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Thomas Jackson General CSA(AI) dies at 4.20pm at the Battle of Manassas. Eulogy to be delivered by Stonewall Bee.

any commander can die, either by bad luck or poor positioning tbh, have killed off more than a few in my battles, you soon find out what works and what doesn't with HQ units, but bad luck can happen even then tbh, that's war

I had two commanders killed in one game without any enemy fire targeting the respective hex (as far as I could see) - are these deaths handled on a statistical level based on proximity to actual fighting going on? I would like to understand how I could avoid these fatalities and balance against the advantages of having the commanders leading from the front, for example

better to not have them in the front at all where possible tbh and keep them at the back, close enough for them to encourage but far enough away for them to not get shot at

I've no problem with commanders dying - it reflects ACW reality. I was just amused that Jackson went in his and my first BAB battle (not counting the tutorial). [;)]

How commanders are wounded/killed: every turn there is a dice roll with a small chance that some commander will be successfully hit, and if that dice roll comes up the code figures out which commander is under the greatest thread, based on proximity, presence of sharpshooters, etc. That's just for commanders in headquarters units, while unit commanders have the chance of being hit every time their unit is.

So if you see a bunch of commanders get killed -- as happened in the YouTube review of BAB by "The Historical Gamer" -- that's essentially bad dice rolls.

In my Williamsburg game, I killed JEB Stuart in, what else, an audacious, but reckless charge with the Jeff Davis Legion against my supply train...

Your supply train killed him, or nearby units? (Supply units do have weapons and can fight back, but this would be the most impressive feat I've heard of.)

No, the supply train took a couple pot shots, but it was Taylor's brigade coming up as reinforcements that did the job; Two CSA cav units got behind my line that was advancing on Fort Magruder. It looked like they were making a bee-line for my supply wagons; don't know if this was "intentional" by the AI, or just coincidence, but, luckily Taylor was just coming up. If nothing else, having to protect the wagons delayed his brigade's entry into the assault by at least an hour...

just bad luck then it seems, wrong time in the wrong place with a poor dice roll against you[:(]

Oh no, good luck for me; I'm playing the Union. I am a story-teller at heart, and I thought the audaciousness of the attempt matched JEB's historical personae...