Battle of Misty Creek

The game begun by having both sides encamped on different sides of a river with plenty of mist around the river limiting vicibility. The river had a bridge and several places where it might be fordable -meaning you randomly rolled when your troops were near enough of the suspected ford.

Here we see the battlefield from the Confederate side. The mists haven't yet been placed.

Both try to flank from left by fording. The leftmost Confederates have to wade through forest for a wile to reach the ford and the other Confederate battalion in extended line searches for ford in vein. The Union however finds a usable for right next to their encampment.

Manning the fences while pickets probe the possible ford/enemy.

Morning mists have lifted so it is time to produce some gun smoke instead...
Union's flanking attack is already on firing range and they are getting a third battalion over. The attack is also supported their pickets on the other side of the river. Also they got their battery to the bridge where it has a good field of fire and a central position.

Confederates getting outgunned...

...so they decide to get the hell out of Dodge.
Note how Confederates have managed to start their flanking maneuver with one battalion over the river while Union has four battalions over and penetrating deep into enemy side.

Confederates retreating into less precarious positions.

Confederate flanking attack gets finally underway. Unfortunately Union begins to redeploy their artillery in order to receive them.

New defense lines. On the right there's a hill between the lines.

View from the side.
Far off the Confederate flanking maneuver is being shot to pieces by two Union batteries.

Union camp and the murderous batteries.
They managed to destroy the flanking Confederate artillery and inflict some casualties on the infantry before these decide to head back to safety of their side of the river.


The "Battle of Misty Creek" - a scenario loosely based on an early war encounter between two divisions of raw recruits who were surprised to find themselves camped in close proximity after the morning fog lifted! A special welcome to Eero, who braved Horse & Musket gaming from his usual 20th century haunts and also doubled as a photographer - hopefully we didn't put you off!

The battle opened with a swift Union flanking attack over a ford in the north with one of their infantry brigades (Mr V), while the their artillery massed in the center to hold the bridge, supported by their second infantry brigade (Aksu). The Confederates were slower in launching their own flank attack (Eero), due to the confusing terrain, and thus the Union attack caught them in the north before they were able to organize their own offensive efforts. The Union attack pressed forward steadily, however the CSA defenders (Janne) were able to pull back and form a solid defensive line.

As the fighting settled into a protracted firefight in the north, the Confederates finally crossed the stream in the south only to find themselves facing the hastily redeployed second brigade backed by the massed Union artillery. The 24 Union guns proved too much, and the CSA flanking brigade withdrew back over the river. At this point the battle drew to a close, with neither side eager to advance and come to grips, but the Confederates faced with the necessity of an eventual withdrawal in the face of superior Union artillery, especially after losing most of their own guns to the withering union rifle and artillery fire. Losses on both sides were very light, amounting to only about a hundred men for the Union (3 infantry stands of a breakpoint of 30) and a couple hundred for the CSA (4 infantry and 3 cannon from a breakpoint of 31), although the loss of their artillery would be felt. All in all, its seemed a faithful reproduction of those "confused probing attacks" one is always reading about!

Due to me being late in finalizing preparations, a somewhat complicated and slow start to the battle (which was double the size of previous encounters), nasty terrain, and the problems inherent in maneuvering green troops with inexperienced leaders, we only managed 10 tens in about 3 hours of gaming time. This was a slower pace than previously, and unfortunately we didn't come to final grips as we had in previous battles. As Mr V mentioned during our discussion, given more time to prepare I probably could have done a better job of streamlining the first 2-4 turns of breaking camp and initial maneuvering, and I'm sure that with a full four hours and some better planning we could have made more progress (although it may still have ended in a face-off). Live and learn!

Janne (afteraction report by Chris)
(Played: Dec 15th at Chateu d'Tenwolde. GM: Chris. Confederates: Eero, Janne. Union: Aksu, Mr V.)