Saphroneth
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2017
So to recapitulate, I think the most important thing to remember about considering this sort of campaign is that the enemy commander is under no obligation to fight you if you want to fight him and it would be better for him not to fight.
If you want a substantial part of your campaign to be conducted Overland, you need to do at least one of the following:
Reaching the Rappahanock-Rapidan
- You can go over the Rappahanock-Rapidan (henceforth the Rapidan) at Fredericksburg, which means you're fighting a Fredericksburg.
- You can go over the Rapidan somewhere to the west of the confluence with the Rappahanock, which means you need to repair the Orange and Alexandria railway at least to Culpeper and you're basically spending several months doing that.
With that in mind:
Crossing phase
If you go for Fredericksburg then you have to win a battle which historically was badly lost by the Union when it was attempted, even with about 2:1 superiority in numbers. This gets you to the Spotsylvania phase.
If you go for the historical Wilderness route (by which time it is probably July) then you have to fight a battle which was won-one lost-one in terms of Union attempts to fight it, and for which you have less supply capacity (fewer wagons) and you have to go further (you have to go well past Fredericksburg instead of reach Fredericksburg); in other words you have to outperform the historical Union attempts at this route. This gets you to the Spotsylvania phase.
If you go for the Rapidan route (i.e. continue down the O&A), then again it's probably July by this point and you have to fight a battle which nobody even attempted - and for good reason, because the ground around Rapidan Station itself is good defensively. If you have gained the far bank then best-case scenario you can skip the Spotsylvania phase and move on to the North Anna phase.
Spotsylvania phase
Historically at Spotsylvania Court House Lee successfully held off attacks by a Union army that outnumbered him by more than 2:1 (indeed about 3:1 by the end). He did this successfully enough that Grant decided that it would not be worthwhile to continue attacking at Spotsylvania, and manoeuvred away instead.
If what you want to do is destroy the Confederate army significantly north of Richmond, then you're sort of stuck attacking at Spotsylvania and you have to significantly outperform the historical Spotsylvania in order to destroy the Confederate army. You will also have fewer troops available to you in total than Grant had by this point, even if you started the crossing phase with about the same number.
If on the other hand you opt to manoeuvre, you don't really need to equal the performance of the historical Spotsylvania and you can move on to the North Anna phase.
North Anna phase
The North Anna phase is where a pure-Overland route in 1862 comes unstuck no matter if it opts to manoeuvre or how it got over the Rapidan. You either need to win convincingly in a battle which the historical Overland saw as a no-hoper (to the extent that Grant didn't really bother trying very hard) or you need to have the York river open in order to supply yourself when you conduct a manoeuvre around the flank.
Now, with the Urbanna route you have a good chance of being able to either neutralize Gloucester with a flanking force or simply get over the Mattaponi river directly before Confederate troops can block you, which is what means you can open the York, but with the Overland route you're stalled some way further north (in fact at the North Anna you're pretty much as far south as you can get via wagon supply) and while if you had a cavalry corps you might be able to send it south on a deep penetration raid to shut down the Richmond and York Railroad on a permanent basis it's 1862 and you don't have a cavalry corps yet - there simply aren't enough mounted men for it. Even if you can shut it down, Yorktown is a bastion fort and can hold out for a while by itself.
If on the other hand you have an amphibious-hybrid setup where you take Gloucester Point and put Union navy gunboats on the York (to knock out Yorktown) then you can supply up the York and thus reach the Cold Harbor phase.
Cold Harbor phase
At the Cold Harbor phase, either you will have to drastically outperform the historical fighting at Cold Harbor or you will be unable to break into Richmond or indeed badly harm the Confederate army. You can keep knocking yourself out against the lines, or you can move on to the Petersburg phase.
Petersburg phase
This is functionally impossible unless the James river has been opened up to Union gunboats and supply ships, which means that you need to have taken Norfolk and destroyed the Virginia. If the Virginia is still extant then you are out of luck.
The bottom line to this is that there is no way I can see in which an 1862 Overland can work unless you significantly outperform a historical Union battle that took place when attempting to conduct a later overland campaign, or you take many months (i.e. longer than the historical Peninsular campaign), or you mix in so many elements of the Peninsular campaign that you may as well just do that.
The closest thing I can see to a workable route which is more Overland-y than the Urbanna plan (which remember is an amphibious-overland hybrid because half or more of the army comes overland) is:
- Wait months for the repair of the Orange and Alexandria south to Culpeper.
- Rush through the Wilderness, even though you have less supply than 1864 and have to go further.
- Establish supply from Port Royal VA.
- Manoeuvre to the North Anna rather than fighting at Spotsylvania.
- Use an amphibious force to take Gloucester and open up the York.
- Manoeuvre to the Cold Harbor position supplied from the York.
- Use an amphibious force to take Norfolk.
- Cross to Petersburg.
This allows you to do something that I would say is recognizably the Overland campaign when you only have to significantly outperform any historical Union force in one segment of the campaign (the marching and fighting in the Wilderness). The downside is that it takes many months and you do still have to manage that one significant outperform.
If you want a substantial part of your campaign to be conducted Overland, you need to do at least one of the following:
Reaching the Rappahanock-Rapidan
- You can go over the Rappahanock-Rapidan (henceforth the Rapidan) at Fredericksburg, which means you're fighting a Fredericksburg.
- You can go over the Rapidan somewhere to the west of the confluence with the Rappahanock, which means you need to repair the Orange and Alexandria railway at least to Culpeper and you're basically spending several months doing that.
With that in mind:
Crossing phase
If you go for Fredericksburg then you have to win a battle which historically was badly lost by the Union when it was attempted, even with about 2:1 superiority in numbers. This gets you to the Spotsylvania phase.
If you go for the historical Wilderness route (by which time it is probably July) then you have to fight a battle which was won-one lost-one in terms of Union attempts to fight it, and for which you have less supply capacity (fewer wagons) and you have to go further (you have to go well past Fredericksburg instead of reach Fredericksburg); in other words you have to outperform the historical Union attempts at this route. This gets you to the Spotsylvania phase.
If you go for the Rapidan route (i.e. continue down the O&A), then again it's probably July by this point and you have to fight a battle which nobody even attempted - and for good reason, because the ground around Rapidan Station itself is good defensively. If you have gained the far bank then best-case scenario you can skip the Spotsylvania phase and move on to the North Anna phase.
Spotsylvania phase
Historically at Spotsylvania Court House Lee successfully held off attacks by a Union army that outnumbered him by more than 2:1 (indeed about 3:1 by the end). He did this successfully enough that Grant decided that it would not be worthwhile to continue attacking at Spotsylvania, and manoeuvred away instead.
If what you want to do is destroy the Confederate army significantly north of Richmond, then you're sort of stuck attacking at Spotsylvania and you have to significantly outperform the historical Spotsylvania in order to destroy the Confederate army. You will also have fewer troops available to you in total than Grant had by this point, even if you started the crossing phase with about the same number.
If on the other hand you opt to manoeuvre, you don't really need to equal the performance of the historical Spotsylvania and you can move on to the North Anna phase.
North Anna phase
The North Anna phase is where a pure-Overland route in 1862 comes unstuck no matter if it opts to manoeuvre or how it got over the Rapidan. You either need to win convincingly in a battle which the historical Overland saw as a no-hoper (to the extent that Grant didn't really bother trying very hard) or you need to have the York river open in order to supply yourself when you conduct a manoeuvre around the flank.
Now, with the Urbanna route you have a good chance of being able to either neutralize Gloucester with a flanking force or simply get over the Mattaponi river directly before Confederate troops can block you, which is what means you can open the York, but with the Overland route you're stalled some way further north (in fact at the North Anna you're pretty much as far south as you can get via wagon supply) and while if you had a cavalry corps you might be able to send it south on a deep penetration raid to shut down the Richmond and York Railroad on a permanent basis it's 1862 and you don't have a cavalry corps yet - there simply aren't enough mounted men for it. Even if you can shut it down, Yorktown is a bastion fort and can hold out for a while by itself.
If on the other hand you have an amphibious-hybrid setup where you take Gloucester Point and put Union navy gunboats on the York (to knock out Yorktown) then you can supply up the York and thus reach the Cold Harbor phase.
Cold Harbor phase
At the Cold Harbor phase, either you will have to drastically outperform the historical fighting at Cold Harbor or you will be unable to break into Richmond or indeed badly harm the Confederate army. You can keep knocking yourself out against the lines, or you can move on to the Petersburg phase.
Petersburg phase
This is functionally impossible unless the James river has been opened up to Union gunboats and supply ships, which means that you need to have taken Norfolk and destroyed the Virginia. If the Virginia is still extant then you are out of luck.
The bottom line to this is that there is no way I can see in which an 1862 Overland can work unless you significantly outperform a historical Union battle that took place when attempting to conduct a later overland campaign, or you take many months (i.e. longer than the historical Peninsular campaign), or you mix in so many elements of the Peninsular campaign that you may as well just do that.
The closest thing I can see to a workable route which is more Overland-y than the Urbanna plan (which remember is an amphibious-overland hybrid because half or more of the army comes overland) is:
- Wait months for the repair of the Orange and Alexandria south to Culpeper.
- Rush through the Wilderness, even though you have less supply than 1864 and have to go further.
- Establish supply from Port Royal VA.
- Manoeuvre to the North Anna rather than fighting at Spotsylvania.
- Use an amphibious force to take Gloucester and open up the York.
- Manoeuvre to the Cold Harbor position supplied from the York.
- Use an amphibious force to take Norfolk.
- Cross to Petersburg.
This allows you to do something that I would say is recognizably the Overland campaign when you only have to significantly outperform any historical Union force in one segment of the campaign (the marching and fighting in the Wilderness). The downside is that it takes many months and you do still have to manage that one significant outperform.