No-Grant Union Two - Covid Boogaloo

[Naturamix]

Turns 35-38 Virginia,

The Union issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

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This probably closes the door on foreign intervention on this game.

In the field Sheridan retook Monroe before being shipped to Texas to prepare for the invasion of Louisiana.

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Kearny's cavalry clashed with Shelby, but the latter got the better of the Union.

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Historically I believe that the CSA dominated in cavalry early war, but was later worn down, and I hope to repeat this.
Although I am about to launch a major invasion I think there may be an opportunity for an advance in south eastern Virginia. Doubleday's division is ready in New York and more forces are on the way. Hardee only has 2 divisions, so if I add 2 to Pope's current 2 I may be able to advance along the James river and threaten Petersburg.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 35-38 Deep South,

In Georgia I probed forward with some cavalry under Crittenden and carried out some plunder.

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Murtagks doesn't appear to have any forces to stop me in Georgia. When a fast general can be spared (perhaps Sheridan in 1863) it may be straightforward to make a dash for Atlanta.

More concerning though was the rapid build-up of forces under Beauregard East of Charleston.
Murtagks still wishes to contest the city, perhaps I withdrew Hooker too quickly.
I had best hope that Freemont is able to hold his position, or at least inflict heavy losses during an assault.

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The Union cavalry will cut the rail link to help interdict supplies, but ultimately I expect it will likely come to a clash in the field.

[Naturamix]

Turns 35-38 invasion preparation,

The invasion of New Orleans will occur in late November.
The forces under Hooker and Sherman are ready.

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I will assault Baton Rouge and cut the rail link north simultaneously.

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The risk is that significant forces come south and join Price's entrenchments. It may be (depending on Price's forces) that further reinforcements (particularly of artillery) are required, and I don't want to allow Murtagks to harden this target in the interim, which is why cutting the rail link is critical.

[Naturamix]

Turns 35-38 Tennessee and Arkansas,

To support the invasion of LA, I will increase the operational tempo in Tennessee.
Thomas will press south to threaten Memphis.

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ABSJ attempted to push Prentice's division up the river.

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Perhaps due to the training by Siegel or the better command structure this time the Union forces held and inflicted heavy casualties on ABSJ.

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A fine result, as it keeps Johnston from reinforcing other fronts I may threaten.
Further into Arkansas Sumner will winter at Arkedelphia, with access to its arsenal for supply.

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With the supply situation improved I may be able to support greater forces to help the conquest of Little Rock in the Spring, but the snow on the mountains will need to thaw first.

In Nashville Murtagks attempted to force Rosecrans off.
I suspect he was unlucky as Johnson's Corps did not support Johnston's main stack.

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New forces are being prepared in Kentucky and so I will attempt to seize more of Tennessee to put pressure on JEJ's army.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 39-42 West of Mississippi,

In Texas Stuart and Van Dorn continue to cause problems, but at least ended up getting beaten by Butler's 2 brigades after a poor attempt to take Houston.

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I may need to commit more mobile forces to the area.

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In Arkansas Stewart made a move to cut Sumner's supply line.

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This resulted in a battle outside of Arkadelphia after Sumner wheeled about and retraced his steps.

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The CSA stack is mostly Indians and militia. It may be possible to to take Little Rock now that they have come out from their entrenchments, but given the snow it's not certain that I can maneuver there in time.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 39-42 Tennessee,

I made a great error of judgement in Tennessee and sent Gilbert's stack into E. Johnson.

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JEJ's main body reinforced his subordinate corps and inflicted great losses on the Union. The artillery survived but otherwise the divisions will need to be totally re-fitted.
Fortunately more forces are on their way and so the front was quickly reinforced.

I attempted to catch JEJ out in the open, but he slipped away.

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After Nashville falls it will be difficult to advance on this front, but I should make some attempt in the thaw to put further pressure on the CSA.
The terrain is unfortunately perfect for defense.

In west Tennessee Ft Pillow surrendered and I made a bid for Corinth.

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This city was undefended.
Thomas will dig in, thus cutting the CSA rail line west. I may need to support this position from Rosecrans' corps, but it's a good position to hold if possible.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 39-42 Charleston,

The Charleston front lit up with two CSA assaults on the Union army, and the results were mostly in the Union's favour.
It is a peculiar situation with the Union outside the city unable to be dislodged, but nor taking the city.

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The issue however is that Murtagks has a ~2:1 superiority in numbers in this theatre and is now outflanking the position and establishing control to cut off the supply line.

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I still wish to take Charleston and cannot afford to lose Freemont's stack. I will therefore pour reinforcements in as rapidly as possible.

Hancock has a new division that I was going to send to the Virginia front, but will be redirected.
I have also formed a division out of the Irish legion and built a further new one under Dan Sickles, who I feel I must use as much as possible having found out a little about the historical figure.

[Naturamix]

Turns 39-42 Virginia,

Kearny and Shelby once again clashed in Virginia as the former scouted out Petersburg.

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With Doubleday's division arrived from NY I chose to make a slight push towards Richmond around Hardee.

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The move was uncontested and Hardee withdrew to prevent himself from being cut off.
This was if anything a little cautious on Murtagks' part.

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I will press the advance a little. I only have a slight superiority, but it may allow the Union to make a little ground towards Richmond and be in place to threaten the city in 1863.

[Naturamix]

Turns 39-42 Louisiana,

The main action as '62 came to a close was in Louisiana.

The initial invasion went off like clockwork. Baton Rouge fell and Price was cut off from the rest of the Confederacy.

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It would be ideal to destroy the entire defending force when the city falls, and so Sherman moved to take Ft Pike.

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This allowed me to promote him so that he can take command of a corps under Hooker.

Unfortunately I am now at the point where a simple direct assault on the city must be carried out to move Price.
I have gathered 4 divisions and supporting artillery, but nonetheless it may be bloody.
Hopefully Hooker can carry the day with his 4 elite divisions.
I have to hope that price has mostly militia that will simply run.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 43-46 Louisiana,

With Sherman as a corps commander, Hooker assaulted Price.

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This required several costly clashes losing the Union national morale, and losing Sherman seniority )one is shown for brevity.
Meanwhile on the river USA and CSA ironclads clashed several times, with slight losses for the Union, but the CSA fleet withdrew.

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Though costly, the battles had the desired effect, price was forced from his entrenchments.

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With Union iroclads preventing a retreat, Sherman took the 3 strongest divisions and hit Price again.

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This is a great result as Price cannot flee across the river, nor into the Union-controlled neighbouring regions.
I will continue to grind down these 2 divisions, hopefully until they are destroyed, and therefore open up the Mississippi to Union forces.

The last action allowed me to promote George Meade.

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I will send him to Georgia, where a competent corps commander is desperately needed.

[Naturamix]

Turns 43-46 Georgia and South Carolina,

With Union reinforcements arriving from New York, Milroy advanced to try to bait Beauregard into an attack.

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Unfortunately I did not anticipate a remarkable and risky gamble by Murtagks where he sent the entire stack under Beauregard down river the coast to besiege Savannah!

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Two divisions from NY had just moved from the city to reinforce Milroy and so it was practically defenseless.

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I anticipated that Murtagks would launch this assault, and I therefore railroaded Milroy back to the city outskirts, where Beauregard's assault stance prompted another engagement that worked out in the Union's favour.

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I now find myself holding neither of the cities in GA and SC, but much of the territory around them.

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Although this theatre has clearly seen great reversals for the Union after Hooker's advance to the gates of Charleston, it may also be an area of great opportunity.
The time I invested in securing the countryside around the cities gives me depth and makes movement by reinforcing CSA troops along railroads difficult. If I can dedicate more forces and a better commander (George Meade hopefully), I may be able to destroy some of the 7 CSA divisions that are attempting to hold Charleston and Savannah.
The need to defend these objectives should limit Murtagk's ability and willingness to maneuver.

[Naturamix]

Turns 43-46 Tennessee,

In Tennessee I did not manage to force battle, but nonetheless have produced a favourable situation by maneuver.
First JEJ attempted to defend the southward railroad from Nashville.

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The snow totally drained his cohesion and so I attempted to attack him with the Army of the Cumberland under Rosecrans.
Although there was no battle, a few turns later Rosecrans got behind the confederates leaving them only the rough country to the east to escape.

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If so I may make a dash for Chattanooga, or hope to receive an attack as the CSA supplies dwindle.

A similar story unfolded in the west of the state with Thomas moving from Corinth to Memphis.

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Governeur Warren and a new division from Missouri have been moved to hold Corinth whilst Thomas besieges Memphis.
I am taking a lot of territory without a fight.
The CSA is still dangerous though as the armies have been preserved, but I suspect Murtagks should have given battle a few more times to protect some of these objectives.

[Naturamix]

Turns 43-46 West,

The West was mostly quiet, but Sumner finally managed to seize the field outside of Little Rock.

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The movement of AP Stewart from his entrenchments to chase after my cavalry gave Sumner the opportunity to beat him in the open field.
Stewart in fact retreated into the city and so he now finds himself trapped, and with luck the entire stack may be lost to a surrender if Sumner can hold his ground.

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Some mounted volunteers also retook Dallas in Texas.
It has little military value and is no longer an objective, nonetheless nice.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 43-46 Virginia and thoughts on Strategy,

Very little happened in Virginia. As forces were moved away to reinforce SC and GA I couldn't drive towards Richmond as aggressively as I might have done.
Nonetheless Howard cut the main rail link south from Richmond.

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The CSA-controlled territory is this theatre has shrunk significantly.
Murtagks has preserved CSA fighting power, but has allowed the Union to tighten the noose around Richmond

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At present the ANV has 8 divisions facing Washington and around 4 facing McDowell's army approaching from Norfolk in the south.
It will be necessary to destroy these forces, but with the entrenchments making every step forward painful, it would be better to take as much ground approaching Richmond as possible without major engagements.
Therefore the main thrust will come from the south.
I will try to find a good general for a corps (perhaps Reynolds), but McDowell will need more than the 4 divisions he currently has (a new one arrived from New York under Steele).
Fortunately the USA material advantage increases in 63 and so fresh divisions that are being assembled will rapidly become available.
Some of these must go to secure SC, but the others will support a push towards Richmond from the south to prepare to strike the deathblow against the Confederacy.

[Naturamix]

Turns 47-50 West,

In the west the union made good advances without any significant engagement.

In Texas Murtagks has pushed the population so much with drafting that I have enough loyalty to play the White Unionists decision that will spawn some militia there.
This will help gather further victory points for the Union.

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In Arkansas AP Stewart's cavalry slipped out of the city unfortunately, but it did at least put the city in Union hands.

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It may be worth securing the towns in the area for any supply and money, but the priority is of course holding Little Rock as it holds a place in the victory cities list.

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Price unfortunately escaped by boat to Mobile (I think), but it did leave New Orleans and the surrounding area firmly in Union hands.

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Sherman and Hooker can now push up into Mississippi to Jackson and Vicksburg. If the Upper Mississippi can be captured by Thomas then that puts all of the state's objective cities in Union hands.

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Sherman's position at Jackson combined with the Union hold on Cairo mean that the Confederate rail network is now cut in two and so Murtagks can no longer redeploy between theatres as easily.
'63 will hopefully be the year where the Confederate position unravels and the armies get whittled away.

[Naturamix]

Turns 47-50 Tennessee,

In TN the Union scored some great successes against the CSA.
ABSJ's Army tried to break the siege of Memphis, but was repulsed.

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Further, Rosecrans' position behind JEJ's army also forced an engagement where JEJ tried to pull back westwards through Gilbert's corps.

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The union did try to catch him again, but regrettably he slipped away.
I moved a fleet out to intercept any retreat along the river, but unfortunately the CSA fleet chased me away.

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This leaves JEJ in Western Tennessee with the Union armies on either side.
He can be resuplied by river, and I suspect that he will attempt to withdraw to link up with ABSJ.

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As Rosecrans is between JEJ and Chattanooga, the Union will attempt to seize the city and open a path into northern Georgia.
This may eventually allow me to link up with Freemont in SC whilst further dividing the Confederacy.

[Naturamix]

Turns 47-50 Virginia,

The move to Burkeville caused Hardee to attack the Union force.

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This battle occured as hopped, with higher casualties inflicted on the CSA.
I had hoped to follow up by taking Petersburg.

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Unfortunately, I totally misjudged Murtagks' next move as moved Hardee's and Forney's entire corps back, which then totally smashed Pope's entire corps.

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This is the most disastrous battle for the Union in the game so far.
With Howard forced south, I will try for a quick reversal against Holmes' stack as Murtagks has spread out to capitalise on his success.

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There is nothing for me to do but feed in more troops to hold Norfolk and try to reverse the situation.
As more divisions become ready they will need to be balanced carefully between Virginia and SC.
I am also planning for when a more competent commander can be put in charge of the Army of the Potomac.

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The high morale divisions are being shifted west where they might eventually be able to attack Longstreet if the numerical advantage is sufficient.
The ANV will need to be dstroyed eventually so it's good to lay the groundwork.

[Naturamix]

Turns 47-50 South Carolina and Strategy.

A fresh division from New England arrived in the besieged town of Hardee's station alongside General Meade

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Shelby's cavalry besieges the city, and I expect that I should be able to drive them off.
It occurs to me that SC is in some ways very favourable to me.
The CSA has 8 good divisions defending Charleston and Savannah against 6 Union ones.
Accounting for the broader weakness of the CSA this is a great advantage as it ties down more CSA forces in this theatre.
I may therefore just give Meade one division to go around GA and SC taking victory points and resources.
If the CSA comes out of it's entrenchments I may then give battle, but it may be possible to capitalise on the static CSA defense in the meantime.

The war in general has swung in favour of the Union with the USA ahead on national morale and just getting ahead on victory points.

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This VP lead should widen, and so the Union position will strengthen turn on turn and perhaps force the CSA into more dangerous and costly moves to cling on to more victory cities.

Murtagks has nonetheless preserved the CSA armies well so he's not beaten by a long shot.

[Naturamix]

Turns 51-53_Tennessee,

In Tennessee the front was static in the west, with the Memphis garrison refusing to surrender. Murtagks moved Smith's Corps from west to east of the Mississippi to concentrate the army with ABSJ, so I suspect that he intends to redeploy south to attempt to retake Jackson.
He is probably better off on the drier side as our brown water navies clashed again.

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JEJ was initially pushed towards western Tennessee as he fled Rosecrans' army.

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This allowed Rosecrans and Gilbert's corp to capitalise and seize most of south eastern Tennessee, including Chattanooga.

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JEJ and Johnson ended up east of Corinth and I suspect that their supply situation is dire.

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If they come out of their entrenchments I will give battle, but for now I 'll let them sit there whilst Rosecrans pushes into Georgia from the north.

[Naturamix]

Turns 51-53 Mississippi,

Hooker and Sherman rushed up the Mississippi to find that Price had got to Vicksburg and dug in.

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Union cavalry raided the east to hamper reinforcing confederates, whilst Sherman and Hooker assaulted the city from the north (to avoid the river penalty).

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Sometimes a frontal assault is the only way.
I saw in the log that Price took significant damage whilst fleeing, and so with the ironclads guarding the river Sherman will give chase to try and destroy this stack.

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I am slightly concerned about ABSJ coming down from Memphis, but if I can destroy Price's stack it will bring the Union significantly closer to victory.

[Naturamix]

Turns 51-53 Virginia,

In Virginia clashes continued.
Hardee drove Pope all the way back to Norfolk, but with 2 fresh divisions arriving from NY I doubt he can go further.

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Meanwhile, Howard counterattacked and pushed Holmes north.

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I attempted to follow up and take Petersburg, but Murtagks pre-empted me and force Howard back again.

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As Murtagks was clearly committed (very rationally) to holding Petersburg, I chose to move Howard west to cut the rail line at Burkeville. He may even be able to link up with forces from west Virginia, or indeed Rosecrans if the Union can secure the railroad up from Chattanooga.

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This mobile war suits me well as the casualties are constant, but even. This will help whittle away CSA strength, whilst the North may replace losses.

[Naturamix]

Turns 51-53 South Carolina and Texas,

The other fronts were mostly quiet.
I attempted to seize Austin unsuccessfully with some black troops and white unionists, but the garrison held on.

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Will resupply and try again.

In South Carolina I noticed that Beauregard may be running out of supply.
It's unsurprising that a single blockaded town would struggle to support 4 divisions.

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To maximise the gains from Beauregard's potential defeat I have surrounded the city with blockade ships as I don't want him pulling any water moves to escape his demise.

Union forces also burnt down Columbia to get a bit more money, and I can't really make them loyal to the Union anyway.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 54-57 Mississippi,

The Union made good progress in the Mississippi and consolidated its gains.

Sherman caught up to Price twice and inflicted significant casualties on his stack as it retreated.

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As there must be fewer than 10 k men left, and one division (Mosby's) seems to be completely destroyed I will only spend one more turn trying to chase it down.

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With Vicksburg and Jackson secured Hooker's Mississippi Command may be freed up to assault new targets.
Ultimately the confederacy must be defeated in Virginia and so I will redeploy Sherman back there as he is the most competent corps commander available to me. Sheridan's divisions and Gibbon's artillery can go with him.

Reynolds can hopefully be promoted after one more action and could perhaps move to secure Mobile, whilst Hooker can move north to take Thomas as a corps commander and finally destroy AS Johnston who is still preventing me from securing Memphis.

[Naturamix]

Turns 54-57 East Arkansas and Southern Tennessee,

As the Union front advances from New Orleans it also advances from Tennessee and Arkansas.
With the CSA Army of the Tennessee pulling back across the Mississippi union stacks and partisans advanced to secure the railroad in eastern Arkansas and deny the CSA supply.

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As mentioned Hooker will move to reinforce Thomas and finally destroy the confederate army under AB Johnston, who has perhaps been the most successful CSA commander this war.

As he retreated from southern Tennessee Joseph E Johnston began running out of supply and so Murtagks tried to seize the depot at Corinth.

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The rebels were repulsed and now I may have an opportunity to completely destroy this force. Gilbert will chase him down into Alabama as Hooker's forces cut the Alabama supply cities out from under him.

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I've seized a lot of territory, but Murtagks has done a very good job of maintaining CSA fighting power, so destroying these field armies is critical to secure a Union victory.

[Naturamix]

Turns 54-57 Deep South,

The Georgia front began to move as Beauregard's supply depleted.

Murtagks realised that he had to make a break for it with Beauregard and so the CSA army fought it's way out of Savannah.

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This allowed Savannah to be re-re-taken for the Union.

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Unfortunately Beauregard's divisions still had a lot of life left in them, and even with supplies running out they seized back Augusta and destroyed the Union brigade that was guarding it.

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Beauregard at this point probably has the most dangerous CSA field army, as it is not fixed by a Union force and could move to reinforce another front.

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Therefore one of Rosecrans' corps will rush to take Atlanta before Beauregard can move there and dig in, whilst Meade and Milroy move up force battle.

Freemont will have to stay outside of Charleston fixing Polk in place so probably can't be of help.

[Naturamix]

Turns 54-57 Virginia,

The Virginia front is the most difficult, but needs to be cracked eventually.

Forney drove Kearny and Howard off the rail line out of Richmond.

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Howard fell back to he supply depot on the border with North Carolina.

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Somewhere along the line he earned the possibility for a promotion. As I would like to launch a decisive campaign to finish the CSA in Virginia having a decent 3* general to put my excellent corps commanders under would be ideal.

I count around 16 CSA divisions in Virginia, half of which are facing the very static Army of the Potomac still under George McClellan.
As the front south of Richmond has been more mobile and less entrenched, there is likely more room for progress in this area. Some troops may be redeployed from the quieter western fronts and more will come from New York as they finish training. The CSA troops need to be ground down in a series of battles whilst fortified positions are assaulted as little as possible to clear the way to Richmond.

[Naturamix]

Turn 58 Virginia,

Murtagks made a very bold play.
Lee crossed the Rappahannock and attacked the Army of the Potomac, successfully driving them from Falmouth.

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As soon as this battle occurred it become very clear what Murtagks was doing:
Seeing that the Confederacy was getting slowly chewed up in all directions he was going for one last throw of the dice to try to take Washington with his best force.
I have to respect that.

I therefore immediately started moving troops from everywhere I could find to reinforce the capital.

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Two divisions (one of which had only just been redeployed from the Army of the Potomac) from Norfolk got on ships to help the capital, and some troops from west were put on the railway to help the capital to concentrate the defense.

This move would put the Confederacy in a very dangerous position and we both knew that.
By abandoning their entrenchments the Army of Northern Virginia were opening up the Richmond to a potential Union assault.

Not to be outdone I also decided to also go for the higher risk move and with the two Corps that Lee already cut off from Washington I chose to move towards Richmond, rather than attempt to scramble back towards DC.

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I'm very glad that I promoted Howard, as he was then put in command of the Army of the James and tasked with moving on Richmond from the South to link up with the scattered parts of the Army of the Potomac.

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The next couple of turns therefore became a race between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Lee dashing towards Washington whilst the Union Army of the James made their assault on Richmond.

[Naturamix]

Turns 58-62 All but Virginia,

As we knew that things were coming to a head in Virginia, Murtagks and I both chose to make aggressive moves out west.

Murtagks attempted to relieve the siege of Memphis, but was repulsed.

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AS Johnston ended the the war surrounded by Hooker's Mississippi command south of Memphis, which was in Union hands.

I made a bad decision to try to finish off Beauregard, but he had not bean weakened by lack of supply anywhere near as much as I thought.

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I had taken Atlanta with Rosecrans coming down from Tennessee and would have renewed the assault on Beauregard with these reinforcements had a decision to happened in Virginia.

[Naturamix]

Virginia final showdown part 1,

I rushed troops to Washington, and was able to place Wallace's Corps under McClellan to try to block Lee's advance on Alexandria.

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Regrettably, lee nonetheless inflicted a very large defeat on the Union defenders outside of Alexandria nonetheless.
I was surprised at how well these assaults worked, and Murtagks and I speculated that perhaps the skill bonuses of generals are more effective in larger battles, but we don't really know.

At this point I was shipping in more troops from either theatres and sending half-build divisions from Philadelphia and New York to shore up the defences of Washington.

Pushing into Alexandria, Murtagks had managed to cut Berry's Corps off in Manassas, this left 3 Divisions having to go the long way round and unable to join the defence during Lee's assault.

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McClellan just held his position outside the city, but only after a costly defeat.

Simultaneously Hamilton pushed south towards Richmond.

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All these assaults took a serious toll on my national morale, but with Howard and Pope coming to reinforce there was nothing to do but press on.

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Finally Hardee was forced off the city and John Pope was set on assault to try and take the city itself.
Murtagks and I were thus each at the gates of the other's capital.

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[Naturamix]

Virginia final showdown part 2,

With the entire Army of the James under Howard the fall of Richmond was not in doubt.

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The question then was whether the Confederacy could simultaneously deprive the Union it its capital.

That turn the most anticipated reinforcements shipped in from another theatre finally arrived - Sherman's corps with Sheridan's division.

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To remove the Army of Northern Virginia from Washington, Sherman was give the best troops the union had available (including Berry's troops that hard railroaded through the Shenandoah to get home, placed as a Corps commander in the Army of the Potomac and attacked Lee.

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Murtagks and I joked that our iteration of the civil war hopefully ended in a 1 to 1 duel between Lee and Sherman outside Washington.

With Lee thrown back from the gates of Washington and Richmond in Union hands Murtagks conceded. GG.

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The Union triumphs.