USS New Ironsides: U.S. Navy’s First Armored Steam Frigate

The Ships of Rebel Raiders    - The Men o’ War

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

USS New Ironsides:  U.S. Navy’s First Armored Steam Frigate

The first of a new breed of modern warships, the USS New Ironsides (USN Card 26) was an ocean-going, wooden-hulled, armored man-o-war; a true battleship, with plenty of big guns, powerful steam engines – and even a ram, just in case.

Protected by 4.5 inches of belt armor, the USS New Ironsides would be hit many, many times by the Confederate guns she dueled with at Charleston and Fort Fisher – but like her namesake, the original “Old Ironsides” (USS Constitution) most shots seemed to bounce off; she was never seriously damaged by enemy fire.  USS New Ironsides, however, did have the dubious distinction of being the first victim of a submarine (technically a “semi-submersible torpedo boat”)– when the CSS David (CSN Card 65) set off a spar torpedo on October 5, 1863.  Damage, however, was minor – USS New Ironsides remained on station.

 (In Rebel Raiders, if the Confederate player declared an attack with the CSS David card on a Union warship, say the USS New Ironsides, each side would roll one die, with the Confederate player adding one to his die if his target is the only warship in the port or blockade space.  If the Confederate die roll is higher, the Union ship is sunk.)

USS New Ironsides was the flagship for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis DuPont (USN Card 54) during the April 1863 naval attack on Fort Sumter and the other defenses of Charleston harbor, and went back into the harbor for the second attack on Charleston.  She also supported the abortive assault by the gallant 54^th Massachusetts (as depicted in the movie, Glory) on Fort Wagner, and took part in the two bombardments of Fort Fisher, the second of which resulted in a Union victory in January 1865.  

Decommissioned and laid up in Philadelphia after the war, she was the victim of an accidental fire, allegedly caused by a watchman’s unattended stove, and burned and sank in December 1866.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Ironclads

Part IV– The Union Ironclads :   USS Passaic – The Giant Monitor

First in a class that would bear her name, USS Passaic (USN Card 28) was one of the few Navy ships – and perhaps the only ironclad – which President Abraham Lincoln himself visited.  A week later she and the USS Monitor (USN Card 19) were caught in a storm off Cape Hatteras.  She survived only by bailing, pumping and throwing overboard all of her shot;  USS Monitor was less fortunate, foundering and going to her grave beneath the stormy waves.

With her mighty guns (an 11-inch and a 15-inch Dahlgren) the USS Passaic was a powerful addition to Samuel Francis DuPont’s (USN Card 54) South Atlantic Blockading Squadron of Charleston.  In addition to capturing a blockade runner, the outgoing cotton-laden Glide,  (a rarity for the lumber ironclads) she took part in DuPont’s abortive April 1863 assault on Charleston Harbor.  After repairs she rejoined the squadron and was chosen by its new commander, John Dahlgren (USN Card 31) as his flagship.  He directed the attack on Fort Moultrie from her pilot house.  When her sister ship USS Lehigh (USN Card 22) was driven aground (see my blog post from yesterday) the USS Passaic offered covering fire and help pull her to safety.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Ironclads

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

  

Part IV– The Union Ironclads :   USS Lehigh- The Medal of Honor Ironclad

No ship in U.S. Naval history has had more crew members receive the Medal of Honor for a single action than the ironclad monitor USS Lehigh.  Among the five was one with a name he had – and did – live up to:  Seaman Horatio Nelson Young.

When John Dahlgren (USN Card 31) took over command of the Union the fleet opposite Charleston from Samuel Francis DuPont (USN Card 54) in the summer of 1863, he brought with him an exceptionally powerful new ironclad monitor: the USS Lehigh (USN Card 22).  Mounting a 15-inch Dahlgren smoothbore and an 8-inch (or 150-pound) Parrott Rifle inside a turret protected with 11 inches of armor, USS Lehigh was one of the lead ships in Dahlgren’s repeated attempts to knock out Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, two of the most important of the man guardians of Charleston Harbor.  

The ironclad engaged with Sumter many times between September 1 and late November, including engaging in an almost daily duel over a three week period.  On November 16 the ship was so badly pounded that she was driven aground – and it was for freeing her while under deadly fire that Seaman Young and four other crewman were honored with the nation’s highest decoration.

(See the photo below, courtesy of the Naval Historical Society, which shows the numerous dents on her turret from that fight).

Sent back to Port Royal for repairs, the Medal of Honor ship returned to duty off Charleston in January, where she continued to pound away at Rebel batteries and forts until the city succumbed to Sherman’s advancing armies.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Ironclads

 Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part III – The  Rebel Ironclads: CSS Tennessee – “Old Buck” vs. Farragut

The CSS Tennessee (CSN Card 86 in Rebel Raiders) features in perhaps the most famous naval action painting of the Civil War:  the “Damn the Torpedoes” by William Heysham Overrend, or as it is formally known “An August Morning with Farragut: the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864.

David Glasgow Farragut (a leader in Rebel Raiders and USN Card 1) is in the rigging of the USS Hartford (USN Card 37) as she fires a broadside into the CSS Tennessee, aboard which is Confederate Flag Officer Franklin “Old Buck” Buchanan (also a leader in Rebel Raiders).    Historians Craig Symonds, who wrote a biography of Buchanan, and James McPherson, who chose the Overrend painting as the cover for his new War Upon the Waters,  told an audience in New York last October that they believe Farragut and Buchanan actually saw one another through the smoke at that moment as depicted in the painting….and that Farragut’s “damn” comment (if he indeed said it) was directed as much at his Rebel nemesis as the naval mines (torpedoes) in the bay.

This was not the first time “Old Buck” had led a force into battle aboard an ironclad – he was aboard the CSS Virginia (CSN Card 70) the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads (he was wounded, however, and was not aboard her the next day when his ship faced the USS Monitor (USN Card 19).  Buchanan climbed out of the safety of the ironclad to stand on her deck firing a musket at Union snipers – and was himself hit in the process. 

CSS Tennessee, like CSS Virginia, was designed to ram as well as to duel with Union warships.  Unfortunately, like so many Rebel ironclads, she had weak engines (as represented in the game by USN Card 47 – Engine Breakdown).  When “Old Buck” tried to ram USS Hartford at Mobile Bay, Captain Percival Drayton was able to maneuver out of the way – yet it was a close miss, for Drayton’s gunners were able to peer down into the hatches of the Rebel monster as they unleashed a mighty broadside into her.  Farragut himself was nearly wounded, as a rifleman aboard CSS Tennessee stuck out his gun and shot at the Union officer.  (As McPherson notes: “If the shooter had managed to hit him, Farragut would have been a martyred hero like Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar instead of merely the hero of Mobile Bay.”)

As CSS Tennessee slid past the Union flagship, Farragut ordered Drayton to turn and to follow her – and signaled USS Brooklyn (USN Card 13) to also engage her.   Buchanan managed to get his ship under the guns of Fort Morgan, but then turned around for another run at USS Hartford – two Union monitors (USS Manhattan and USS Chickasaw) intervened, pouring  solid shot from 15-inch guns and 11-inch bolts, respectively, into the ironclad.  The USS Winnebago, like USS Chickasaw a double-turreted monitor, joined in.  Pounded and rammed repeatedly by these five powerful Union ships, CSS Tennessee was reduced to a shattered hulk,  and “Old Buck,” similarly wounded, struck her colors.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Ironclads

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part III – Rebel Ironclads: CSS Ablemarle – “SEALS” vs. an  “Unsinkable Ram”

Though she bore only two guns – a pair of fine 6.4-inch Brooke Rifles mounted on pivots - the “unsinkable ram” CSS Ablemarle (CSN Card 75 in Rebel Raiders) was very well protected, with a thick bunker and iron shutters for her gun ports.  An officer aboard the USS Miami, one of a pair of double-ender Union gunboats the Rebel ironclad dueled on the Roanoke River in April 1864, reports firing over 30 shots at point-blank range into the armored beast – “but they had no effect on her.”   One of those shots was an explosive anti-personnel shell personally fired from the bow gun by USS Miami’s captain.  The shrapnel bounced off the armor and killed the Union officer.  His ship retired but its companion, USS Southfield, went down, holed by the CSS Ablemarle’s ram.   The ram then went on to support the Confederate ground attack to regain the town of Plymouth – the only such combined arms operation involving a Rebel ironclad in the war.

 A month later CSS Ablemarle broke out into the Sound for which she was named, only to be swarmed by six Union gunboats.  She took over 60 hits, but it was only when her smokestack was so badly damaged her engines could not draw oxygen that she turned back to Plymouth.  Fearful that she would emerge again, the Union developed a bold plan worthy of a WW2 commando raid or a modern SEAL team operation.

Lt. William Barker Cushing, renowned for several cutting-out expeditions (one of which had captured a Confederate general) developed a plan to plant a torpedo in her hull.  He and 15 men went up the Roanoke on the night of October 27, 1864 in a small cutter.  The guards on the ram spotted them and her gunners sank the cutter – but not before Cushing had planted his torpedo – which ripped a hole in the waterline “big enough to drive a wagon” through.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Gunboats

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part II – The Gunboats: The Mosquito Fleet Rams at New Orleans

“The Mosquito Fleet” (CSN Card 81) represents the rag-tag little squadrons the South hastily cobbled together to defend their ports from the Union Navy.  One such force supported the ironclad CSS Manassas in the battle at Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans in late April 1862.

While the CSS Manassas is represented in the game (as CSN Card 71), the vessels that accompanied her are represented by the generic Gunboat counters, one or two of which may be added to a Confederate defense by play of The Mosquito Fleet (CSN Card 81).   General Mansfield Lowell had purchased and armed 14 civilian craft for his flotilla in the late winter of 1862 – but was ordered to send more than half of them upriver to Memphis to join Commander Montgomery’s river defense force (see my posting for July 15: http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-ships-of-rebel-raiders-gunboats_15.html)

When David G. Farragut and his massive Union fleet made their move on the forts below his city, Lowell had only six of his armed riverboats left, a force that even the Confederate secretary of war lamented was “a peculiar one.”  (Lowell himself admitted that his group had “little or no discipline” and was “too much ‘steamboat’ and too little of the man-of-war’ to be very effective.”  Still, when Farragut’s gunboats and screw sloops broke through the barrier of Hulks, Rafts and Chains (as represented in Rebel Raiders by CSN Card 110) Lowell and his makeshift flotilla were there to meet him.

While the turtle-shaped ironclad CSS Manassas   was the spearpoint of Lowell’s counterattack against the screw sloops (notably the massive USS Mississippi – represented in the game by USN Card 23), his gunboats closed with their Union counterparts.  The J.C. Breckinridge and Governor Moore worked together to each ram and sink the USS Varuna, then headed for the USS Cayuga – but were driven off by the fire of another Union gunboat, USS Oneida.  (USS Cayuga broke through the line of Rebel ships, surprised five companies of militia in their camp, who after taking a few rounds from the gunboat became the first Confederate regiment to surrender to a Union gunboat).

Lowell fought on, sending fireships down the river, but after the USS Mississippi’s guns pummeled and set afire the CSS Manassas, the fight was over.  Farragut  (USN Card 1) in the USS Hartford (USN Card 37), along with the USS Brooklyn (USN Card 13) and the rest of the fleet steamed forward, the forts already partially silenced by David Dixon Porter and his Little Mortar Boats (USN Card 2).   From there, it was on to New Orleans for the Union fleet.   As for Lowell, all but one ship in his Mosquito Fleet was lost.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Gunboats

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part II – The Gunboats: The Mosquito Fleet- Montgomery at Memphis

“The Mosquito Fleet” (CSN Card 81) represents the rag-tag little squadrons the South cobbled together for the defense of Memphis and Mobile Bay.  Civilian vessels to which a gun or two and crew were hastily added, and to which bales of cotton, stacks of lumber or other makeshift defenses were added, these hopelessly outclassed and outgunned little ships and their brave crews performed far better than any could expect or demand. 

The two Confederate naval officers who led those forces --- Commander James Montgomery at Memphis and Admiral Franklin Buchanan at Mobile Bay – are both represented by stand-up Leader counters and Fleet Command Boxes on the lower left of the map.  (Players may take a stack of ships and place them in a Fleet Command Box and replace them on the map with the corresponding Leader – there are two such for the South, four for the North).

Montgomery had eight ships in his “Mosquito Fleet” at Memphis in June 1862.  Undergunned and underpowered, they were no match for Colonel Charles Ellet and his seven ships, which included five ironclads and two rams.   (Two of those ships, the  ironclad USS Carondelet – USN Card 15 – and the ram, USS Queen of the West – USN Card 38, are in the game).    Needless to say, Montgomery, though gallant, did not prevail.

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 merits a second entry (in addition to yesterday's post noting the start of the New York draft riots)...and ps: Happy Bastille Day!

July 13, 1863 – (Part II) – “Infernal Machines” Sink Union Ironclad

            Historical Event:    The ironclad USS Baron de Kalb was sunk this day 150 years ago by a Confederate “infernal machine” (a “torpedo” as they called it but what we today would dub a naval mine).   The ironclad was part of the Union force that captured Yazoo City  (on the river of the same name) during the mopping up operations that followed the surrender of Vicksburg and Port Hudson (see my blog entries for July 3 and July 8, respectively:    http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/2013/07/this-day-150-years-ago-in-rebel-raiders.html   and http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/2013/07/dedicated-to-civil-war-episodes-battles.html

            Game Connection:    Ironclads are vital to the Confederacy to defend its ports and for the Union to battle through the batteries, sink Rebel ships and clear the way for the Army to land during an assault in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.   Whether fighting into an ocean port or up or down the Mississippi or Yazoo, the Union player does have to take into account that the Rebel player can play many cards to impede his progress.  One of those is Infernal Machines (CSN Card 56). 

            

Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 7)

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

When we left off, the South was suffering from an increasingly effective Union blockade, and girding itself for the terrible swift sword the North is preparing to wield at the dawn of the new and fateful year - 1863

Turn 7 – April 1863   “The Yankees Are Coming!”  - The First Battle of Nashville

The Confederate submarine David  (Card 65) tried to open a path on one Blockade Station, but failed. Three more Blockade Runners are caught.  The Raiding fleet, now being hunted and shadowed, manage to snag only 3 VP – and what Blockade Runners made it home brought in a mere 2 VP.     The South is now done to single digit VPs, which means no more heady bonus buys of batteries and ironclads!

Fortunately, the Tredegar Iron Works (Card 95) is once again drawn after having been reshuffled into the deck, and that again means a third battery – so Norfolk, Wilmington and Mobile get strengthened, and 4 Blockade Runners and a Raider are built.

“The Yankees Are Coming! The Yankees Are Coming!”

With the number of dice thrown in land combat now finally to the Union’s advantage (it increases in 1863 and again in 1864) and his wall of ships on blockade firmly in place, Brandon begins the great push – and last turn he paid build points to allow him to make a third attack.   The first target is Nashville:

Battle of Nashville – Ironclads vs. Batteries; Five Card Stud or "You Shall Not Pass!"

Brandon now has FOUR Ironclads on the river, and with a pair of gunboats they sail into Nashville – which has three batteries.

Proclaiming loudly "You shall not pass!" Mark empties half of his hand to defend the city – playing Infernal Machines (56), The Mosquito Fleet (81) (which adds a Gunboat on a die roll) and the Hulks, Rafts and Chains  (110) Cards.  Brandon makes one of his Ironclads The Carondelet (Card 15) and plays Queen of the West (38) to turn a gunboat into a ram.   This makes FIVE cards being played out of the 12 held by the two players.

 The Infernal Machines force one Ironclad and one Gunboat to retreat.  The Queen of the West misses ramming the Rebel Gunboat.   In the exchange of fire the Union loses an Ironclad and a Gunboat, the South loses its sole Gunboat and one of the three batteries.

Brandon decides that his two surviving Ironclads are not enough to take on the remaining two batteries --- as the Union would have but one die each vs. two die per Battery.  He retreats, but only so he can unleash a second, fresh force…as we will see next time in Turn 7 (Part II) – The Second Battle of Nashville.

  

To be continued…

Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 4)

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

When we last left our happy warriors,, the Union had taken Louisville only to suffer a horrifying defeat at Nashville – costing them 10 Victory Points and a key Card.  The South, however, is not smiling too broadly, as the Blockade is tightening and the Union is capturing Blockade Runners almost as fast as the Confederacy can build them…

Turn 4 – April 1862   The Battle of Island No. 10

The South’s joy over holding Nashville is tempered by the loss of FOUR Blockade Runners, all fully loaded with 2 VP each!  Still, despite those losses 10 VP of cargo make it through the blockade, and the Raiders manage to squeeze 3 more VP.     The South places the Ironclad built last turn in Memphis, and spends 20 VP to start building another Ironclad.  Once again, a Raider and four Blockade Runners are built. (As it is now 1862, two of those Blockade Runners may be and are built in foreign ports).

Beauregard  (Card 88) shows up, allowing placement of a third battery instead of the usual two a turn, and these go in Nashville, Chattanooga and Memphis, as Brandon has been steadily building up Ironclads and gunboats in the West.

Brandon, repulsed by land, is now eager to push on the river, as he has accumulated a strong fleet.

The Battle for Island No. 10 --

Brandon takes his Cairo fleet of 1 Ironclad and 5 Gunboats to fight the two Rebel Gunboats and Battery at Island No. 10.

On the first round, two Union and one Confederate Gunboat are sunk.

On the second round, another Union Gunboat goes down – but the Yankees destroy the Battery and sink the other Rebel Gunboat.

This paves the way for the attack on the fort space itself.  As it is now 1862 the North is no longer at a disadvantage and is rolling two dice a turn in combat, the same number of basic dice as the South. To make sure the Confederacy can’t change the odds Brandon plays “Three Cigars” (Card 45) (as that Union card prevents the South from playing cards in the fight.    Island No. 10 falls; it is the first piece of Southern territory to be reintegrated into the Union.   (See photo of game map below).

…but not without company; St. Augustine falls to the Union Navy in an amphibious assault.   It is the first Southern city to fall.

 All the South can do to take its revenge is to play Royal Navy (Card  62) (as allowed by the previous play of the Trent Card) – forcing the North to build 3 Screw Sloops to put on the Royal Navy card  (to “watch” the British fleet that was assembled at Halifax).

Silly Ships of the Civil War

As one follower of my blog remarked upon seeing the picture of the USS Choctaw (see the posting for yesterday, May 20)  "it's hard to imagine that was an actual warship!"

Well, it was -- and Civil War ships are indeed a bizarre  and ungainly lot, as there are ironclads, cottonclads, timberclads, putt-putt steamboats, mortar-boats, fire-rafts, paddlewheelers, armed merchantmen, screw sloops, steam frigates, traditional sailing ships, ships that combined two or  three types of propulsion, gunboats, rams, raiders, submarines, dummy warships (like the "Black Terror") ocean-going tugs - and even an ocean-going ironclad raider -- the CSS Stonewall.....

Most of those bizarre ships appear in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, as even a cursory look at the countermix or cards will show.   

One of the things i loved most about designing this game was researching and reading about the ships...and the men who served aboard them...

For a scholarly yet entertaining look at these ships and how they fought, I suggest James McPherson's War on the Waters, which came out last year.  You can hear him (and Craig Symonds, another great Civil War naval historian) talk about it on this link:  I was present at their session at the New York Historical Society last October -- and I am on camera at the 39 minute mark asking a question about Rebel Admiral Buchanan and Commander Montgomery, both of whom appear in the game.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/309606-1

Our First Major Review - Boardgamegeek says Rebel Raiders is FUN!

Boardgamegeek gave Rebel Raiders a "thumbs up" and said many nice things about the game....notably that "it was fun"

Here are some excerpts:
-Fun (and no "rules issues we couldn't find an answer for")

Unlike most first-play wargames, when packing up the game we marveled over the fact that hadn't run into any rules issues which we couldn't find an answer for in the rulebook (sometimes it took a little digging, though!) before the end of play. That's a uncommon occurrence for any game, wargames especially.

... and a seldom-talked about aspect of wargames, it was fun. I found myself grinning as I caught up blockade runners in dragnets, groaned as raiders slipped through, and rubbed my hands together in Machiavellian glee at a particularly well timed Assault with several applicable card supplements. 


-"A solid, well-designed game with a high fun factor":


This is a pretty solid, well-designed game with a high fun factor and asymmetrical challenges for the Union and Confederate players. It's quick (plays in three hours), easy to play (once you get the rules down) and has a fair amount of colour (I wouldn't call it "chrome") in the rules and the play of cards. Both sides have difficult choices to make on how to pursue overall strategy as well as how to spend resources and cards on individual campaigns and battles.


So, should I buy it?

Short version: You're a naval warfare fan? Yes. American Civil War fan? Probably, unless you really don't like naval warfare or less "simulative" games. General wargamer - yes, if you're looking for a short, simple game that also explores a unusual and little-known side of the ACW. Caveat: it's "evocative", not "simulative".


A grateful thanks to Boardgamegeek from all of us on the Rebel Raiders team...

For the full review go to their website:  
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/974540/first-impressions-after-truncated-introductory-gam

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

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

May 6, 1863

            Historical Event:  The Yankee Nightmare.   On this day Confederate States Navy Commander James D. Bullock is sent to Europe with two million pounds sterling; his mission:  find a shipyard that will build a squadron of ocean-going ironclads that will steam across the Atlantic to break the Union blockade.  One ship will be built – but not in time to see action.  She is the CSS Stonewall, named for the gallant general who fell earlier in May after gaining his epic victory at Chancellorsville.

            Game Connection:  The CSS Stonewall is one of those “what if” events that might occur in a game of Rebel Raiders.  She is represented by Card 74 (see below) and a matching counter.   She can act as a raider – but is much easier to catch than her older sisters – yet is harder to sink, as she fights as an ironclad.