I have made one large map showing the whole year because of how fast the South fell apart. In particular I wanted to show the affects of overruns and how my whole strategy revolved around it. At the end of 1862 I had a good Political position having 1135 points but position wise I was behind relative to the real war. I had Memphis but not the key region of Corinth which proved to be the gatekeeper to the south. In Virginia I was still north of the Rappahannock River with little to show for a years worth of fighting there.
Then came the strategy of Overrun. What I planned to do was avoid Major Battles and concentrate on automatic overruns or protected attacks (CSA can’t reinforce) against regions. To facilitate it I found that I could destroy infrastructure (railroads, factories, and resources) on the fly just by entering the region and expending some excess movement points on destroying them. I didn’t even have to win the fight for the region to render it charcoal. Even though the Rebels immediately counterattacked I found I was picking up more Political Points by taking regions than they were regaining by Minor Victories against the small garrison forces that ended up in those regions.
Forces shown are at end of 1863.
On the map I have colored coded the movements and battles during the year with lighter colored arrows for the overruns and darker for ones that required battles although usually minor ones. I have also marked each battle with a pentagon. Red ones were from my attacks and purple ones were from CSA attacks. The size indicates the relative size of the battles. The blue ovals show my main army positions in January. The Rebels are shown in green and their general movements during the year are shown with green arrows.
The first thing to note is lack of major battles. In the West my attack against Corinth was the only major battle until I blocked Bragg’s northward movement at the end of the year in Lebanon, Kentucky (shown by the red arrow). In Virginia there were more major battles but over the same regions as they changed hands multiple times. These battles acted more to keep the armies protecting Richmond fixed in place while the surrounding regions were overrun.
The first half of the year is shown by light blue (overruns) and dark blue (attacks on regions) since the winter months had little activity other than preparation for spring. For the most part they were side shows while I built up my armies for the main assault. I sent forces from Sherman and Grant into Arkansas to take Little Rock then expand out occupy all of Arkansas. The aim of this was to turn the flank of the large Confederate army, over 90,000 men, holding Corinth. I finally provoked a reaction and they send a force of about 20,000 against Clarksdale just east of Corinth. I threw 60,000 men in reinforcements against it positioning me for an offensive against Corinth. In May I struck with the combined armies of Grant and Sherman under Grant and defeated the Bragg at Corinth. This kicked in the door and all hell broke loose.
The summer assaults show how bad things shifted. The overruns are in yellow and they spread through out Mississippi as I burned it to the ground. I followed these up with attacks against the small forces the Rebels send southward to stop me. These are shown in what is suppose to be orange but looks a little brownish. By the end of summer I held most of Arkansas, parts of Louisiana, almost all of Mississippi and Alabama. In the East I pressed on down the valley following the railroad to Knoxville and into North Carolina. Meanwhile Bragg first withdraws to Decatur then finding he can’t stop the invasion of Mississippi decide to see if he can draw me off by heading northeast into Tennessee and Kentucky. Eventually I do follow but just to retake the regions he used and wait for starvation to destroy his army.
Winter sees the tightening of the grip around the armies I have now isolated. The movements are shown in light brown for overruns and dark brown for attacks into regions. Sheridan pushes straight through Alabama to Rome, Georgia. New Orleans is finally taken. Grant and Sherman move their main armies after Bragg waiting for a chance to complete the kill. The red arrows show the final movements into 1864 as they follow him into far eastern Kentucky. Bragg’s army is down to about 30,000.
In Virginia the battles are more complex as Lee tries to break the ring and Lyon and Hooker try to tighten it. Regions are won and lost but each round the Union ends up with a few more net ones and the ring tighter. Finally a landing at New Bern on the Coast gives my armies rail access and a solid defensive line. Lee makes one last attempt to break out attacking Raleigh with most of his army some 35,000 men now. Lyon throws 82,000 men to block him soundly defeating him. With 19,000 casualties and 90 guns lost along with Generals Longstreet and Stuart his army falls back to wait certain death the first time I get initiative.
The thing to note from this campaign is how easily the South was overwhelmed once things came undone. I can’t be sure whether this was due to unusually high initiative for the Union and/or being able to call extra Drafts and Black recruitment gave me the numbers to do it. But August is a good example of what was happening in the West. I overran or attacked 11 regions. The Rebels were only able to counterattack 2 which they won.
Refer to AAR for more info: 2nd ARR WbtS Whitehead(USA)
