall a collapse of Gap's defence, but by the time he arrived there everything was fine, so I ordered him back to the centre of my line (TC's and Ali's divisions being separated by about a mile of open ground).
With Robinson back in position at the centre of my line I decided to order a reverse-Pickett. I gave my orders to TC and Ali to stick to the flanks of Robinson's division and the corps stepped off en mass to cover the ground from Cemetery Hill to Seminary Ridge. We were mostly facing pockets of resistance from Reb infantry that had been broken once already, but the manoeuvre called for the corps to effectively strike out west before pivoting north to roll up the rest of the enemy west of Gettysburg which cost us a lot of time. TC got drawn out to face a much stronger enemy opposing him and he was practically lost from the advance about 15mins in.
Nevertheless, Ali and Robinson (AI) were able to continue the attack north and (with the assistance of Gobler's cavalry) drive off or seize the Reb grand battery that had been shelling Cemetery Hill for the entire battle. With this battle won, Gobbler gave the order for my corps to head for the major objective. Robinson (AI) was still pretty fresh, Ali's division was still intact but had by now seen a lot of fighting and TC was being fought to a standstill off to the south.
I ordered Robinson (AI) to take up position in the woods surrounding the Lutheran Seminary while I did a spot of reconnaissance. As I expected, the enemy had a fresh division sitting on the objective. I discounted any notion of carrying the attack forward and sat back while my artillery came on line. I ordered Ali to position his division behind Robinson and ordered TC to disengage from his attack and march north to Cemetery Hill. I would have liked to have concentrated my corps to the south of the railroad cut with Ali to my left and Robinson the right each putting a brigade forward and keeping a brigade in reserve. Meanwhile, the XI corps would attack from the woods on Oak Hill. Gobbler shot this idea down, however, and insisted that I deploy a division north of the cut to reinforce Gap's shattered corps. I reluctantly ordered Ali to take up this position.
With TC just arriving on Cemetery Hill, we begun the attack with only 2/3 of my corps on the field. I ordered TC from Cemetery Hill to the Seminary, but I was expecting his division to be tired from heavy fighting and the long marching, so it would be my reserve.
Robinson's (AI) division hit the enemy near MacPherson's Ridge, and had a single brigade forward with one in reserve and was battling with Davis's large regiments. After a short while I spotted the enemy redeploying a brigade (Archer's it turned out) to reinforce Davis's right so I ordered TC immediately into action on my left. Meanwhile, Ali sent me a desperate message, his division was disintegrating across the railroad cut to the north. I deployed most of Robinson's reserve brigade over the cut to the north (two of his regiments were already in action near MacPherson's Farm). Eventually, what I expected to happen, happened. Robinson's regiments deployed on MacPherson's ridge started routing from sheer exhaustion. Their morale would flip from high to broken in an instant and soon I had only Robinson's reserve brigade in action, partly south of the cut, mostly north of the cut. Off to the south was TC, now separated from the rest of the corps.
It was enough, though, because elsewhere in the Army Gap's corps had been able to swing round the enemy's position to the north and after much heavy fighting were able to gain the objective.
The four hours just flew by.