Action in the Miller Cornfield

Back on October 9, 2024 I set up my game table to do a solo play of the ACW Battle of Antietam

Hooker’s Attack

The battle of Antietam is best split up into a number of smaller actions during the battle rather than trying to fight the entire battle on one table. Smaller? I decided to recreate the opening of the battle with the morning attack of Major General Joseph Hooker’s First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. As you probably can guess, I used my 54mm Confederate and Union troops from last year’s Pickett’s Charge war game at Historicon.

I used battalions to represent brigades in both armies. This allowed me to put the entirety of Hooker’s and Jackson’s division on my two game tables (6 ft x 15ft and 5ft by 12ft). The orders of battle are as follows:

Hooker’s I Corps (3 divisions)

  Doubleday’s Division (3 units) + 2 guns  / Patrick, Gibbon and Phelps

  Meade’s Division (3 units) + 2 guns / Anderson, McGilton and Duryee

  Ricketts‘ Division (3 units) + 2 guns / Hartsuff, Christian and Seymour

Mansfield’s XII Corps (2 divisions)   — Optional for larger game

  Greene’s Division (2 units) + 2 guns

  Williams‘ Division (3 units) + 2 guns

Stonewall Jackson’s wing of the Army of Northern Virginia

  J.R.Jones‘ Division (4 units) +2 guns — Grigsby, J.Jackson, Penn, and Starke

  Lawton’s / Early’s Division (4 units) + 2 guns  Early, Hays, Douglass and Walker

D.H. Hill’s Division (2 units) + 2 guns — optional  —- Ripley

Hood’s Division (2 units) + 2 guns — optional — Wofford and Law

In summary, the Union army has 14 brigades and 10 guns; Jackson’s wing has 12 brigades and 10 guns. If this seems like too many units for the game table, then Mansfield’s corps and the Confederate divisions of DH Hill and Hood could be eliminated from the game rosters.

For my game I used the Confederate divisions of Jones and Lawton and only Ripley’s brigade from DH Hill’s division. This gave me 9 CSA brigades. I only used the three divisions of Hooker’s corp, each with 3 brigades. This gave me 9 USA brigades.

The table top set up. The split of my game tables is approximately at the lower end of the East Woods and runs horizontally to Grigsby’s location in the West Woods.

Hooker’s stepping off point at the edge of the North Woods. The Hagerstown Pike runs down the center of the table. Off in the distance one can see the Dunker Church where the Hagerstown Pike intersects the Smoketown Road. Miller Cornfield in the mid-distance.

The Smoketown Road (right) marks the left flank of Hooker’s Corps

The intersection of the Smoketown Road and the Hagerstown Pike in front of the Dunker Church. This marks the back table edge of the Confederate army.

Let The Battle Begin – my report

On Turn 1 the battle kicked off with mostly long range artillery firing from both sides. Ripley’s and Walker’s CSA surprisingly move forward into the East Woods, hoping to bog down the Federal advance in that area. I didn’t want this to happen, but the dice dictated otherwise. Doubleday’s Division of Hooker’s Corps advanced across a broad front.

Union artillery lob shells up the Hagerstown Pike to open the action.

Turn 2 sees the brigade of J. Jackson (not Stonewall, but the „other Jackson“) marching forward on the CSA left into the West Woods. Walker’s brigade charges the Union brigade of Seymour in the East Woods and wins the melee. On the CSA far left, they watch Gibbon’s Iron Brigade advancing over open ground. The Iron Brigade opens up with its first fire of the game (aiming at Grigsby’s CSA brigade in the West Woods) and completely whiffs on its target. Booooo!!!!

Gibbon’s Iron Brigade unleashes some ineffective fire.  (The 14th Brooklyn regiment is standing in for the Iron Brigade)

Turn 3: The action is starting to heat up as both sides come into rifle range. In the East Woods, Seymour’s Union brigade had fallen back on Turn 2, but they gathered themselves together and counter-attacked Walker’s CSA brigade. Seymour wins the melee and Walker’s brigade routs.

Walker’s and Ripley’s Confederate brigades storm into the East Woods, where they run into two Union brigades of Seymour and Christian, from Ricketts‘ division.

Meanwhile, Doubleday’s Division (USA) attack is not going well as the Iron Brigade can’t seem to hit a barn door and Patrick’s brigade routs after receiving some musket fire. The prompts Meade to send his whole division of three brigades forward to help Doubleday.

Meade’s division enters the Cornfield. Hartsuff’s brigade from Ricketts‘ division emerges from the East Woods, moves up the Smoketown Road, and attempts to  outflank the Confederate defenders at the edge of the Cornfield.

Turn 4: Back to the action in the East Woods, Ripley’s CSA brigade has to fall back as it is now faced off against two Union brigades (Christian and Hartsuff) and doesn’t want to get outflanked. Walker rallies his brigade and they form a new line with Ripley’s retreating Confederates.

Walker’s Confederate brigade in the East Woods

Doubleday’s brigades continue to have problems as Phelps routs out of the Cornfield and the Iron Brigade fall back to keep their flank covered. Now Doubleday has two brigades routing and the Iron Brigade’s wheels are stuck in the mud. But wait! Patrick rallies his brigade. Hays‘ CSA brigade also routs out of the Cornfield.

Phelps‘ brigade enter the Cornfield (right), but do not stay there for long as two Confederate brigades open fire.

Turn 5: With the West Woods no longer threatened by Doubleday’s division, Jones shifts his division to the right and anchors his flank on the Hagerstown Pike to reinforce the Confederate center. Taliaferro advances up the Pike and wheels right so that it can pour enfilading fire into any Union troops traipsing through the Cornfield. In the center, Lawton moves his reserve brigade (Early) into the gap created by the rout of Hays‘ brigade on the previous turn. On the Confederate right flank, Lawton orders Ripley and Walker to retire from the East Woods and form a new line. He positions his artillery to give it a clean shot down the Smoketown Road.

Taliaferro’s brigade wheels to the right to enfilade the Federals advancing  through the Cornfield.

What is going on in the Cornfield at this moment? Ricketts hived off Duryee’s brigade from his command, transferring the brigade to Meade’s command. Duryee’s Zouaves march smartly into the Cornfield. The other three brigade’s in Meade’s division are now advancing into the Cornfield and threatening the vulnerable Confederate center. It looks like we might have a Union traffic jam developing in the Cornfield.

Duryee’s Zouaves make for a stirring sight as they enter the Cornfield.

Doubleday is still having problems getting his division to move forward. Inexplicably the Iron Brigade continues to fall back to its starting line. Patrick notices Confederates leaving the West Woods so he advances his brigade towards the woods. Phelps finally rallies his brigade. Meanwhile, Penn’s CSA brigade routs out of the West Woods.

Grigsby’s brigade of Jones‘ division seems to have things well in hand in the West Woods.

More action in the West Woods. Doubleday’s Union division is  running away from the hot fire zone.

A section of a Napoleon battery drops trail in the middle of the Hagerstown Pike.

At the end of Turn 5 the Union army had five brigades stacked up in the center (the Cornfield) and they are faced off by only two Confederate brigades: Douglass and Early. So Stonewall Jackson shifts Starke’s fresh brigade to the center to back up the Confederates who are contesting the Cornfield. The CSA brigades of Hays and Penn are trying to rally behind their lines, near the Dunker Church. There, they come under the gaze of Robert E. Lee and he is not feeling very giddy at the moment. Over in the East Woods, the severely depleted Confederate brigades of Walker and Ripley are struggling to form a new defensive line to fend off the Union advance through the East Woods.

Game summary through the first five game turns

On the Union side, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Ricketts‘ division (on the left) seems to have taken control of the East Woods and Meade has a mass of troops gathering in the Union center. The bad news is that Doubleday’s division on the Union right is struggling to make a difference in the battle.

The Confederates are not feeling very good about their position at the end of the turn. Their right flank has been pushed out of the East Woods and the center is in trouble with two brigades routing out of the Miller Cornfield. Fortunately, Stonewall Jackson’s left flank in the West Woods doesn’t seem to be threatened any time soon, thank you very much Abner Doubleday. This enables him to shift two brigades into his center to confront Meade’s attack.

Let us resume the report of the battle

Turn 6 saw lots of rifle firing but neither side was gaining advantage. Penn’s CSA brigade rallied near the Dunker Church.

Turn 7: Union firing was beginning to take its toll on the Confederate forces. The Confederate right is destroyed as Walker and Ripley rout again near the East Woods and they are out of action for the rest of the game.

Turn 8: Jackson moved his last fresh brigade, Starke, over to the Smoketown Road – East Woods area and hoping that this will be enough to stall the advance of Rickett’s two brigades (Hartsuff and Seymour). The Confederate center was still holding up, but the brigades of Early and Douglass were starting to see their numbers whittled down. At least Starke was there to back them up. The action was coming to a standstill in the West Woods on the Confederate left.

Jackson shifts Starke’s brigade from the West Woods to the center.

Meade now had four brigades in the Cornfield (center). Hartsuff and Seymour seem to have hunkered down in the East Woods (left). Doubleday had two brigades trying to rally (Iron Brigade and Phelps) and his third brigade (Patrick) had no interest in advancing forward.

The final decision

I decided to end the game after Turn 8. The Union had enough troops to break the Confederate center, but they couldn’t unwind the traffic jam of soldiers in the Cornfield and so they couldn’t bring their whole weight to bear in their attack. There was no more fighting in the West Woods and the fight in the East Woods was petering out.

The losses were fairly even as the Confederates had 5 brigades of doubtful status and 1 brigade gone for the day. They had 4 viable brigades remaining in the game. The Union army had 5 viable brigades, 4 doubtful brigades and 1 brigade gone for the day.

I saw that neither side had enough of an advantage to stage a convincing win and I really didn’t want to carry the game out to the last man.

This was a very balanced scenario that contained a lot of back and forth action. I think that it would make for a good convention game. All in all, this was a fun game to play.

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