In Mid-September 1862, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia stood in mortal danger of being destroyed piecemeal as McClellan's Army of the Potomac raced to catch the widely dispersed Rebel forces. The Confederates' only hope of survival lay in delaying the Union army at the passes in South Mountain, while at the same time gathering their strength at Sharpsburg. This scenario deals with the defense of the southernmost of these vital crossing points, Crampton's Gap. In reality, Major General William Franklin's VI Corps swept aside an uncoordinated defense and stood poised to cut the Rebel army in two. However, despite orders to push on, he chose instead to sit tight on the mountain, maintaining that he had already carried out his orders, thus allowing "Stonewall" Jackson to march to Lee's aid for the battle of Antietam. VICTORY CONDITIONS These are very simple. The Union forces must clear the Gap and the heights on either side of Rebel troops by the end of Turn 20 15 hours]. The Confederates, on the other hand, must still be in serious competition for any of these three positions by the end of the game. TERRAIN The lower slopes of the pass are Open Ground. Once they reach the tree line, both these types combine to give Rough Terrain. As can be seen, the northern hill is much steeper than the southern one. Therefore, troops anywhere on this eminence west of the road are treated as in Rough. The creek, and a half inch on either side, is Broken Terrain. A stone wall lies in front of the Rebel's main position. DEPLOYMENT As per the map, with Irwin's Brigade and the 2nd Division artillery arriving on Turn 5 at the position marked "I". Battery "A", Maryland Light Artillery is behind Brooks, with the positions of the others left to the discretion of the player. Semmes' Brigade and the Confederate artillery arrive at point "S" on Turn 8. Chew's guns are the forward Rebel battery, the Howitzers being the other. General Franklin deploys with the 1st Division, General Smith of the 2nd Division deploying with Brooks. Otherwise, officers attend their respective formations. The cavalry can remount at any time during the game. NOTES I have had to base this scenario almost entirely on General Franklin's report in Battles & Leaders and on the map displayed in the Official Military Atlas. The VI Corps met the Rebels at around noon. Adding on time for Slocum to deploy and advance towards the stone wall, I recommend that the starting time be determined as 2:00 in the afternoon. According to Franklin, the fighting died away at nightfall, which in September, would be about 7:00 in the evening. This gives a game length of 20 fifteen minute turns. Troop strengths are based on Zimmermann's book of Unit Organizations. I must confess, however, that I have no idea at all on the complement of Confederate cavalry, and their figures are a complete guess. I have also left out one of their cavalry regiments, as I believe they were widely dispersed around the area. The second Confederate battery also remains a mystery. Franklin says it was Naval Howitzers, but I have no information on a unit such as this. I have therefore taken it to mean the Richmond Howitzers. It isn't completely clear how many, and which, Rebels were holding the stone wall. Parts of Munford and Mahone's Brigades definitely, but Cobb could also have been there. If you try the scenario and it is too easy to defeat the Rebs, try amalgamating Parham's regiments into bigger units, putting Cobb closer, or adding the missing cavalry regiment. UNION ORDER OF BA1TLE VI CORPS Major General William Franklin 1st Division Major Genl. Henry Slocum 1st Brigade: Col. A. Torbert: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th New Jersey. 2nd Brigade: Cot. J. Bartlett: 5th Maine, 16th N.Y., 27th N.Y., 96th Pennsylvania. 3rd Brigade: Brig. Genl. John Newton: 18th, and 32nd New York, 95th Pennsylvania. Artillery: Battery A, Maryland Light: six 10 pdr. Parrotts Battery A, Mass. Light: six 10 pdr. Parrotts Battery A, New Jersey Light: six 10 pdr. Parrotts Battery D, 2nd U.S.: six 12 pdr. Napoleons 2nd Division Major Gent. W. Smith 2nd Brigade: Brig. Genl. W. Brooks: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Vermont. 3rd Brigade: Cot. W. Irwin: 7th Maine, 20th, 33rd, 49th, and 77th New York. Artillery: Battery F, 5th U.S.: six 12 pdr. Napoeons Battery A, New York Light: six 3" Rodmans NOTES 1. Alt Union regiments are 400 strong. 2. All officers are Average except Brooks and Newton, who are Superior. 3. Normal benefits apply - +2 for Corps and Division leaders, and +1 for Brigade level. 4. Regiments are Average morale. There may be a case for Brooks' Brigade being above average, but I would hesitate before making them Elite. CONFEDERATE ORDER OF BATTLE Mahones Brigade: Col. W. Parham: (120 men each regiment): 6th, 12th, 16th, 41st, and 57th Virginia. Cobb's Brigade: Brig. Genl. H. Cobb: (300 men each regiment): 16th Georgia, 24th Georgia, Cobb's Georgia Legion, and 15th N. Carolina. Semmes' Brigade: Brig. Gent. P. Semmes: 10th GA (160), 53rd Georgia (300), 15th Georgia (140), 32nd VA (160). Robertson's Cavalry Brigade: Col. T. Munford: (300 men per regiment): 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 12th Virginia Cavalry. Artillery: Chew's VA Horse Artillery: two 3" Rifles Manly's N. Carolina Battery: two 12 pdr. Howitzers two 6 pdr. Smthbores 1st Co., Richmond Howitzers: two 10 pdr. Parrotts two 6 pdr. Smthbores Macon's Richmond Battery: two 10 pdr. Parrotts one 12 pdr. Howitzer two 6 pdr. Smthbores NOTES: 1. All regiments have Average morale. 2. Officers are all Average. Brigadiers have a +1 benefit. Parham, who was left in charge of the gap, Has a +2 benefit. [EDITOR'S NOTES]: This scenario was a difficult one to do based on conflicting reports that were available to the editor. Even more so, then, was the challenge to someone writing about Crampton's Gap from Scotland who did not have the materials available that someone in the U.S. could have utilized. The various sources are incredibly at odds. One Confederate soldier wrote that there were only about 300 defenders of the Gap, yet over 400 prisoners were taken. General Franklin's official battle report mentions that the prisoners came from 14 different "organizations". Further confusion sets in when reading Franldin's post-war writings, which state, "Munford, who had 8 guns, his 2 regiments of cavalry dismounted, and Mahone's Brigade, was driven from his position behind a stone wall at the foot of the pass. Cobb now came to his support, dividing his brigade to the right and left, but too late to change the result. One regiment, the 10th Georgia, of Semmes's Brigade, also joined in Parham's defense, while the remaining 3 regiments, with 9 guns of Manly's, Macon's, and Page's batteries, were posted for the defense of Burkittsville Gap, about a mile below our left As you can see, figuring out how to write a scenario for this battle must have been a truly tough task. The editor did make some slight alterations, those being related to the artillery, without the author's permission. This is unusual for me as editor, but since the author lives in Scotland, and I wanted to use the scenario for this issue, time constraints prevented communication of the changes before publication. My apologies to George should he not approve of the changes. It's a nice piece of work! Back to The Zouave Vol III No. 4 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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