End game and post-game analysis
The final battles were:
Battle information:
29th September
Battle of Jefferson
In an intense combat action under the personal supervision of both Jackson and Lee, Lawton's division aided Anderson's division in breaking out of an encirclement in Jefferson Pass. The fighting led to around 500 Confederate casualties and 1,000 Union ones, and much of Sumner's 2nd Corps was driven back over the Catoctins in disarray; however,the fighting was of sufficient duration that the Confederate troops were unable to fully exploit the breakout beyond linking up with Anderson's division.
Battle of Braddock Heights
To the north, AP Hill also attempted a breakout, and despite facing worse odds and without assistance actually performed better. His attack knocked Sykes' tired division away with 500 casualties and forced him to retreat, allowing AP Hill into the Middletown Valley, but the fighting was again too strenuous to allow AP Hill to keep moving.
Porter moved the rest of both his corps and 1st Corps (minus Hatch) into threatening positions after the first phase of the battle, then struck from the north with Morell's division and routed AP Hill's force south towards Broad Run Village at the cost of around 1,000 to 1,500 casualties all told.
Battle of Berlin Ferry
After marching south, JR Jones' division ran into a dug in regiment along the Baltimore and Ohio defending the crossing at Berlin.
Despite their parlous state, Union reinforcements marching from Harpers Ferry and already in sight drove Lee to decide to launch an immediate attack - not wanting to give time for reinforcements to render the ford unassailable. However, storming the fort proved to be too much to ask, and despite a vicious battle which left the 87th Ohio staggered by its intensity they still held the ford by the end of Jones' assault.
30th
Action at Hamburg
Walker's division was surrounded by cavalry and by infantry of the 1st Corps as it attempted to elude pursuit in the Catoctins, with McReynolds delaying his movements in any direction, and after a sharp action in which Hatch's infantry gained the heights Walker surrendered his battered command.
Battle of Centreville
Sumner marched French's division up from the area of Catoctin Switch, and attacked Anderson's division in broken terrain. The attack forced Anderson to break in a rout towards South Mountain, though the effort also tired out French's division.
Second Battle of Berlin Ferry
Lee spared no efforts whatsoever to get Lawton's division, with Jackson in command, to Berlin Ferry on the last day of the month. Lawton arrived and attacked immediately, with much of the rest of the depleted Confederate army in support, and despite being reinforced by Ford's entire brigade since the previous evening's actions the defenders of the ford were still forced into a rout across the Potomac with 500 men lost.
Battle of Burkittsville
During the afternoon, Porter sent Whipple's division against Anderson's force between Burkittsville and Berlin; despite the battered state of the defenders however they still gave better than they got, bloodying Whipple before retiring south towards the ferry.
End game state:
By the time the Army of Northern Virginia broke contact south of the Potomac, evading their pursuers for long enough that Union logistical issues began to emerge, they were down to 13,000 men in formed units (and 17 batteries, many of them attached to depleted formations).
Though many of the missing men were not unrecoverable losses, and the return of stragglers which had ended up south of the Potomac (owing to the extended sojurn under the effect of poor supplies) would ultimately replenish the Army of Northern Virginia's ranks to around 30,000 men all told, the effect of the invasion of the north was still devastating to the Confederate war effort. While the Union army needed time to establish effective logistics to continue to prosecute the war in the east, it had won back the confidence that had been so wounded in August - and by the middle of October Union columns were marching south of the Potomac, one through Loudoun Valley and the other out of Washington, and Lee found himself simply unable to effectively engage either force without reinforcement from the West - reinforcement they could not afford to provide.
Post game analysis:
I'm going to go into more detail on lessons learned later, both about issuing commands and about "tips and tricks", but I think the basic summary for why this campaign went the way it did is quite simple.
It is fair to say that the Confederates lost this campaign, but despite that it does not mean that they actually played poorly. Instead there were instances during this game where the Confederates played well, and in the early part of the campaign they were setting themselves up very well... the biggest issue however is simply about information and military intelligence.
Assuming, and honest assessment of the state of a plan
For most of the game the Confederates did not know where to find most of the strength of the Army of the Potomac, and what's more (and much more dangerous) they made
assumptions about where that strength was. Similarly, they had a clever plan (the flank move to Baltimore) which I would say was a very good idea, but that plan then hypnotized them to the extent that they did not consider alternatives for too long.
When formulating a long term plan, what a general should do is to ask themselves what would make them change their mind on the viability of that plan - and then try and find out if that situation is true.
It would be easy to say you should reconsider every single day whether the plan is still a good idea, but this can lead to vacillation; instead you should define the conditions that would make you hit "abort".
Making the whole army work at once
For a significant part of the campaign, most of the Confederate army was on the defensive. In fact, for more than a week there was effectively no offensive action taking place along the Monocacy - which is what freed the Union up to concentrate decisive force on one part of the Confederate army and then another part of the Confederate army.
What the Confederate players should have done instead is to first use their cavalry (which was somewhat depleted by that point but by no means useless, and - especially when accomapnied by Stuart - still
very hard to catch!) to find out if they really were facing as much of the Union army as they expected, and then (depending on the answer) had the majority of their army doing something.
If most of the Union army was still there on the Monocacy, then it would be a completely reasonable thing for the Confederates to do to go after Harpers Ferry (in a way similar to the historical one). If the Union followed them up in full force then that would drag the Union army further away from Baltimore, while if they did not then the Confederates would have gained Harpers Ferry (which would have been a pretty significant victory, especially unopposed, and would have largely solved their supply issues).
If on the other hand most of the Union army was missing, not only would this provide warning for Longstreet's force but it would also permit the Confederates to go on the offensive. When they actually
did go on the offensive (albeit too late and depleted by supply issues) the Confederates forced some quite casualties on the Union, and they could have done this by targeting the Union army... or they could have done something else entirely, which is to
go after Washington.
Look at this Union map from the 16th, at the beginning of the Union flank march.
Most of the Union army which will be left to defend along the Monocacy (i.e. not 2nd, 6th, Sykes, 9th, Morell, Humphreys, Stoneman) is weighted north; thus the opportunity.
As you can probably tell,one of the most crucial points here is the sheer importance of good intelligence and scouting.
Still, this was all a learning experience, and I hope as many people as possible are interested in taking part in future games.
I'll follow this up with a stats post, and I plan on doing the rest of the Maryland Campaign turn-by-turn maps over the next 2-3 weeks.