"My Kingdom for a Stigmatism!" Recently, I was reviewing the section on the Egyptian campaign in Sir Henry Bunburys' book entitled Narratives of Some Passages in the Great War with France (1799-1810). On March 13, 1801, a battle took place between the French and British (who were commanded by Abercromby), and I found a footnote that might be of interest to PW REVIEW readers. The French had retired before the British on the 12th, and occupied a range of heights about a mile and a half away from the English-occupied heights, with a "comparative plain" between them, At 6 A.M. on March 13th, Abercromby ordered forward three columns to the attack, intending to turn the French right and then attack them from that position. The French counterattacked, and were driven back, but did succeed in throwing off the order of the British attack. Moore found that his column had outmarched the army's left, which meant that if he continued he might come under severe artillery fire unduly, so he halted. Craddock did the same, needing time to rest his men and reconnoiter the "formidable" enemy position. Unfortunately, though, the ?aft continued to march, so the right "conformed of course to the movement", which meant "...the whole advanced to the middle of the plain where they became exposed to a heavy cannonade...". "Here our troops were ordered to halt, and Abercromby called Generals Hutchinson for more to a consultation. It was resolved that the plan which Sir Ralph had entertained from the first should be pursued and that the right of the enemy's position should be turned and assaulted, and that at the same time the left of the French should be attacked in front. With this view, Hutchinson was directed to lead forward the three brigades of the second line... [but] when he arrived on the ground from which his attack was to be made, he found the enemy's position to be so strong that he determined to send a report of his observations to Sir Ralph Abercromby, and to wait for further instructions." "The Commander-in-Chief despatched the Adjutant-General Hope to examine the ground and judge of circumstances, and he soon afterwards followed in person; but while these things were going on some hours passed away, during which our army was exposed to a continual cannonade and suffered heavy losses... Sir Ralph at length relinquished his intention... Our brave troops were withdeawn from the plain ... 1300 had fallen in this unprofitable, though honorable conflict." Could happen to anybody, right? Well, under this section I found the following footnote: "It is not improbable that the failure of the intended attack and the great loss sustained by our troops on the 13th of March were owing in some measure to physical defects under which both Abercromby and Hutchinson laboured. The eyesight of both the one and the other was extremely imperfect." Hmmmmmmm ..could it be that what our games need is a new modifier? "Eyesight, -3"? If two short-sighted commanders work together, should the effects be added together or multiplied? Alternatively, perhaps, we can just have players remove their glasses during games. For those possessed of 20/20 vision we can dim the lights, or force them to play with 5mm figures. For those who choose to imbibe during tabletop games, reconnaissance can take on a whole new meaning ("By God Sir! There's TWICE as many of 'em as were there an hour ago!). At last, tabletop Generals can retain some dignity in defeat: HORSE GUARDS: "Have you any final words?" THE LION OF OSTLAND: "I would have won, if only I had not laboured, in some measure, under physical defects. HORSE GUARDS: "Whaddaya mean, Physical?" Back to PW Review March 1988 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1988 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com