Going back to the later versions of the AACW1, I always found that on my normal settings (Medium assistance FOW, +1 activation, give AI more time, Sergeant level), the Union AI would do the exact same thing in the East...the NE Virginia army would head straight to Richmond via Fredericksburg, supply lines be damned.
I started my first game on 1.02 last night, and I found they did the exact same thing. Fought their way through my 13K troops in Fredericksburg, then laid siege to Richmond on the next turn. I railroaded my troops from Manassas down and pushed them out, and now they are just mulling around one district away from Richmond. That was pretty much what happened every single time for me in AACW1 in the later versions. Either that, or they would head directly to the Shenandoah to try to take Winchester and knock out Johnston's army.
In the earlier versions of AACW1, I remember fighting a lot of bloody battles with the Union AI around Fredericksburg in 62-63 as they gradually made their way to Richmond, protecting their supply line. Despite the other AI improvements since then, I'm not a big fan of the way the Union AI seems to handle the war in the first year in the East.
Do I need to change my settings? Would a higher FOW help? Or perhaps a lower one?
I suppose I need to do some experimenting...