In 1987, the Benedict Arnold Society decided to refight the land battles of the American Civil War chronologically to learn the military history from start to finish and to learn the "ON TO RICHMOND " rules by Paul Koch. Beginning with the first basic battle of the war, 1st Bull Run, we progressed through the course of the war, adding cavalry, breastworks, repeating rifles, use of dismounted cavalry, etc. Fighting the battles chronologically meant that in regards to learning OTR, we did not, for example, have to bother ourselves with learning how to use repeating carbines until we had fought the battles of 1861, 1862, and half of 1863 and had mastered the basics. This gradual process put less strain on the lesser involved members and made the rules memorable and automatic. Another purpose for refighting the battles of the war was to discover which battles provided the most gameable scenarios. Some turned out to be too onesided to be much more than almost historic exercises and others fell into the category of "keeper" classic scenarios to be used for wargames over and over. As the battles were fought, the rules were interpreted, analyzed and amended, and many of Paul Koch's subsequent ideas were used as were his optional rules. Corresponding by letter, he mentioned the possibility of a Second Edition OTR, but as of this writing, we've heard nothing more of it. Over the years of fighting these battles, we can now see that in retrospect, many of the earlier battles might have had different outcomes if replayed using many of the optional rules and ideas that have subsequently developed. But the idea was to learn and have fun and not refight the war competitively like a campaign (except for the Valley and Vicksburg which were fought in this manner). Many of the battles were fought more than once and provided different victors but the following list will show only which side was the initial winner. The B. A. S. wish like to thank Paul Koch, author of "ON TO RICHMOND", for the many hours of pleasure it has given us, and thanks also to Hal Thinglum for the space he always provided for our articles, scenarios and battle reports. US VICTORIES 1ST BULL RUN MILL SPRINGS BELMONT PEA RIDGE VALLEY CAMPAIGN GAINES MILL ANTEITAM SHILOH 2nd BULL RUN SAVAGE STATION GETTYSBURG, 2ND DAY PICKETT'S CHARGE MANSFIELD (SABINES CROSSROADS) BRANDY STATION JONESBORO ATLANTA OPEQUON (3RD WINCHESTER) MOBILE BAY FIVE FORKS PEACHTREE CREEK SPOTSYLVANIA FRANKLIN NASHVILLE CROSSKEYS/PORT REPUBLIC JENKIN'S FERRY TUPELO VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN SAYLOR'S CREEK CEDAR CREEK SALEM CHURCH DRAWN BATTLES SEVEN PINES IUKA MECHANICSVI LLE CHICKAMAUGA PETERSBURG CRATER CS VICTORIES WILSON'S CREEK CEDAR MOUNTAIN CORINTH PERRYVILLE FREDERICKSBURG, STONES RIVER GETTYSBURG, 1ST DAY MISSIONARY RIDGE CHANCELLORSVILLE NEW MARKET WILDERNESS NEW HOPE CHURCH BENTONVILLE CHAMPION'S HILL BRICE'S CROSSROADS DREWRY'S BLUFF OLUSTEE Back to MWAN # 54 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1991 Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com