Early September, 1862
Emanicipation Proclamation
Signed the Emancipation Proclamation this turn. I have completely redone the USCT recruiting. Will write something up describing changes next turn.
Virginia Theater:
Hamilton's corps defeated Beauregard's corps at Hanover inflicting 2500 reb losses while losing 2000 men. Hamilton's corps retreated to Richmond unfortunately. And now, I have just discovered that Richmond has a fort. I wonder how long that fort has been there? I expect Hamilton to retreat within the Richmond fort. I have serious reservations as to whether my men can take Richmond by assault while garrisoned by a full rebel corps within a fort. I might, maybe, be able to take it with horrendous losses. Actually I doubt I could take the fort at all via assault.
Hamilton will advance and attack Beauregard if he remains outside Richmond. If I can drive Beauregard away from Richmond, I can take Richmond by assault from the garrison. If Beauregard defends from within the fort, a siege will be necessary. Another advantage of placing Richmond under siege, I remove another depot from operation in Virginia. Is it the last reb depot in Virginia?
McDowell and Milroy will defend Fredericksburg. Meade located at Washington DC will be promoted to corps commander and is moving to Fredericksburg to take over Milroy's Corps.
Deven's cavalry destroys the railroads at Charlottesville and moves to Louisa, Virginia just south of Fredericksburg. Davidson with 2,000 Pennsylvania infantry marches from Beverly, WV to Harrisonburg, VA at the south end of the Shenandoah Valley.
Lee and Stonewall are digging in at Alexandria and Manassas. Holmes Corps is still at Harper's Ferry. Longstreet's division is holding Winchester.
We may have a standoff. The rebs cannot take Washington by direct assault nor can I take Richmond by direct assault without either assault resulting in devastating losses. Seiges are an alternative but both cities require blockades to force a surrender due to water supply. The Union can blockade Richmond but the Confederates cannot blockade Washington DC. So Washington DC can only be taken by assault while Richmond can be starved.
I am currently building a fort at Washington DC which is something I should have done at the beginning of the game. It will take 25 days and eliminates two of my supply wagons from the garrison. It may not be complete before a seige begins. However if completed in time, I can remove troops from Washington to operate in the field.
Supply may be a deciding factor. Union supply by ocean is more plentiful than supply for the rebs from remote Harper's Ferrys at the end of a very tenuous supply line. My cavalry continues cutting lines to Harper's Ferry. Union cavalry is destroying the depot at Baltimore in case the rebs decide to move north to obtain additional supply.
Kentucky/Tn Theater:
Albert Johnson and two corps of the Army of the Tennessee have moved north taking Madisonville and Hardeman while maintaining march to the guns support between the corps. This move prevents direct supply to Corinth. Polk with the remaining Army of the Tennessee corps remains just east of Corinth at Tishomingo, Ms.
Jeff Davis's cavalry arrived at an undefended Memphis. Memphis is the prize, so I expect the Army of the Tennessee to retreat to Memphis as he now realizes I know it is undefended. If I could march my army from Corinth and launch a coordinated attack, I would fight a decisive battle, even with the odds only slightly in my favor, at Memphis now, or capture an undefended Memphis. But I can't. I have swapped troops/supply/engineers/etc and I still end up with an uncoordinated attack by Grant and Lyon's Corps on Memphis-which is guaranteed defeat if Johnson retreats back to Memphis as I anticipate.
So instead Grant will march east and attack Polk. Lyon will defend Corinth. Prentiss's Division marches south from McNary, Tn for Oxford, Ms. Johnson's small division of 6700 men is re-assigned from Lyon's Corp to Corps Commander Berry and marches to occupy Grenada, Ms.
Jeff Davis's cavalry destroy's the rails at Memphis. The three cavalry regiments then split up and head south to destroy rails leading to Memphis from the south.
Foote will attempt to unload Hay's division into Edmund, Ark just west of Memphis. However if the reb fleet sorties, I won't be able to land the division. Porter's fleet departs Cairo for Memphis. Porter and Foote's two fleets will blockade Memphis by occupying the two river regions accessed by the Memphis harbor.
Meanwhile further north, Dix's 13,000 infantry and cavalry fall back from Humbolt to Columbus, Ky. Rosecran's with 20,000 men at Cairo and George Thomas with 11,000 men at Nashville move for Columbus as well. When all are concentrated, I will have 45,000 men at Columbus. Van Cleve's 6000 cavalry at Humbolt marchs for McNary, Tn.
John Pope with 5000 men leaves Bowling Green for Nashville. Only a 1000 men will remain defending Bowling Green. Forrest's reb cavalry division remains north of Clarksville, Tn. However Whipple and Kearny's 6100 cavalry will continue attacking Forrest following him until Forrest is no longer a threat.
Very dynamic situation rigth now in western Kentucky/Tennessee. I expect the reb army to fall back to Memphis as it is the key to the Mississippi in the north. If so, the assembling army at Columbus will join with the Corinth army for a combined attack on Memphis. If instead, the rebs advances on Columbus, the Corinth army will take Memphis and then move north to fight the rebs at Columbus. At the same time, I am using cavalry and two small infantry divisions to substantially damage lines of communciation from the south to Memphis. I am very concerned about the surprisingly large rebel forces at Pensacola returning north to the western KY/TN theater. They would have a significant impact on the balance of power.
Bear in mind it is also Early September with only another month or two of good campaigning weather remaining before the rains and then the snow arrive. I would like to take Memphis before the arrival of bad weather.
In eastern Kentucky, Ammon's 2000 man Ohio brigade moves southeast from Mt Vernon to recon the defenses of Huntsville, Tn.
PS: I found another source which cited Halleck controlling 123,000 men including all three armies of Grant, Pope and Buell during his march on Corinth.
Missouri Theater:
Missouri is relatively quiet. Quantril's raiders have returned from northern Kansas to central Missouri and are now located just north of Lexington.
A Sioux uprising occured at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming territory. I am sending Lyon's regiment plus two additional cavalry regiments from St. Louis north to deal with uprising. I could sure use those cavalry regiments somewhere other than Wyoming right now.
Gulf Theater:
Hay's and Reynold's troops captured Pensacola and destroyed the defending garrison. Unfortunately, a huge CSA force has appeared at Pensacola. I have no idea how such a large force managed to reach Pensacola so quickly. But there they are. Ewell is in command of three divisions (pwr780) at Pensacola. Bonham's corps (pwr400) is just north at Sparta, Alabama. Hay's and Reynold's 8000 men (pwr173) are now surrounded within Pensacola. In addition, Florida militia has reoccupied Santa Rosa. The troops do not have a land retreat route. If the division fights, they will lose. The division will be destroyed or captured to the last man.
There is only one possibility of escape-immediate evacuation by water from the harbor. Unfortunately, I don't have any ships in the harbor. So instead, they will use generic river transport. If Ewell attacks the division before it evacuates, the division will be annihilated anyway. An attack would halt the evacuation order. But if not, they may escape. Keeping fingers crossed that I don't lose a full, veteran division.
THIS IS THE HUGE RISK OF AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS. Trapped by a previously unknown and very large force without a retreat route , they can be destroyed to the last man. Fortunately I have a town for temporary shelter, a harbor and generic river tansport providing at least an opportunity to escape.
The 1st US cavalry will destroy the rails at DeKalb, then move by river transport towards Corinth rather than attempt to return to Fort Pickens. The regiment is low on supply.
Off New Orleans, the seige of Fort Phillips has begun. I have doubts that I have enough ships to maintain the river blockade of the fort. A few rebel ironclads from New Orleans would easily break the blockade. I have three monitors which are finally reaching the Gulf Coast. They will join the blockade in another month or so.
Recruiting Troops:
Another 40 conscripts are devoted to replacements. I would have done 50 but I badly need some additional regiments in Kentucky.
3 Kentucky Volunteer Regiments
2 Maine Cavalry regiments
2 Ocean Transports
Replacements- 2LineInf/1Skir/1Cav
Statistics:
123-117NM/32FI/1529-1871VPs
------------ +45-47VPs
395RR/228River/120Ocean
316$/2Cs/1992WS/52,861GS/33,867Ammo In stock
+231$/+84Cs/+155WS/+4,877GS/+1,422Ammo Production
75,894 USA-74,619 CSA casualties
-----5000 CSA Prisoners
