Antietam Fought Part I, The Cunning Plan

     Before to see how we fought it out you might like a quick reminder how the actual battle proceeded. The Civil War Trust has produced a lot of great material. Watch this highly informative video on the historic battle  it is chock full of information and is very well done.

     Our refight was slightly different. We ignored the whole Burnside Bridge fight as a wash and played the game with the idea that, on that front at least, things would follow the pattern of historical events. You will see that the rest of the battle turned out rather differently.

     As for the rest of the battle you will see from the photos below that the troops were laid out largely according to historical deployment. We did allow for a bit more coordination between the Union Commanders that was followed that fateful day one hundred fifty-five years before.

     Thus we have the field of battle reduced to manageable proportions; the area contained within the green line is the area represented by our tabletop;

     Here we see the table at the beginning of the game;

    Having viewed this the Union Generals came up with a Cunning Plan. It safe to reveal now that the battle has been fought but we only committed it to memory on the day; just in case one of us lost our cigars.

Hooker would advance on a broad front drawing the Confederates into a close fight and hoping to engage their reserves, after waiting for a short while Mansfield would strike like a lightning bolt on a narrow front aiming for the gap between Hood and D.H. Hill, once the Confederates had shifted to confront Mansfield's Corps Sumner would march onto the battlefield like a like blue glacier, grinding all beneath it's weight