February 24, 1864 – No CSS Stonewall for the South

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.

February 24, 1864 – No CSS Stonewall for the South

Historical Event:  On this date 150 years ago the French government intervened to halt the transfer to the Confederacy of the ocean-going ironclad ram under construction at the port of Bordeaux.  The nearly 1,400-ton warship, which was to have been commissioned as CSS Stonewall, was instead ordered sold to the Danish government.  Confederate agents, however, convinced the Danish buyers to secretly sell the vessel back to the South, and the “Yankee Nightmare” as it was dubbed at the time was commissioned into the Confederate States Navy in January 1865.  Although the Union warships USS Niagara and USS Sacramento shadowed her as she slipped into a Spanish port in late March and then headed across the Atlantic to Havana, by the time she reached Cuba the war was over.   The CSS Stonewall never fired a shot on behalf of the South – although she went on to become the pride of the Japanese fleet, first as the Kotetsu, and finally as the Azuma.

Game Connection:  The mighty ocean-going ironclad ram CSS Stonewall is represented in Rebel Raiders by a unique counter and CSN Card 74.  The intervention by the French government that prevented her from getting into the war in time to fight is also represented in the game by USN Card 55 – Diplomatic Pressure.  The Confederate player normally builds his Raiders (of which the CSS Stonewall is one of the most powerful in the game) overseas.  They are placed there during the Build Phase, which gives the Union player time to either set up some warships to prepare to intercept them when they come out or, if USN Card 55 is available, to either have them seized or forced out of port into the waiting arms (and guns) of Yankee men-o-war.

Southern Belles Fund the “Ladies’ Ironclad” CSS Charleston

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 29, 1864 –   Southern Belles Fund the “Ladies’ Ironclad” CSS Charleston

Historical Event:  On January 29, 1864 the naval yards at Charleston completed the fitting out of the ironclad ram that bore the city’s name.  Funds for the CSS Charleston were raised by “The Ladies Gun-Boat Society,” which hence led to it being nicknamed “The Ladies’ Ironclad.”  

Despite its rather cute epithet, the casemate ram CSS Charleston was a formidable and manly warship, encased in four inches of armor.  With two nine-inch smoothbore guns (one each fore and aft) and four seven-inch Brooke rifles (two per broadside) the “Ladies’ Ironclad” was meant for close-in action in defense of the harbor, and was also fitted with a heavy wrought iron ram.   When completed it was chosen, quite appropriately, as the flagship for the Charleston Squadron.   When Union forces marched on the city by land in February, 1865, the warship was scuttled and blown up by its crew.

Game Connection:    CSS Charleston herself does not appear as a separate card or counter in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, and is instead represented by the generic Ironclad counters.  The Southern player can build ironclads in Confederate ports, and there are cards that can cause ironclads to show up in such ports in response to a Union attack  (notably CSN Card 78 – Mallory’s Miracle)

Images:  KHS 1:600 model and Ecardmodels 1/250^th scale CSS Charleston

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, 

November 23-24-25, 1863:  Lookout Mountain & Missionary Ridge

Historical Event:  Union troops stormed Lookout Mountain (24^th) and Missionary Ridge (25^th), finally breaking the long Confederate siege of Chattanooga and opening the way for the Federal advance out of Tennessee and into Georgia.  The two assaults were made possible by a preparatory attack on the Rebel defensive position on Orchard Knob on the 23^rd.

Game Connection:    Although primarily a naval game, the land war is represented in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, and Chattanooga is a key defensive position for the South.  Three of the Union generals who participated in the battles there are represented by cards:  Ulysses Simpson Grant (USN Card 8 – Grant Takes Command), William Tecumseh Sherman (USN Card 50) and Philip Sheridan (USN Card 11).  The courage and resilience of the Union soldiers who stormed those heights is also represented by a card (USN Card 46 – One More Effort Boys!) as is the “Lack of Brains” by a certain ill-starred Confederate general, one Braxton Bragg, whose picture appears on the card of that name (USN Card 7).

Running the Blockade – in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas

A gamer who ordered and “eagerly awaits the arrival” of Rebel Raiders on the High Seas asked if and how the game system handles the vagaries of running the blockade,  and the abilities of Blockade Runner captains to find “the ideal moment of tide, moon and wind to make the dash to open sea” and to navigate the “danger of a dark shoreline” on the way back in.

Blockade Runners have an advantage over the Union patrols, in that in the die roll to evade interception they gain a +2 and win ties.  That means if they roll a 4 or higher, they are safe, and if they roll less, the North still has to beat them by 3  (i.e. if a Blockade Runner rolls a 1, the Union ship needs a 4 or better to catch her).  In addition, there are some Blockade Runners that are even more difficult to intercept, as are represented by certain cards.  Here are a few examples:

The Don (CSN Card 66) was a particularly fast twin-screw vessel.  Capable of 14 knots and drawing only six feet, The Don was hard to run down and could slip into coastal inlets to hide. 

Most blockade runners made a profit by their second voyage; the CSS Advance (CSN Card 67) made 20 such successful runs, making her one of if not the most profitable of all of those ships that ran the Union blockade

The Banshee (CSN Card 68) was one of the first ships built specifically to run the Union blockade.  She was also one of the first commercial vessels to build of steel.  Under Joseph W. Steele (ironic how the name and the ship match) the ship made eight successful runs, giving her owners their investment seven times over. 

CSS  Robert E. Lee (CSN Card 69)  began her career as a blockade runner in  the fall of 1862.  For nearly a year the schooner-rigged, iron-hulled, oscillating-engine, double-stack paddle-steamer ran in and out of North Carolina’s inlets and harbors to bring in war materials and other desperately needed supplies.

The Union, however, had gunboats and sloops that were expert at catching these ships, and many of them are in the game.  The Union can also stack ships in the Blockade Stations off the ports, and can either roll one die for each ship or roll a single, modified die for the stack – the bigger the stack, the better the chance on that die.   The Union can also set up an outer blockade in the Coastal Zones; the sloops there can do not get the modifier for a stack, but each ship does roll.

Eventually, in the game as in the war, the Blockade Runners DO get caught.  There are 17 Blockade Runner counters in the game.  In the last three games I played, we kept track, and the Union intercepted 30 to 35 of them; which means that every Blockade Runner the South started with and built was caught not just once but TWICE….

Many of the Blockade Runners (all but one of the above, for example) were captured and pressed into service on the blockade stations.

Antietam: The Bloodiest Day

This day 150 years (+1) 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.  Although normally this feature focuses on what occurred 150 years ago, today is a date that is special and personal to me, for 151 years ago this day an epic battle was fought outside the little town of Sharpsburg, along the little creek named Antietam.

September 17, 1862 –  Antietam: The Bloodiest Day

            Historical Event:   On this day in 1862 my ancestor in the Irish Brigade stood for half an hour firing buck and ball into the Rebel regiments behind the fences along what would become known as The Bloody Lane.  Although wounded, he survived to fight again and again – but some 3,500 other men – North and South – would not.  More Americans died on that field that day than on any other in U.S. history, and another 20,000, like my ancestor, were wounded – and many of those would perish in the next few months or live on permanently disabled.   Although hailed in the North as a victory in that it repulsed Robert E. Lee’s invasion, the price paid for that victory was a sobering one, as Matthew Brady’s photographs of the dead would bring the images – and the horror- of war to the public.

            Game Connection:      Rebel Raiders is primarily a naval strategy game, but as it is a strategic game it also covers the land war, although in an abstract way.  CSN Card 77 – Lee Moves North can be played to symbolize his march into Maryland in 1862.  USN Card 45 – Three Cigars – represents the famous incident where Lee’s plans for that invasion were found wrapped around three cigars, and CSN Card 102 – Matthew Brady: The “Shutter” of Horror – reflects the impact news and images of that, America’s bloodiest day, had on the people at home.