Resaca - an inverted Gettysburg

The basic outlines of Gettysburg are familiar to many wargamers: in a three-day battle, ~70,000 Confederates attack an eventual 90,00+ US troops defending the famous 'fishhook'; an important cavalry action is fought a few miles to the flank at East Field; the defenders win both actions and the attackers withdraw.

Resaca is a battle of similar shape and size but far less famous. In a three-day battle on 13-15 May 1864, ~100,000 US troops attack ~70,000 Confederates defending a 'fishhook'; an important action is fought a few miles to the flank at Lay's Ferry; the defenders hold their fishhook but are forced back from Lay's Ferry; because of the resulting threat to their line of retreat, the defenders withdraw. (Fun fact: the town of Resaca was itself named after an earlier battle, Resaca de la Palma, fought in 1846 during the Mexican-American War.)

Why is Resaca so obscure by comparison? Well, whereas Gettysburg was pivotal, Resaca was really just a speed bump. It is the first major battle of Sherman's march on Atlanta. Given Sherman's numerical advantage, his march was inexorable and he was generally able to outflank successive Confederate positions and oblige his opponent to withdraw. Even if Johnston had fully repelled Sherman at Resaca, that would only have delayed the inevitable. Also, the casualties were only a fraction of those at Gettysburg (<5,000 a side at Resaca, vs >20,000 at G'burg), as Sherman's attacks were more of a pinning nature than pressed to the hilt - he knew the outflanking moves would swing it eventually.

On the face of it, this doesn't look like the most inspiring situation for a game. A scenario could all too easily degenerate into a one-dimensional exercise in frontally assaulting entrenchments. (See my essay on the conundrum of "Can frontally assaulting redoubts make a good game?"). So I incorporated two ingredients to make it tastier.

The first was to include an Objective that plausibly encourages the Confederate side to do as they did historically and launch attacks by Hood's corps, rather than just sitting tight and shooting. The second was to give both sides a pre-game decision about how many troops to commit to the off-table action at Lay's Ferry. Their decisions would then modify a single die roll at game end to see how many Objectives they gain or lose there.

With that, let's betake ourselves to the scene of the action and see how it went. Photo-drama is followed by some Reflections as usual. There are quite a lot of pics this time - about 20+ - but hopefully each of them has something interesting to say. NB - click on a pic to enlarge it.

Overview of the Resaca battlefield. It's not huge, only 6km x 4km. Righthand edge is north.

Red stars are Objectives, representing either the Confederates' defensive line or their line of communications. The blue star is a kind of highwater mark - if the Confederates attack and ever take that bridge, they earn an Objective. They need a total of 6 for a draw or 7+ for a win. The star top left is the special off-table end-of-game Objective(s) at Lay's Ferry.

Confederate formations are divisions of varying strength but generally a bit smaller than the US Corps formations facing them. Arrows indicate our Union plan. Dave T and I (the US players) chose to go all in at Lay's Ferry, so XV and XVI Cps went there instead of on table. Our main effort was by "Fighting Joe" Hooker's XX Corps on our right, supported by Palmer's XIV Cps, while Schofield's XXIII Cps demonstrated against the main Confederate position. Howard's IV Cps has no option but to march on and try to withstand Stevenson and Stewart's divisions (Hood's corps) attacking around the bridge.

You can see the resemblance to Gettysburg. The Confederate line forms a fishhook with the IV Cps bridge being where Gettysburg would be; 4-gun Battery fort standing in for Cemetery Hill; Stevenson advancing from our cognate of Culp's Hill; Bate and Cleburne's position serving as Cemetery Ridge; and Cantey and Loring defending the round tops. Our plan of attack is like Longstreet's urging "to the right, suh!". XXIII Cps's advance is more like Pickett's Charge.

Initial deployment of our Union left. Dave T commanded here. His lead division of IV Cps is about to march on, under Sherman's personal supervision, and encounter Hood's Cps. The 'fort' was a complex of earthworks rather than the brick edifice depicted here, but it looks good.

Figures are 10mm Pendraken. Union from Dave T's collection; Confederates from Dave W's collection. (Dave W commanded the Confederate right.)

Initial deployment in the centre. Schofield's XXIII Cps (also under Dave T) looks very small compared with the three well dug-in Confederate divisions opposite.

Our weight on our right: Palmer in the woods, Hooker on the hill. Imagine how even more impressive this would look if XV and XVI Cps were on Bald Hill, to the right, rather than at Lay's Ferry. But that was a strategic choice - would it pay off?

The comely womenfolk of Resaca are out in their finery to watch the display. Those zouaves from Walker's division aren't really there - the Confederates have likewise gone all in at Lay's Ferry, so these are just a dummy unit that will get removed when US troops come within 6".

Not the start we wanted. In a couple of bruising rounds of fire, the well-manned Confederate line wipes out half of XXIII Corps and its artillery, leaving just a cloud of smoke where they were. Brown smoke shows Rebs now low on ammo, having shot down so many bluebellies. So much for our demonstration in the centre. (Pretty historical - in the actual battle, both XXIII and XIV Cps were brusquely rebuffed here early on.)

As expected, Hood's attack hits Howard as he arrives at the bridge.

I command our right against Crispin. My men are frustratingly slow to move out and deploy for the assault. The 'zouaves' left of pic are our one veteran unit (actually US Army regulars).

On our left, Hood's first onslaught pushes some of Howard's men back but does not take the bridge.

On our right, my men trudge laggardly across Camp Creek. For some reason they do not seem keen to storm rebel entrenchments ...

... until they do! Butterfield's division carries a line of works, driving back Cantey's newly-formed unit of garrison troops (green counter indicates they are raw and fragile). We turn an Objective counter blue. This too is fairly historical.

Next turn, Butterfield presses his advantage and smashes Cantey back with heavy losses. We have gained a good position south of Resaca, outflanking the main rebel position there. The column on the road top of pic is the first of several as the Confederates desperately rush troops down from their centre.

In the north, though, Hood has surpassed history, finally broken through and taken the bridge, hurting Howard's corps badly (though not without some pain of his own).

So ended the five turns of Day 1. Both sides were allowed to redeploy some troops overnight and prepared to fight the remaining four turns. 

Having done his job at the bridge, Hood pulled back so that more Confederate reinforcements could head south. Meanwhile, Howard and Schofield combined the remnants of their battered corps and prepared to attack the Four-Gun Battery fort and/or the ridge behind it.

At my end of the pitch, although some of my men were briefly obliged to withdraw out of rifle range overnight, next morning we promptly reimposed a ring of blue steel around Resaca, backed up by a grand battery on Bald Hill (left foreground). Left of pic, part of XIV Cps threatens the central hill so as to pin a Confederate division there.

My grand battery did grand execution. Crispin fed more Confederate veterans into the mincer. He dished some damage out as well: black smoke shows that Williams's Div (centre of pic) is now spent. My red-fezzed veterans, upper left, contemplated storming the earthworks in front of them but opted instead to shift left, hoping to get up on the Objective ridge (top left corner).

Dave T demonstrates in front of the fort while working round it towards the currently undefended ridge behind it, as the Confederate line has been stripped of troops to defend Resaca.

Penultimate turn on our right. The murderous firefight around Resaca continues. Williams (centre of pic) makes a desperate assault to cover Johnson's veteran US regulars climbing towards the Objective ridge (top left). Butterfield audaciously storms across the bridges lower right, hoping to get lucky. Both assaults bounce off. Confederate counter-assaults have been similarly unsuccessful.

Penultimate turn on our left. Dave T is poised to storm up and take the heights.

Final turn on our right: my veterans fail to move; Confederates retain the Objective here.

Final turn on our left: Dave W has got a Reb brigade across in the nick of time; only one of Dave T's US divisions moves; his assault fails here too.

At game end, the Confederates held 8 on-table objectives. The Lay's Ferry Objectives remained to be resolved. Both sides had committed maximum effort here, so there was no die roll modifier, it was a simple opposed roll. If we won that by 4+, we would gain 2 Objectives and earn a draw. As it was, we gained one and narrowly missed out. Victory to the Confederacy - this time, as emphatic as the Union's victory at Gettysburg!

Reflections

Good game, good game. As Dave T said, "A really good game that had options until the last move and went down to the last die rolls". I achieved my aim of making it more than a dull frontal assault. Both sides got to attack, all four players got to do significant maneuver and conduct assaults. The Night Interval redeployment helped (as it so often does); the Permanent Objective at the bridge worked. The game balance was close enough that all three results were still possible on the last turn. I think the US needs a little help, but just a couple of minor tweaks - don't want to overcompensate. After all, our Confederate opponents played well and deserved their victory.

Off-table action. I was particularly pleased with my Lay's Ferry rule. This was simple to implement (always important). It gave both sides an interesting choice to make pre-game, and it meant the outcome was still in the balance right to the end. It also adds replay value: as both sides have three levels of troop commitment to choose from, that gives nine possible permutations of force balance on the table, each of which could play out a little differently.

Getting the toys on the table. It's been a long time since either Dave T or Dave W used their 10mm ACW armies, so it was nice to dust them off. Dave T said it has actually inspired him to paint up some more now. That's good, as we have quite a few more ACW battles in prospect, so he will have more chances to deploy them.

Join us and try it! To that fraction of readers who are (a) in range of Yorkshire, (b) interested and (c) free that day: come along to the BBB Bash Day convention on Saturday 27 June and join in one or two of the participation games then. ACW will be represented by the battle of Pea Ridge. Full details here.