Anniversary of the Battle of Williamsburg (May 5, 1862)

[Gil R.]

Since it's the anniversary of the battle, I thought I'd share a little something. The Battle of Williamsburg is one that hasn't received much attention -- only one book is devoted to the battle, and in most studies of the Peninsular Campaign (or the war itself!) it receives just a few pages. (Sears's "Gates of Richmond" and Beatie's 3rd vol. in his Army of the Potomac series are notable exceptions.) On top of this, the battle has suffered the humiliation of not being the subject of a single fully accurate map. What this means for reproducing the battle in BAB#1 is that I've had to do a lot of original research, both in period maps and the Official Records. Some period maps are available on the web, but the best one has never been published, and seems not to have even been consulted by some who have written about the battle. The map in question is at the National Archives, and since I was visiting Maryland last year I was able to go there and see it, and for just $7 get a scan and unlimited rights for its use and reproduction. So, I thought I'd share an excerpt (since the full map is too big to post here).

Parenthetically, I should say that Civil War battlefield maps often are pretty impressive works of art. This one was done after the battle for McClellan, and is dated May 30, 1862.

[Gil R.]

Oh, I guess some decipherment is in order. The pink represents abatis, and the short, brown smudges along the edges of the woods at some points are rifle pits. In addition to Fort Magruder -- a large mud-earth structure -- you have several square and chevron-shaped redoubts. Just behind the fort is the encampment, with several rows of log huts. To the left of "Open Field" is where much of the fighting by/with Hooker took place. (The map should be rotated about 90 degrees counter-clockwise for something approaching a north-south orientation. Right now, north is to the right.)

[berto]

If I may say so, Williamsburg seems a bit of an odd choice to include in the first installment of BaB:DS. I mean, the other announced battles--1st Manassas, Wilson's Creek, Mill Springs--were all from January 1862 and earlier. Williamsburg is from May of 1862. Williamsburg seems more thematically and logically appropriate to a battle collection including Seven Pines, The Seven Days, and perhaps also the 1862 Valley Campaign.

If BaB:DS battles are to be grouped by time frame, as seems to be the case, why not for the first installment therefore include battles earlier in time--for instance Fort Donelson (February 1862), Pea Ridge (March 1862), 1st Kernstown (March 1862), even as late as Shiloh (April 1862)?

Why did you not decide to group battles by both time and theater?

Would you please say a few words about your battle selections. What is the overall plan?

[Gil R.]

Well, the original subtitle of this release was "Opening Battles of the Civil War," until Matrix (rightly) suggested we try to think of something catchier. So thematically, the idea was not pre-Feb. 1862, but rather the first important battles. Williamsburg, as the first battle of the Peninsula Campaign AND the first battle between the Army of the Potomac and Army of Northern Virginia, struck us as appropriate. We originally were going to have Ft. Donelson as well, but have pushed that off to our third(?) release, working title "The Civil War in the West (1862)" (until Matrix asks for something catchier!), since it would have added at least a month or two of development time.

We decided not to do Seven Pines because that is a battle not easily reproduced in a game, since the reasons it turned out the way it did had everything to do with poor command decisions and stubborn commanders. (People usually think of Antietam as the hardest ACW battle to reproduce in a game, but my money's on Seven Pines.) So, without that battle it made sense for a "Lee Takes Command" release (I dare Matrix to come up with a catchier title!) that has the Seven Days Battles -- well, most of them -- and 2nd Manassas.

A Valley Campaign release is something we'd consider for the future, but we'd rather deal with the major battles first. Since a good deal of Jackson's success involved maneuver those battles are not all ideal for a tactical-only game.

So for this release we mixed theaters, but most BAB releases will be for just one theater. Overall, the extent to which we mix theaters in the future depends on how well BAB sells. We can cover the whole of the Civil War in six releases, in terms of the major battles at least, but can certainly stretch it out beyond that. So instead of BAB#6 being all of the interesting battles of 1864-5, we could have an Overland Campaign release, a Sherman in Georgia/Carolinas release, and perhaps even one for Petersburg (though that one might be a bit boring). And to that could be added the 1864 Valley Campaign, Jackson's battles (Valley Campaign + Cedar Mountain), and perhaps others. So, for now only the subjects of BAB#1-3 are fixed, and the rest we'll figure out as we go along.