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An Invitation to The
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Part 1
By R. Neil Smith
Introduction
When I came to the United States
from Scotland in 1996 it was to
study the American Civil War at
post-graduate level. Before I came
over, I inquired as to where I should
study the conflict, to be told
immediately, go to the South. With
Polybius’ advice on visiting the
sites of history echoing in my head,
I asked why. “They’re still fighting
it!” the professor replied.
As
exaggerated as that answer was, I
soon found out when I arrived that
few wars in western history
resonate through time as much as
the War between the States – as I
was quickly rectified on the correct
nomenclature for the conflict by
polite southerners; the “W ar of
Northern Aggression” by those
more wrapped up in their seemingly
ongoing defeat. Rarely has a war so
shaped the destiny of a nation as
much as the conflict that took place
between 1861 and 1865, across a
vast array of landscapes, and fought
at all levels by hundreds of
thousands of men, and some
women.
Despite modern historical searches
for reasons why the Union won,
some that stretch credulity , my
inescapable conclusion has always
been that losing on the battlefield led
to the death of the Confederacy .
Indeed, one historian wrote that the
Confederate nation and the Army of
Northern Virginia under Robert E.
Lee became synonymous, and when
Ulysses S. Grant finally ran the latter
to ground, the former vanished into
Lost Cause memory . And that is
what some southerners question:
how could we lose? The South had
the generals; the character; the
cause; the everything, except the
resources. As another historian put
it: “God was on the side of the
biggest battalions”. The North wore
down the South in the form of two
armies under the command of US
Grant in the East and
William
Tecumseh Sherman in the West. Both
were willing to bring the “hard hand
of war” down on the South, and
Sherman, who would also say that
“war is hell”, promised to make
Georgia “howl”. But to the
southerner…well, William Faulkner
said it best when commenting on the
Confederate disaster at Gettysburg:
For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it is the
instant when it is still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades
are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the
furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled
ringlets and his hat in one hand and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet,
it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to
begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than
Garnett and Kemper and Armstead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we
all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't
need even a fourteen year old boy to think this time. Maybe this time with all this
much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago...
William Faulkner
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Faulkner’s quote is an apt one for
wargamers no matter what period
they recreate on their tabletops; the
moment before the ramp comes down
on a D-Day landing craft; the silence
as the of ficer raises his whistle to
signal “over the top” at the Somme;
or any number of rousing speeches
given by Roman generals. There is
always that moment of anticipation:
the dice roll around in your hand, you
blow on them, wondering why
someone would dare challenge your
battlefield supremacy.
Other wars too have the elements we
enjoy so much in war gaming: the
uniforms and flags that add colour to
the field; charismatic commanders;
stunning victories and defeats to
admire and lament; the violent
essence of battle that only the best
commanders and players can manage
with the help of lady luck or friendly
dice. The contention in this article is
that the American Civil War contains
all of those components. Moreover ,
the Civil War is accessible not only in
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the Polybian sense but in the virtual
sense, so that although we cannot be
there, we can almost literally look
over the shoulders of those who
fought for their cause irrespective of
its righteousness.
Overview
The American Civil War broke out in
the wake of the election of Abraham
Lincoln in November 1860. The
southern slave owning states were
terrified at the prospect of abolition
and voted to secede from the Union,
forming the Confederate States of
America. Soon enough shots rang out
at Charleston, South Carolina, then
across the nation in a bloody conflict
that pitted brother against brother and
father against son.
The first significant battle came at
Manassas Junction in northern
Virginia. The Union army was routed,
a feeling they would come to
recognize time and again through the
first two years of the war . In 1862,
Robert E. Lee took command of the
Army of Northern Virginia and
proceeded to rout a veritable
conveyor belt of promising but weak
Union generals at the Seven Days
Battles, Second Manassas, and
Chancellorsville, before overplaying
his hand at Gettysburg, being forced
on to the strategic defensive from
which he never recovered. The war
was more balanced in the west. The
Union took New Orleans and
advanced down the Mississippi,
while they retreated through
Kentucky and Tennessee before
recovering and counter -attacking.
But from out of the west emerged the
two battlefield saviours of the
Union: Sherman and Grant. Sherman
pointed his army like a dagger at
Atlanta. Grant came east, crossing
the Rappahanock River with his
troops in 1864; his tar get was Lee’s
army.
Grant’s grand Army of the Potomac,
bolstered by thousands of newly
enlisted African-American soldiers,
engaged Lee in the Wilderness, an
aptly named almost impenetrable
forest of slender trees and
underbrush north of Richmond,
Virginia. The armies tore at each
other relentlessly, the Union drive
being brought to a standstill. But this
time instead of retreating back to the
safety of the North, Grant ordered
his men to advance south. His
shocked and jubilant troops marched
and Lee raced to block them at
Spotsylvania, on the North Anna,
anywhere he could, but he was
finally driven into the defenses of
Petersburg. In perhaps the great
military irony of the Civil War, Lee,
who constantly sought a Napoleonic
battle to knock the Union out of the
war and on to the peace table, now
saw his army bleeding dry in
trenches more akin to the western
front of World War I. The
Confederate dam that had held so
long finally broke in March 1865,
and Lee’s army – outgunned,
outmanoeuvred, and exhausted –
capitulated at Appomattox Court
House on 9 April. But for a few
skirmishes and the assassin’ s bullet
that killed Lincoln in his hour of
glory, the Civil War was over.
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If I had my choice I would kill every
reporter in the world but I am sure we
would be getting reports from hell before
breakfast.
William Tecumseh Sherman
SOURCES
My friend told me recently that he does not
wargame the American Civil War because
he has no connection to it, and I suspect that
is true for many war gamers. But what
connection do we have to any of the wars we
recreate? As I scan my neatly boxed armies,
I don’t have a direct connection to any of
them; not the Zulus, Custer ’s 7th Cavalry,
my pirates, the Imperial Romans, none of
them. Except, I have studied them all or I
have a cultural connection to them; they are
a part of me through my own efforts to make
them so. The same goes for my 15mm
American Civil War armies. My initial
interest to study the war and to invest in wee
bags of metal both came from Ken Burns’
magnificent documentary series on the war
that I watched when on Christmas break
from university. The movie Glory was
released not long after, and I was hooked.
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Reading followed. If you like reading
military history, the American Civil War
has you covered and then some. I
recommend starting with McPherson’ s
Battle Cry of Freedom, but from there you
can follow almost any path or interest you
desire. There are books on campaigns,
armies, and battles; biographies on
commanders, the great and the less so;
regimental histories, memoirs, and
soldier’s diaries. You might also wander
into the minefield that is social history;
slavery, women, community studies etc. At
some point you will encounter War of the
Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official
Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies (O.R. for short), now online. Be
warned, though: if you explore the O.R. tie
a rope to yourself, you may never come
out. And there are more books published
seemingly every day to add to your
mountainous collection, not to mention the
plethora of content on the internet, wellinformed and otherwise.
amount of Civil War sites to visit, from the
well preserved major battlefields lovingly
cared for by the National Parks Service –
Gettysburg, Antietam, Manassas - to
scenes of smaller battles where, if you are
lucky, you will meet an old-timer who
knows exactly what happened and where
to find the evidence, to vignettes of minor
dramas such as a trench and gunpit in
Athens, Georgia, where the town militia
organized to fend off Sherman’s cavalry in
1864. Almost everywhere you visit in
Virginia contains memories of some Civil
War event; even my local shopping mall in
Charlottesville has a sign
memorializing a long-for gotten
skirmish that took place
before Dick’s Sporting
Goods moved in.
For a more immediate experience, you can
follow the dictates of Polybius and see
where it all happened, if the developers do
not beat you to it. There is a surprising
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The truth is, when bullets are
whacking against tree trunks and
solid shot are cracking skulls like
eggshells, the consuming passion in
the breast of the average man is to
get out of the way. Between the
physical fear of going forward and
the moral fear of turning back,
there is a predicament of
exceptional awkwardness.
Private David Thompson of
the 9th New York Infantry,
Battle of Antietam.
might be better choices. With the
release of the excellent Perry range of
plastic 28mm figures, expenditure for
the larger scale is also becoming
more manageable. Nearly every
significant manufacturer has a range
of ACW figures and you should
consider mixing and matching for the
correct aesthetic feel of Civil War
armies, especially on the logistically
challenged Confederate side for most
of whom the concept of uniforms was
somewhat alien.
Getting Started
Now your interest has peaked and
you are back from the library, we can
turn to the logistics of war gaming.
Here too, ACW gamers are well
covered. The first question is one of
scale. This will depend on your
budget and available room and time,
but 15mm works well for the bigger
engagements, although some of the
newer 6mm figures are well worth
considering. For smaller battles and
skirmishes, or big fights if you have
lots of space, 20mm and 25/28mm
Terrain too is easy to find or build
from scratch and there are many
photographs of the
American
landscape online from which to seek
inspiration. The American Civil War
was fought mostly across rolling
rural terrain, so a simple grassy
board will work. Many terrain
manufacturers make generic ACW
period buildings and some of the
more distinguished Civil
War
landmarks. Trees, hills, and fields
are fairly standard, but one unique
aspect of the American landscape is
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the
zig-zag fencing found
particularly in the east; I used a box
of decapitated matches, dyed, then
glued in three rows, to make mine.
Also consider the railway modeling
fraternity for useable buildings,
trains, and af fordable rail track.
Finally, bear in mind that the
landscape changed little during
America’s formative domestic
conflicts; therefore, what works for
your ACW gaming will probably
work for the American Revolution,
French and Indian Wars etc.
Painting figures is always a
challenge and again depends on your
level of involvement. The Union
armies are easier but less fun. They
wore dark blue jackets, light blue
trousers, dark blue kepis or black
slouch hats. In many respects, as the
better equipped and supplied army ,
the Union was much more uniform.
Nevertheless, there were some
differences, particularly in the
beginning when no one had much of
a clue what mass volunteer armies
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should wear for what was supposed
to be a short war . The most notably
distinct units were the Zouaves,
based on French colonial troops, with
multi-coloured uniforms, baggy
pants, and brightly coloured
headgear. As the war dragged on,
however, Union forces discarded
much of their accoutrement and went
for comfort over style.
The American Civil War has often
been referred to as the war between
the Blue and the Grey , but for most
Confederate infantrymen grey was an
ideal or something officers wore. The
foot-soldier, the barefoot soldier in
many cases, wore what he had,
homespun clothing dyed in butternut
or other earthy colours.
Their
ensembles were completed by
blanket rolls and slouch hats, again in
most cases. The Confederates had
Zouaves too, but less of them. When
painting the Confederates, therefore,
deploy the full range of browns and
greys for clothing, the more irregular
looking the better.
Artillerymen on both sides dressed
similarly to infantrymen with some
differences. They tended to be more
uniform throughout the war . The
cavalry came from the wealthier
classes; therefore dressed more
uniformly, but here too the
Confederates were more irregular .
Books and internet sites abound for
all aspects of Civil War clothing and
when in doubt visit the various
outlets for Civil War re-enactors
whose webpages always have great
photographs.
Civil War regiments carried two flags
into battle. One was the national flag,
although the famous Dixie flag did not
come into being until after First
Manassas when their ‘Stars and Bars’
was easily confused with the Union
‘Stars and Stripes,’ leading to some
unfortunate friendly fire incidents in
the smoke of battle. The other flag was
usually the state flag and most
regiments and divisions formed under
the flags of their states. The cavalry
carried guidons, triangular flags
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designating their units. Again, book
and internet references abound for
flags. The point to remember when it
comes to uniforms and flags is that it
is the exceptions that make the rule, so
nose around for those little differences
that will enliven your tabletop.
of men and material, it should always
be borne in mind that the Union
greatly out-produced the Confederacy
in every department. Robert E. Lee’ s
address to his troops on their final
surrender encapsulated succinctly the
disparity between the sides:
Both sides wore similar equipment,
usually consisting of a leather
cartridge box, haversack, percussioncap pouch, tin canteen, bayonet
scabbard, and belt.
This was
particularly true after major Union
defeats early in the war when
victorious Confederates scavenged the
dead. The basic infantry weapon was
the rifle-musket. The Confederates, as
you might expect by now , carried a
greater variety of weapons, but those
without picked up weapons on the
battlefields too. The cavalry carried
carbines into the field, which were
shorter than the rifle-muskets but
worked in much the same way . They
also carried sabres, and the American
Civil War is one of the last wars where
cavalry came together in sabre melees.
Towards the end of the war , breechloading rifles became more common
and revolving pistols were handy for
close quarters combat. Both sides
deployed the M1857 Napoleon
twelve-pounder cannon as their chief
artillery weapon, but more accurate
rifled cannons became widely used,
especially by the Union. In questions
After four years of ar duous service
marked by unsurpassed courage and
fortitude, the Army of Northern
Virginia has been compelled to yield to
overwhelming numbers and resources.
Finally, a note on flesh-tones; most
men who fought in the Civil
War
were white, but from 1863 AfricanAmericans joined the Union ranks in
their thousands and fought with
distinction at many critical battles
thereafter. In addition, twentythousand Native-Americans took part
in the Civil War and the Cherokee
were principal protagonists in the war
for the Oklahoma territory – a
fascinating mini-campaign in itself.
Having bought your soldiers,
checked out your library books, and
googled everything American Civil
War, how do you play with all those
lovingly painted, if scruf fy, troops?
Part II of your invitation to the
American Civil War looks at
strategies and tactics, the great
commanders and their soldiers, and
the battles they fought.
Further Reading
(no apologies for southern bias)
Battle Cry of Freedom - James MacPherson
General Lee’s Army - Joseph Glatthaar
Army of the Heartland & Autumn of Glory Thomas Connelly
The Confederate Nation - Emory Thomas
Confederates in the Attic - Tony Horwitz