James' Wargaming Weirdness: Gettysburg Day 1

Monday, 3 February 2025

Gettysburg Day 1 - McPherson's Ridge.

It has been a while since the last American Civil War game so I decided to get the two sides out for a bit of exercise. I usually prefer to replay historical battles to compare the historical result with the war game result and this was no exception. In this case the scenario was the Battle of McPherson's ridge which was part of the first day of Gettysburg. The scenario I found on the excellent Jay's Wargaming Madness page which is a great source of inspiration and adapted it a little.. Essentially the Confederates have numerical superiority to start with, they have to push the union troops off McPherson's ridge and then see if they can take Seminary Hill behind before Union reinforcements come up. In our game the Confederates got off to a bit of a slow start and the first wave took heavy casualties, especially the frontal infantry attacks on the artillery were disastrous. However, the weight of numbers eventually prevailed and the union troops that survived withdrew from McPherson's Ridge. By now Union reinforcements had arrived unformed a second line of defence on Seminary hill. The first impetuous confederate attack failed to put a dent in the blue line. However once the Confederates resited their two artillery batteries on McPherson's ridge the Union started to suffer. the second confederate attack went in with the bayonet and artillery support and was more successful, although on the left of the Confederate line a confederate regiment was thrown back by stout Union defence, on the right a union Regiment broke and fled at the mere sight of the oncoming southerners. The Union withdrew their artillery behind the hill or else lose it to superior confederate artillery fire, and the triumphant confederates secured a foothold on the Hill itself. Unfortunately the Union artillery now out of sight of the Confederate artillery behind the hill was well placed to vaporize the unlucky but triumphant confederate regiment which had taken the hill. Ka boom!!! At this point both armies were technically broken as the result of having suffered over 50% of their starting strength in casualties so we can concluded the game. It had been a very nail biting game and the rules had worked well. The rules were the Neil Thomas Napoleonic wargaming rules which I have adapted for the American Civil War, and usually produce a fast, brutal and decisive game.