January 30, 1864 – Pickett and the Pirates: Cutlasses and the Charge that Wasn’t

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.

January 30, 1864 –   Pickett and the Pirates:  Cutlasses and the Charge that Wasn’t

Historical Event:  On January 30, 1864 General George Pickett, eager to erase the perceived stain upon his honor and restore his reputation after the doomed if gallant charge at Gettysburg, marched his division out of Kinston, North Carolina with the intention of regaining the port of New Berne for the South.   His three brigades of infantry and small force of cavalry contained only about 4,500 men, but were supplemented by 14 pieces of artillery and Colonel John Taylor Wood’s piratical rowboat flotilla – a ragtag force of local men armed with old naval cutlasses and antique muskets.

Pickett did advance upon the Union positions of General I.N. Palmer, but decided they were too strong to attack head-on (proving he had learned something going up that long, low slope toward the Copse of Trees the summer before).   Instead, he pinned his hopes on taking out the Union warships that were supporting Palmer and his 3,000 troops.  In the early morning hours of February 2  Wood’s cutlass-wielding pirates performed a successful “cutting out expedition” to board and capture the USS Underwriter, one of four armed steamers that were anchored in the Trent and Neuse Rivers in support of Palmer’s defenses.  Unable to build up steam in the cold boilers in time so he could get underway and attack the rest of the Yankee flotilla, however, Wood burned the warship.   He and his men made their way back to Pickett’s lines, but with the Union forces now on alert and still backed by three other gunboats, the longhaired Confederate general felt it best to retire.

Game Connection:    In Rebel Raiders as in the war, New Berne is an important port for blockade runners, especially those on the more lucrative run to and from Europe.  It also provides a beachhead for an attack up into Goldsboro, from which the Yankee army can either threaten Richmond or strike south toward the port of Wilmington and from there down the coast toward Savannah and Charleston, to take those key cities from the land side.  Taking back New Berne or any other key city or port captured by the Union can throw off the Union timetable and gain valuable time for the Confederacy, and to do so the Southern Player can purchase a Counterattack in the build phase – or play one of the cards (such as CSN Card 103 – Uprising or 107 – The South Shall Rise) that allow for a Counterattack (and one hopefully more successful than the abortive attempt led by Pickett at New Berne). 

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas,  

July 13, 1863 – New York City Burns – the Draft Riots

            Historical Event:   On July 13, 1863 names were pulled from a drum in New York City to fill a draft for the Union Army.  As the rich could buy their way out of service and freed Blacks were excluded from conscription, poor whites – most of them Irish immigrants – felt the draft unfair.  What began as a protest against the draft turned into a riot, and one further fueled by racial tensions as more than a dozen Blacks were lynched and the Colored Orphans’ Asylum set ablaze.  Troops, including several New York regiments that had fought at Gettysburg only 10 days before, were called home to restore order, which they did by July 16, but only after more than 100 people had died and 20 times that many or more had been injured.

            Game Connection:   “Northern Draft Riots” is one of the “Pro-Confederacy Optional Rules” available in the Playbook for Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.  The likelihood of the riots occurring is directly related to how well (or, more accurately, how poorly) the North is doing in the war.  Should they occur, that turn the Union may not purchase additional assaults or buy extra cards, due to the disruption and distraction of riots in New York (along with growing anti-war sentiment in other Northern cities).

Note the drawing below that was originally featured in The Illustrated London News in July 1863:

            For more on the Riots, see my article on examiner.com:    http://www.examiner.com/article/150-years-ago-this-weekend-new-york-burned

This Day 150 Years Ago in Rebel Raiders' History

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History –

Hours to Remember: 10:30 am, 1 pm, 3 pm….Vicksburg & Gettysburg

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people, and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas,  

July 3, 1863 -  For the South, The Saddest Day

            Historical Events:   

Vicksburg. At 10:30  in the morning, Confederate officers approached the Union lines at Vicksburg under a white flag.  They carried a request from General Pemberton for terms.   Although famed in newspapers as  U.S. “Unconditional Surrender” Grant,  after responding with that famous phrase the Union commander DID grant terms:  Pemberton’s men marched out but after giving their parole were left to go on their way rather than be interred as prisoners of war.    Grant was not necessarily being a gentleman – neither he nor Admiral Porter had any way to transport let alone care for nearly 30,000 Rebel soldiers.

Gettysburg.  At 1 in the afternoon the Army of Northern Virginia began the greatest cannonade yet heard in the Western Hemisphere.  For nearly two hours over 150 guns unleashed their fire upon the Union lines on and behind Cemetery Ridge.  As the barrage lifted, General George Pickett and 15,000 men from three divisions began that epic charge which Faulkner romanced so well in Intruder in the Dust:

 For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox  look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to anyone who ever sailed a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge over the world's roaring rim.

            Game Connection:   While Gettysburg does not appear on the map for Rebel Raiders, the Confederate invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania is represented by the Lee Moves North card (CSN Card 77).  Vicksburg is on the map, and as noted in the July 1 post on this blog, many of the ships and generals and weapons take took part in that epic siege are represented by cards.  The loss of Vicksburg costs the Confederacy dear in Rebel Raiders, especially if Memphis and New Orleans have also fallen, as that triggers major victory point losses for the South at that instant, and during the supply phase of each subsequent turn.

This day 150 Years Ago in Rebel Raiders's History

 This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

Gettysburg, Vicksburg and the Ships of Rebel Raiders.

 -Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas,  Gettysburg, Vicksburg and the Ships of Rebel Raiders.

On this, the 150th anniversary of the First Day of Gettysburg, it is easy to forget that at Vicksburg an equally vicious and vital struggle was also reaching its climax.  

As a strategic naval game, Rebel Raiders on the High Seas focuses far more on the epic siege of the fortress on the Mississippi than on the titanic contest that was played out on the fields of Pennsylvania.   The later is represented by the Lee Moves North card (CSN Card 77), while many of the leaders and great ships who fought at Vicksburg are also represented, notably: 

 -David Dixon Porter & His Little Mortar Boats (USN Card 2),

 -Grant Takes Command (USN Card 8),

-the tinclad gunboat USS Black Hawk (USN Card 10), 

-the "Pook's Turtle" ironclad USS Carondelet (USN Card 15), 

-the timberclad gunboat USS Tyler (USN Card 18),

-the phony ironclad Black Terror (USN Card 25)

-the big guns of the Siege Train (USN Card 48),

-and, for the South:

-the mines, torpedoes and other Infernal Machines (CSN Card 56),

-the general who tried to relieve the city, J.E. Johnston (CSN Card 91)

-the hidden batteries on the bluffs of Ring of Fire (CSN Card 101),

--and the only ship to see action on BOTH sides at Vicksburg:

--“Ellet’s Ram” USS Queen of the West (USN Card 38)– which was captured and put into service by the Confederacy as CSS Queen of the West

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History  - Custer and Rebel Raiders

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.

Custer and Rebel Raiders 

Today, June 25, is the 137th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  While neither Custer's Last Stand in 1876 nor the flamboyant boy general himself are represented exactly in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, the link to the Civil War is undeniable.   Custer was Gen. Phil Sheridan's favorite, his "go to" for bold action, and in that sense when any Union gamer plays US Card 11 - Sheridan ...they are in effect playing Custer.

Sheridan (standing, left) and Custer (seated, right)

Sheridan on horseback (the illustration used for Rebel Raiders Card 11)

Custer, wearing the stars of a brevet major general of volunteers on a uniform of his own design - complete with the distinctive red scarf tie that, as much as his perfumed yellow hair, would be his trademark.

Custer, of course, made his name 150 years ago next week, leading the Michigan Brigade in a series of desperate charges that brought to a halt J.E.B Stuart's attack on the rear of the Union lines at Gettysburg.  That battle is represented in Rebel Raiders by CSN Card 77 - Lee Moves North....

Triple-Posting:  Flag Day, This Day in History and Replay Turn 9

Happy Flag Day! 
and
 This Day 150 Years Ago in Rebel Raiders' History: Lee and Longstreet Cross the Potomac

Historical Event:  On June 14, 1863, Lee and Longstreet crossed the Potomac into Maryland, a fateful step that in just over two weeks would bring them to the fields of Gettysburg.

Game Connection:    General Robert E. Lee appears on two cards:  Bobby Lee (Card 60) and Lee Moves North (77); Longstreet has his own card (Card 79).   Bobby Lee allows the South to re-roll dice in combat, while Longstreet adds a die.  In 1861-63 The Lee Moves North card prevents the Union from making attacks near Richmond for the turn (reflecting their need to respond at Antietam and Gettysburg); in 1864 it merely costs the Union an attack pawn (which accounts for Grant sending a corps to Washington to confront Jubal Early).

Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 9 –December 1863)

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When we last left off, the North had driven Southeast from Nashville, taking first Chattanooga and then Kennesaw Mountain, putting the Union adjacent to Atlanta.

The Few Just Keep Getting Fewer – Until There Are None

Eight Blockade Runners go down this turn!  Eight!  That lamentably for the South is EVERY Blockade Runner they had on the map!

Here is how they were lost:

-USS Unadilla (Card 17) catches one coming out of Mobile.  One Blockade Runner gets past the gunboats on the Blockade Station outside Pensacola only to be caught in the Gulf by USS Housatonic (Card 27).  The USS Powhattan (Card 21) picks off another, one loaded with 2 VP cargo, outside Charleston.  Runners are also caught going in or coming out of Tallahassee, Key West, Wilmington, and New Bern.  An eighth is also caught, but by this time Mark is not even bothering to write down where – it is just too sad.

The two Raiders at sea, as if things were not bad enough, manage to snag but a single VP among them.

Brandon is beside himself with glee, and two friends who stopped by to watch the game for a bit, tell him he can no longer complain about not rolling high enough on his dice.

The Southern VP total is so depleted that if not for the play of Lively Little Trade (Card 57) it would be down to zero. 

The South builds Batteries in Atlanta and Vicksburg, places the Ironclad built last turn in Memphis, buys a Raider and Four Blockade Runners and, just to show the South WILL rise again plays Card 63 – CSS Alabama!

(The famous Raider is depicted in full color on the cover of the game, and was along with CSS Shenandoah (depicted on Card 64) one of the most successful of all of the Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.

To be continued....

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.

(NB: Coverage of the Replay of the game between the designer and naval historian Brandon Musler will resume tomorrow, June 4).

June 3, 1863   Lee Moves North

            Historical Event:  On June 3, 1863 the vanguard of The Army of Northern Virginia leaves its encampment at Fredericksburg, beginning the fateful march that will culminate a month later in the Battle of Gettysburg.

            Game Connection:  Although primarily focused on the naval aspects of the conflict, Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the entire Civil War, and armies and the generals who led them play a prominent role in holding or taking territory.  Card 77 – Lee Moves North is one example of that, as it reflects the three Confederate invasions of the North in the Eastern Theater (the 1862 Antietam and 1863 Gettysburg campaigns and the 1864 Valley Campaign that brought Jubal Early over the Monocacy and right up to the ring of forts surrounding Washington).