We reconvened our continuing game of This Hallowed Ground in the snowy Chicago suburbs on February 18. The game started on the 6:30 am turn of Day 2 and we finished up, after playing hard on both Friday and Saturday, after the 10:45 am turn. The players this time were Milt Janosky commanding A. P. Hill's Corps, Zack Waltz commanding Ewell's and Longstreet's Corps, John Reed commanding the Union 2nd and 3rd Corps, Dave Powell commanding the Union Cavalry and the 1st and 12th Corps, and Dan Cicero commanding the valorous Union 11th Corps.

The initial positions for the Union were not that unusual for the start of the second day of Gettysburg. Union 1st Corps and the cavalry were sitting on Cemetery Hill facing west and hoping not to be noticed after their first day's casualties. Union 12th Corps extended over to Culp's Hill where, with most of 1st Corps' artillery it extended south to the Baltimore Pike. Union 3rd Corps occupied Cemetery Ridge out to about the Nat. Codori farm (B56.14). From there Union 2nd Corps extended out in front of the Peach Orchard to the northern area of Biesecker's Woods. The odd man out in the Union position was the valiant 11th Corps. The Dutchmen, after an incredible July 1, found themselves in a line in the Brinkerhof Ridge area of Map C. They roughly occupied the area from C32.20 to C44.15 facing west.

Facing the Union army were Anderson's division, arrayed north and west of Union 2nd Corps (from about D14.15 to D9.20), and Pender's Division (lined up just north of Anderson, around D9.20 to A59.33). Heth, the final division of A.P. Hill's Corps, was on Herr Ridge as a result of a loose cannon roll on July 1. Rodes's and Early's divisions were in column evacuating in front of Union 11th Corps with (again loose cannon) orders to march to Herr Ridge and help Heth defend. This column extended from around C37.10 to C56.15. Ewell's last division, Johnson, found itself just southeast of Culp's Hill in the McAllister's Hill area. The original Confederate intent had been to move Ewell's Corps north, east, and southeast of Culp's Hill and attack with all 3 divisions.

This looked like a good plan but, as we saw in the last article, Early's first attempt at an attack on Union 12th Corps quickly got chewed up in the bad terrain. Then, after a discouraging Corps Attack Stoppage by Ewell (then commanding Early and Rodes) the Confederates had rolled a loose cannon for Ewell, leading to the evacuation of Early and Rodes to Herr Ridge. Finally, for the Confederates, Longstreet's 2 divisions (Hood and McLaws) started in column behind the rest of the Rebel army. They occupied from about A18.05 to A35.05. Needless to say, this movement made the Union very nervous.

The fighting started immediately as Anderson's division was already in close contact with Union 2nd Corps. Rather than attacking directly Anderson kept trying to slide obliquely around 2nd Corps flank in the north area of Biesecker's Woods. After a half hour of heavy fighting between Anderson and the 2nd Corps the Union found themselves retreating slowly and forming a more north-south line just between Biesecker's Woods and Houck's Ridge. At 7:00 am Pender's division joined Anderson in a restrained attack on the northern flank of Union 2nd Corps. Luckily for the Union, Sickles accepted orders at 7:00 am to move west from Cemetery Hill and attack Pender's northern flank.

This fighting, Anderson and Pender vs. 2nd and 3rd Corps, continued for the next two and a half hours with the 2 Union Corps being slowly pushed back while both sides took heavy casualties. Meanwhile, Johnson had figured out that making an attack against the Union 12th Corps with only his division is probably not going to work. In an attempt to roll initiative Johnson rolled a loose cannon, and the Union ordered Johnson to join the other 3 Confederate divisions on Herr Ridge. Lee, irritated by the apparent total collapse of command, issues orders to Ewell but the unlucky Rebels receive the order distorted. This leaves Ewell's Corps incapacitated (at least until 10:45, when we quit for the day). To make matters worse, the Confederates tried another initiative with Heth. Heth rolled a loose cannon, and this time the Union ordered him back to Whisler's Ridge. So far in the game Heth's division has yet to take a casualty!

While all the fighting was going on Longstreet kept marching. When his men reached the trail at D10.15 they headed to the P. Snyder house. This made the Union really nervous as 2nd and 3rd Corps were pretty much out of gas from the fight against Anderson and Pender. About 9:00 am Anderson and Pender, feeling the effects of the heavy fighting, began to disengage from 2nd and 3rd Corps. 2nd and 3rd Corps appreciated the respite and backed onto lines from Little Round Top north to Cemetery Hill. At this time the Union was convinced that Longstreet was going to attack Little Round Top and the only Union units in the area were all shot up. The Union issued orders for 12th Corps to move to back up 3rd Corps. We did not order them into line as we anticipated a need to move them south if Longstreet went up Little Round Top. Union 5th Corps also arrived and we ordered it to the Little Round Top area but we knew they would not be anywhere close when the Confederate attack finished off 2nd Corps.

Amazing

Here is the amazing part--Longstreet's orders. It turned out that the Confederates had originally ordered Longstreet to make a frontal assault on Cemetery Hill at dawn of the 2nd day. When Longstreet had trouble accepting these orders the Confederates rolled an initiative order for Longstreet. He accepted the initiative immediately and started marching. Surprisingly the Confederates had issued Longstreet the same order, attack Cemetery Hill, but, since it is against the rules to use a pending order as an initiative order, the Confederates had rewritten the order so that Longstreet had to make the long march and attack Cemetery Hill from the southwest. This is most likely against the rules also but we did not find out what Longstreet was up to until he marched right in front of 2nd Corps, through Devil's Den moving north and northeast, to attack 3rd Corps on Cemetery Ridge and 1st Corps on Cemetery Hill.

This attack commenced at around 9:30 and finished trashing 3rd Corps and began to inflict heavy casualties against 1st Corps. McLaws' and Hood's problem was that most of the Union artillery was on Cemetery Hill. Despite 1st Corps being in bad shape from the first day, all the artillery inflicted high losses, on McLaws's division in particular. Zack Waltz had to pull McLaws back from the attack but in the 10:45 am turn, when Zack was about to call off Hood also, the Union 1st Corps finally failed a corps attack stoppage roll and had to retreat back off the hill. This left Longstreet, with 2 almost wrecked divisions, holding Cemetery Ridge and Hill. About an hour earlier, when 3rd Corps was getting chewed up, Slocum, the Union 12th Corps commander received an order to take 3rd Corps' place but the order became distorted.

So as of the time we finished the Confederates have taken Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge but the 2 shot up divisions on these objectives are facing the prospect of a counterattack by 5th and 12th Corps. Anderson and Pender are licking their wounds in the Houck's Ridge area, and the rest of the Confederate army is on either Herr or Whisler's Ridge. The Union never managed to get 11th Corps to accept any orders so it looks like 11th Corps is going to rest on its laurels from the first day.

We anticipate picking up the game again at Origins, most likely on Saturday. Anyone interested in observing is welcome.