First time campaign, Union

[Uncle John]

I have had the game for a couple of weeks and am completely addicted. I had played three scenarios and being a Chicago Yankee played the Union (default settings) each time> Having won those three I decided to try my hand at the campaign game as the Union.

Basic strategy

I decided to look at the map an use a boxing analogy. As the Union I am bigger and stronger. I am no quicker than the CSA and believe my cavalry may be slower. My forces are not as well led early on so I need to change the map to best use my strengths and in the case of the Union I need to “shrink the ring”. That means conquering the wide open western spaces and force the CSA to the east of the Mississippi and shrink the overall front so I can bring my brute strength to bear. In the Ohio Valley and the East I can jab and keep them off-balance and hopefully drain manpower by forcing cross-river attacks on the CSA.

1861

Spent most of the year trying to figure out how to organize my army. Did a Call for Volunteers and concentrated on IL, OH and PA. My first hiccup came in trying to find an efficient way to funnel troops to leaders and vice v. This was complicated by the constant raids in Ohio, IN and out west in KA and MO. In the east Bee made a strike NE from Winchester bypassing Harpers Ferry. This was blunted almost by sheer luck. Banks was one of the few officers I could activate early on and he was linking up with some green infantry and artillery near Harrisburg, PA. He was able to form a good size division and beat back Bee.

Out west it was another matter. Leonidas Polk and Zollicoffer made frequent forays into IN, OH and IL and was left to put out multiple fires. Forming brigades of inf and artillery in MI and WI to move south. In the meantime I was trying to build some militia to man the crossing points on the Ohio to at least let me know WHERE the CSA was invading. Lew Wallace kept a strong force in Cairo and unlike many AAR’s I have read, the CSA never did invade Cairo, IL.

Out west I built a smaller division in CA under Mansfield and moved them down to Tucson, only to run into a larger division under Siddell. For awhile I stayed in Tucson and even though I was in the city and Siddell was outside, I had my numbers drained by an epidemic while he stayed healthy. Eventually his supply started to dwindle and I was able to drive him off. In KS and MO it was pretty much a free-for-all. I did not have enough forces to invade and hold Rolla or Ft. Smith so I sent some cavalry from Council Bluffs to the SE to burn the Ft. Smith depot and I sent a force under Lyons to Rolla to burn that depot. A force under Sumner was kept busy playing chase the tail. He was mainly ineffective as I could not activate him as a division commander foe the longest time.

In late August I did a partial mobilization and with sporadic industrialization of NY and PA I started to build my western invasion force. Two infantry division and three cavalry divisions in Iowa. I hoped these would be enough to conquer the west once I could build an Army HQ and make Fremont the Army of the West Commander. I constructed two other armies, the Army of eth Potomac under McClellan and the Army of Tennessee under HAlleck with Grant leading the only corp.

After dousing fires in IN and OH, I was left with only one real sore spot, Polk and Zollicoffer in Indianappolis. Two different division and a loose detachment of inf and artillery finally forced them south towards Vincennes, but not before they chewed a couple of divisions pretty good. While they were in IN, Grant formed a corp and re-captured Louisville while Morrell moved further south and took Lexington. The CSA tried to move north near Clarksville, but a group of inf/arty with Fitzjohn Porter (even though it took me8 months to get him to take divisional command) held them off.

As 1861 came to a close, there is winter fighting near Indy, but Grants force is almost ready to move south.

1862

In the east it has been a stalemate. I have formed corps that string from NW of the Shenandoah Valley around to Harpers Ferry and down to the opposite side of the Rappahannock River from Fredricksburg. My strongest force is a corps of five divisions under Morrell in Mannassas, but the bulk of the fighting is being done near Winchester with Lyons and Banks Corps slugging it out with the CSA Surprisingly I have not seen much of Jackson in the action. I have usually seen him in the SW end of the Shenandoah or in Fredricksburg, but very inactive. I managed to take Winchetser for a few months when Banks and Lyons Corps attacked from Harpers Ferry while Banks corps attacked SE towards the depot SW of Winchester and Hooker’s division attacked from the SE. I think Banks attack was the key as he kept Johnston’s Army frozen in the depot while Lyons, Hooker and Banks attacked Winchester. After holding Winchester for two months I finally decided to abandon it as the CSA were bringing more and more forces to bear there. The rest of the line towards Fredericksburg is held by different corps under McClellan. I have moved a large cavalry division under Phil Kearney towards Lynchburg, VA in hopes of moving down the line towards Knoxville destroying the track as he goes. This will make the movement of forces between the east and west much harder for the CSA. One little side note, I have sent three Marine regiments to invade FL. They are making little progress, capturing New Smyrna and St. Augustine, but I may call the invasion off until I can build a more sizeable force. I can also bring the marines home and disperse them through my eastern corp and take advantage of their platooning skill.

I have begun building forces in PA and NY and am trying a rally point in Harrisburg, PA and York, PA. Once forces are trained, they head to Harrisburg and so do the extra 1 star leaders. I try and create 12 element divisions with whomever I can activate. Activating leaders has been a hassle though. Schurz has been wandering around for a while and still can’t command and Sigel in IA just sits on his butt all day. But I am getting units together with leaders and getting them ionto the corps along the Rappahonnack.

In KY and TN steady progress is underfoot. Polk has been driven out of IN and Grant’s corp with four divisions now (spread out a bit) are moving south. They are currently just north of Bowling Greene with Morrell to the east heading straight south past Huntsville, TN and capturing Knoxville and destroying the TN VA RR. Lew Wallace is still holding at Cairo, IL. Small divisions hold along the Ohio to prevent a CSA crossing.

In the Trans-MS area, JohnFremont’s force (he is not a corps leader and the army HQ is still enroute) has moved towards Jefferson city in hopes of squeezing the CSA Division between them, Sam Curtis and Sumner. I made a mistake with Sumner. He had been out of supply so long fighting over Springfield that when I brought him east to close the trap around the CSA at Jefferson City, he got smoked and destroyed. Fremonts group was attacked from the south and beat up pretty well and now both Fremont and Sumner are in St. Louis recovering from wounds. My two inf have done well under Curtis and two of the three cav brigades are cleaning up north MO and lower Iowa. Mansfield moved east to take Dallas, having fought off Sidell, but lo and behold, the same turn I took Dallas, Leonidas Polk showed up with a division and took Tucson. What a pain.

Hugh Van Cleve will probably have to assist. He has a division near Council Bluffs and is cleaning up the Indian Villages. I will probably need to double his force to ensure the KS and TX territories stay quiet.

That is all for now. Sorry for the vagueness of my AAR. I will try and do quarterly screen shots and more frequent updates.

[Uncle John]

1862, July-August

Not a good two months for the Union. As I feared, my forces were too disorganized and spread out in the west and I paid for it. Sumner's exhausted and incohesive division and Fremont's force were soundly thumped by Van Morrell and two other divisions near Jefferson City. Lyons force was almost completely destroyed outside Jefferson City with one discomboulated division forced well south further into CSA territory. Sumner's small division was completely destroyed. They were in much worse shape than I thought in regards to cohesion and supply and I have nobody to blame but myself for their demise. Both Sumner and Lyons and about three other division leaders were injured in the debacle.

Only Sam Curtis's force north of the river in Iowa is intact and they are holding at Bllomington. The CSA has now also taken Council Bluffs and Omaha, though I have recaptured St. Joseph's, KA and Leavenworth, fighting off Stwe Wattie's Indian brigades.

The CSA quickly gathered themselves south of Jefferson City and also assmebled a force of close to 50,000 men under A.S. Johnston near Paducah and have moved north along the east shore of the Mississippi. They defeated Wallace in Cairo and all the CSA forces moved to converge on St, Louis which was left with only garrison units. I did try to move George H. Thomas to intercept Johnston north of Cairo and rush James K. Polk to reinforce St. Louis until my new units in IL and Iowa could be trained and join the battle but Johnston would not be denied. The CSA took St. Louis!

In central and eastern KY the Union has made significant gains. Grants force moved on Nashville with Carthage and other cities to teh immediate east falling under small Union division assaults. Bowling Green is now Grant's and Nashville under siege. Trumbull's division has moved on Ft. Donelson and he has driven off all forces around the area but needs to take the fort soon before the CSA forces in St. Louis return and relieve the fort. Morell to the east in the TN Valley moved on Knoxville and burned the tracks in Knoxville and the territories to the east and the west. After burning Knoxville, Morrell has retreated to Huntsville for some rest. Near Cincinatti, Jos. Johnston popped up with the remanants of teh Ohio, IN, IL invasion, Leonidas' Polk's old division and is now surrounded near Louisville by Fitzjohn Porter to eth SW and William French with a very artillery heavy division to teh north. Beauregard is disorganized, out of supply, and hopefully about to meet his maker.

Further east Kearney's cavalry moved towards Lynchburg, VA, destroying RR as they went and mopping up a few militia and small regiments. In the eastern theater my anger at McClellean knows no bounds. Lee had gathered a sizeable force in Winchester, but the Union had a horseshoe comprised of 6 corps around him, including Banks, with the smallest corps, in Starsbourg behind him. I synchronized all movement and converged with a 3-1 advantage on Lee, who promptly snuck through a corps under Isaac Stevens to the north and moved towards Harrisburg and Baltimore with McClellean now in pusuit. I managed to reinforce Baltimore in time and it appears Lee's invasion might only be a raid as he has turned back towards Harper's Ferry. My guess is he will take it, but McClellan's forces will force him to abandon it. Especially cince Beauregard has moved on Mannassas, which has been drained of forces by the chase of Lee.

Going into the winter in a couple of months and I will try and solidify my lines. My new strategy will be to solidify the east along the Rappahonnack River, continue the siege of Nashville and Fort Donelson in teh west and form a new army based out of Des Moines to move south into KS and MO. New forces are being created and will likely be headed by Sheridan with cavalry and Curtis, Thomas, Sumner and Sykes. I would like to be able to form a two corp army in Des Moines and move south using the infantry to destroy CSA forces and use the cavalry to conquer the stray territories. The ultimate goal will be to reconquer all of the KS and MO north of Jefferson City and regain St. Louis by June of 1863. Two divisions will hopefully be created (cavalry and horse arty heavy) totake the western towns including Tucson back.