THE WARGAME

The morning of August 5th was beautiful and cloudless. A good breeze was blowing out of the southwest and an early-morning flood tide going into the bay was in effect. These conditions would cause any ship not under power to drift past the forts and into the bay beyond. The line of piling obstacles is impassable by any ship.

An area between the pilings and Fort Morgan is considered to be mined, except for a narrow shipping lane that is marked off by buoys. Any ship that steers out of the buoy markers runs the risk of hitting one of these submerged torpedoes. If the rules set that you are using does not include mines, then use the following rule to simulate the potential danger. Any ship that steams into the minefield has a one-in-six chance of exploding a mine and sinking immediately for every turn that it spends in the minefield area. Use a piece of string to denote the boundaries of the minefield area. Farragut knew about the torpedoes and the other obstacles blocking the entrance to the bay. However, due to the unreliable nature of torpedoes at this time, he viewed his risk of hitting a mine as acceptable.

The gulf-side area between Fort Gaines and the pilings is very shallow. There is a very good chance that the larger draft vessels, such as the screw-sloops or the Tennessee, might run aground in this shallow area. Unless your ruleset states otherwise, there would be about a three-in-six chance of these large ships getting stuck on the bottom for every turn that the ship is in the shallow area. It takes two full turns to become unstuck.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

Major Union Victory: Eliminate from play both the Confederate fleet and one of the two forts.

Minor Union Victory: Eliminate from play either the Confederate fleet or one of the two forts.

Major Confederate Victory: Prevent the Union from achieving any of their victory conditions.

ORDER OF BATTLE

UNION

West Gulf Blockading Squadron: Rear-Admiral D. G. Farragut, Commanding

Monitors

U.S.S. Tecumseh, Single Turret, 2 x15" Smoothbores
U.S.S. Manhattan, Single Turret, 2 x 15" Smoothbores
U.S.S. Winnebago, Double Turret, 4 x 11" Smoothbores
U.S.S. Chickasaw, Double Turret, 4 x 11" Smoothbores

Wooden Screw-Sloops

U.S.S. Hartford, 2 x 100 lb. Rifles, 18 x 9" Smoothbores
U.S.S. Brooklyn, 2 x 100 lb. Rifles, 2 x 60 lb. Rifles, 20 x 9" Smoothbores
U.S.S. Richmond, 1 x 100lb. Rifles, 18 x 9" Smoothbores
U.S.S. Lackawanna, 1 x 150 lb. Rifle, 2 x 11" Smoothbores, 4 x 9" Smoothbores, 1 x 50 lb. Smoothbore (Pivot)
U.S.S. Monongahela, 1 x 150 lb. Rifle, 2 x 11" Smoothbores, 5 x 32 lb. Smoothbores
U.S.S. Ossipee, 1 x 100 lb. Rifle, 1 x 11" Smoothbore, 6 x 32 lb. Smoothbores
U.S.S. Oneida, 2 x 11" Smoothbores (Pivot), 4 x 32 lb. Smoothbores
U.S.S. Seminole, 1 x 11" Smoothbore (Pivot), 6 x 32 lb. Smoothbores

Wooden Screw-Steamer

U.S.S. Galena, 1 x 100 lb. Rifle (Pivot), 8 x 9" Smoothbores

Wooden Double-enders

U.S.S. Octorara, 1 x 100 lb. Rifle (Pivot), 3 x 9" Smoothbores, 2 x 32 lb.. Smoothbores
U.S.S. Metacomet, 2 x 100 lb. Rifles, 4 x 9" Smoothbores
U.S.S. Port Royal, 1 x 100 lb. Rifle (Pivot), 2 x 9" Smoothbores, 2 x 50 lb. Smoothbores

Wooden Gunboats

U.S.S. Kennebec, 1 x 11" Smoothbore
U.S.S. Itasca, 1 x 11" Smoothbore, 2 x 32 lb. Smoothbores

CONFEDERATE

Mobile Bay Squadron: Admiral Franklin Buchanan, Commanding

Ironclad Ram

C.S.S. Tennessee, 2 x 7" Rifles (Pivot), 4 x 6.4" Rifles

Note: The 6.4" Rifles on the Tennessee are double-banded Brooke rifles and not the inferior Armstrong rifles.

Sidewheel Tinclads

C.S.S. Morgan, 2 x 7" Rifles, 4 x 32 lb. Smoothbores
C.S.S. Gaines, 1 x 8" Rifle, 5 x 32 l.. Smoothbores
C.S.S. Selma, 1 x 6" Rifle, 3 x 8" Smoothbores

Note: These Confederate sidewheel gunboats are actually wooden, but I have upgraded them to tinclad status in order to improve the balance of the scenario.

Mobile Bay Defenses

Brig.-Gen. Richard L. Page, Commanding - Fort Morgan
Col. Charles D. Anderson, Commanding - Fort Gaines

Fort Morgan

About forty-five heavy guns. Of these, about two-thirds would be able to train their guns on the water side of the fort, the other guns guarding the land side.

Fort Gaines

About twenty-six heavy guns. Like Fort Morgan, about two-thirds of these guns would be able to fire at the water side of the fort.

Note: The fortress guns are deployed on fixed carriages, so these guns cannot be moved around during the battle.

SHIP INFORMATION

When using the Conquest of Southern Waters ruleset the following ship classifications apply:

Ship Type	Classification
Screw-Sloops	Wooden (large, steam)
Screw-Steamer	Wooden (small, steam)
Double-enders	Wooden (large, steam)
Gunboats	Wooden (small, steam)
Tennessee	Ironclad (large)
CSS Gunboats	Tinclad (large)

OPTIONAL LAND FORCES

While this scenario was designed primarily as a naval engagement concerning ship vs. ship and ship vs. shore attacks, land forces (including ship and fort based marines) can be added. These land forces can be used for either boarding actions, direct land assaults upon the forts, or defending the forts from land or sea attacks (twenty Confederate dollars to the man that can shoot that Yankee officer off the rigging, boys!)

The Union land forces numbered about 5,500, including infantry, cavalry, artillery, and marines. Only a portion of these troops would be able to participate in any ground assault, perhaps 3,000. Even less would be able to take part in any boarding actions; perhaps 600 divided up amongst the larger vessels in the fleet. With a twenty to one ratio, this would give the Union side about 30 figures for boarding actions.

The Confederate land forces numbered about 800 infantry and marines between the two forts and the naval squadron.

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© Copyright 1996 The American Civil War Society

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