The battle of Iuka, Mississippi was fought September 19th, 1862 between the forces under the commands of Confederate Earl Van Dorn and Federal William Rosecrans. Price's rebel forces occupied Iuka on September 13th and waited to see what the Federal reaction would be. Grant decided to attack Sterling Price in Iuka before Van Dorn could reinforce him and dispatched Ord and Rosecrans with a total of five divisions in a pincer movement. While Ord got in position, Rosecrans was late and was about two miles from Iuka when his leading brigade was attacked by the waiting Confederates. The assaults were thrown back twice but the third rebel onslaught pushed the Federals back and the fighting continued until dark. Confederate General Henry Little was slain in the conflict and the Confederate forces withdrew southwards to fight again at Corinth. As a wargame this engagement works wonderfully for 25mm troops as the terrain is interesting and the number of troops actually engaged was small. Furthermore the time element is an important factor. We played this scenario using C.L.S. (Column, Line and Square) locally modified for the Civil War. The game lasts eight turns with the Confederate Commander rolling one die at the beginning of Turn Seven to determine if two more game turns (9 and 10) are to be played. An even number will prolong the game to turn ten. Set On: 1) C.S.A. - Herbert and Martin may be placed anywhere on the northeastern edge of the board up to the middle crossroads and may be hidden in the woods. 2) U.S.A. - On the road from Jacinto up to 18" from the southwest. Units must be in column on the road except for the lead unit which may be skirmished (wholly or partially). Reinforcements: 1) C.S.A. - No reinforcements unless the optional two turns are played. If they are they receive one brigade entering the board from the northeast road from Iuka beginning turn nine. 2) U.S.A. - Stanley's Division: one infantry regiment per turn enters on the road from Jacinto at the start of each turn beginning with turn six until the game ends (turn 8 or 10). Victory Conditions: Basically a slaughterfest so we decided to award 20 points for possession of all four road exits east of the Armstrong house (the four easternmost). Terrain: Woods - Type 2, clear areas enclosed by wooden fences providing cover. Houses are for decoration only. Order of Battle: 1) U.S. Army of the Mississippi: Third Division (B. Gen. C.S. Hamilton) First Brigade (Col. John Sanborn) 48th Ind., 5th Iowa, 16th Iowa, 4th Minn., 16th Mo., 11th Ohio Battery (12 lb Napoleon smoothbores). Second Brigade (B. Gen. Jeremiah Sullivan) 20th Iowa, 17th Iowa, 10th Mo., 24th Mo., 80th Ohio, Wisconsin Battery (12 lb Nap. smoothbores). Reinforcements: B.G. David Stanley's First Brigade: 27th, 39th, 43rd, 63rd Ohio. Second Brigade 26th, 47th Ill., 11th Mo., 8th Wis. 2) C.S.A. Army of the West: Major Gen. Sterling Price First Division: B.G. Henry Little Second Brigade: B.G. Louis Hebert 14th, 17th Ark., 3rd La., 40th Miss., 1st Texas Legion (dismtd Cavalry carbine armed - 12" range; use two dice, 7's or better for kill), 3rd Texas dismtd Cavalry, Mo. Battery (12 lb Napoleon smoothbores). 4th Brigade: Col. John Martin 37th Al., 36th Miss., 38th Miss. Reinforcements: one infantry brigade of four regiments. All regiments are twenty figures strong and are regulars for morale purposes. Officers available for optional morale spot rule: C.S.A. Price, Hebert, Little, Martin. U.S.A. Hamilton, Stanley. Further Addendums to C.L.S. Modified for 25mm ACW: 1) The 12 lb canister pattern is further modified by Range 0-8 normal, 9-16 minus one pip from each die, 17-24 inch range, minus 2 pips from each die. 2) Routing skirmishers make other units check morale if the routing unit was totally in skirmish order. 3) Skirmishers check for morale and C.E. 4) Optional Officer Morale Rule: Officers are awarded a certain number of morale "spots"/pips to add to the die roll for any unit they choose to improve that unit's morale. The officer must be attached to the unit to improve its morale or pre-melee morale check, but not for a C.E. check. A unit to which an officer is attached that suffers three or more casting casualties during the turn will cause the officer to roll two dice to determine if the officer has become a casualty: A "2" or "12" rolled on two dice is a killed in action; a "4" is wounded, and two woundeds equal a killed in action. Wounded officers are reduced to using half their morale spots. Before an morale (not C.E.) roll, officers may add any number of their morale spots to the unit's die roll. Number of Spots/pips Type of Officer Key: 10 8 6 4 2 Exceptional Firebrand Aggressive Cautious Poltroon vvvvvv = Rail fences enclosing open areas. 1 2 3 4 = Road exits worth points Entire board is #2 woods except fences in areas and roads. Thanks for Dan Rakowski and Pat Kurivial for the above ideas, advice and feedback. Back to MWAN #17 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1985 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com