Battle of Salem Church 1863 - Remote Game

Battle of Salem Church Remote Game

This week, I was fortunate enough to have another remote game with Jon of the Palouse Wargaming Journal. Jon has been running a series of American Civil War games based on the Battle of Salem Church, fought on 3 May 1863 during the Chancellorsville Campaign.

The battle is recreated on a hex-gridded tabletop using Jon’s wonderful collection of 10mm American Civil War miniatures.

Jon kindly gave me the choice of commanding either army, suggesting the attacking Union forces under General Sedgwick would probably provide the more interesting challenge. I was happy to play the Union attackers.

The Armies and Rule Notes

The Confederate army consists of six commands, each representing a brigade, with a grand total of 25 infantry units and seven understrength artillery units. The Union army has eight commands, comprising 28 infantry units and six artillery units, most of which are at full strength.

The commands are activated by drawing coloured dice from a tin (Grey for Confederate activation and Blue for Union activation). If your colour is drawn, you can activate one of your commands and its associated units. Additionally, two red dice were added to the tin. When the second red dice is drawn the game turn ends. This provides a degree of uncertainty, as you never quite know when you will get the opportunity to act next.

Both armies have army morale rules. If an army has three or more broken brigades (loss of fifty percent or more units) its army morale fails and it must retire.

The Union army also has a special rule called "At 'em Boys!" This could be declared on turns one, two, or three, and provide a combat bonus to one Union brigade until any opposing enemy units are destroyed or the brigade itself loses half of its units.

The Plan

My plan was to refuse the Union left flank while advancing through the centre without becoming too heavily engaged, as I intended to rely on the Union artillery to bombard the Confederate positions around Salem Church and soften up the Confederate centre, while my right flank worked its way forward through the woods to turn the Confederate flank.

An overview shot of the set up that came with Jon's briefing pack. I have added arrows showing my initial plan ideas.

Having played Jon’s ACW rules in previous remote games, there were two things I remembered as being important. 

1. Artillery, particularly Union artillery, can be devastatingly effective. 
2. Assaults are the most effective way of inflicting hits, especially when fighting in woods, rather than relying on shooting alone.

With these learnings in mind, I was hoping to make good use of my artillery before committing the infantry to close combat.

The following battle report is very much written from the Union army’s perspective. I find that when playing remotely, with only a view of the game on a screen, my perspective can be rather blinkered. I tend to focus on my own troops and their advances and retreats, rather than taking in the bigger picture. Unlike playing face to face over the tabletop, there is no opportunity to stand up, move around, and peer closely at different parts of the battlefield before making a decision.

The Battle Report

The union army had the initiative at the start of the battle and made good progress in refusing its left flank while creating room to bring forward their artillery into position. Meanwhile, the advance on the right flank was proving rather slow as the troops struggled to make their way through the woods.

The artillery positions are shown with red circles. The rear artillery are positioned on a hill.

On the Union left, the infantry quickly formed a line along the wood's edge and exchanged fire with the Confederates, who had advanced to meet them. Meanwhile, the Union artillery was beginning to demonstrate its worth, inflicting hits on Confederate units in and around Salem Church.

The artillery bombardment created an opportunity for the Union centre to advance and launch an assault on Salem Church. On the right, however, the troops were still having difficulty getting into position for their attack.

The Union assault begins in the centre supported by very effective artillery bombardments.

The Union army continued to push forward through the centre around Salem Church, bringing up additional troops to maintain the pressure. At the same time, the increasingly outnumbered Union units on the left were struggling to hold their positions against a growing Confederate threat.

Union troops move up to support the centre attack.

As the Union left flank began to give ground, in the centre artillery was moved forward to provide additional firepower, including canister at close range.

Finally, the Union right flank made its move. Rather later than intended, the brigade launched its assault using the "At 'em Boys!" special rule. Despite taking casualties, the attack managed to just turn the Confederate left flank.

With their left flank failing, the Union army pins all its hopes on their centre and right flank attacks. The red circle shows their artillery supporting attacks at close range.

The Union assault in the centre was now in full swing, with artillery providing close support and inflicting further losses on the Confederates. Things were looking much less favourable on the left flank which was in a terrible state and starting to retire.

Both armies now had two broken brigades, leaving each perilously close to its breaking point. Whichever side could deliver the next decisive blow would win the battle.

The Union left flank is collapsing while their centre presses forward.

The Confederates had the first opportunity to break the Union army morale on the left. Fortunately for the Union they held on by the barest of margins.

In the centre, however, the Union attack had finally broken through the Confederate line. The infantry surged forward, routing an enemy unit and overrunning Confederate artillery positions. This proved to be the decisive moment. The losses were enough to break a third Confederate brigade, causing the Confederate army's morale to fail and forcing it to retire.

A decisive breakthrough in the centre is enough punishment of the Confederates who retire.

A Union victory, but only just!

Wrap up

This was a very, very close game. The battle could easily have gone the other way, and in the last game turn there was little room for error by either side.

Chatting with Jon, I learned that most of the games in his Salem Church series have been close, and with both armies enjoying their share of victories. This certainly suggests that Jon has created a well-balanced scenario, with neither side having an easy time of it.

For my part, the game reinforced the importance of artillery support to soften up the opposition before assaults, and when there is a breakthrough, as there was in the centre, to throw in all available troops.

It was great to return to the American Civil War for another remote game with Jon.

The losses from the game. I did not realise how many Confederate units were lost until after the game.

My next post will see a return to my Battle of Britain campaign.