The Wargamer

Command and Control at Gettysburg: A Wargamer's Perspective

 Introduction

“Good,” Lee said. “Deliver this message in person. Tell General Ewell the Federal Troops are retreating in confusion. It is only necessary to push those people to get possession of those heights. Of course, I do not know his situation, and I do not want him to engage a superior force, but I do want him to take that hill, if he thinks practicable, as soon as possible. Remind him that Longstreet is not yet up.”

- Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
 

“Lee’s instructions were “to carry the hill occupied by the enemy, if he found it practicable, but to avoid a general engagement until the arrival of the other divisions of the army….” Here was another of Lee’s discretionary orders – and one with a seeming contradiction. The decision was left entirely in Ewell’s hands, and was urged to start a fight but not to start a battle.”

- Steven W. Sears, Gettysburg

“He picked up the glasses, waiting for Ewell’s attack. No attack began.”

- Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels

Battle of Gettysburg – Situation about 8 PM, July 1^st, 1863     Union positions on Cemetery and Culp’s Hill.

American Civil War page on American Revolutionary War Site                                               David G. Martin, Gettysburg July 1

The Battle of Gettysburg began as a meeting engagement in Pennsylvania between troops of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac. Neither side had planned for a major battle on that hot day at the beginning of July 1863, but the initial encounter between Confederate infantry and Union cavalry escalated throughout the day as more and more reinforcements joined the fray. By the evening of July 1^st, the Confederates led by General Robert E. Lee had won the first day’s engagement and the Union I and XI Corps were driven back all along the line of battle. The situation was most precarious on the Union right flank, where General Ewell’s II Corps had enveloped the XI Corps and routed it through the town of Gettysburg. The Union forces fell back with the intent to take up defensive positions on two hills behind Gettysburg, Cemetery and Culp’s Hill. At that point a successful Confederate attack on those hills would have turned the Union center that was forming along Cemetery Ridge to the south. But no determined attack occurred that evening, much less a successful one. The reasons are numerous and still controversial after all these years. In the end, the Union forces were able to consolidate their position and successfully fought off Confederate attacks for the next two days, defeating the Army of Northern Virginia and turning back Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania.

As with many other wargamers, I was drawn to the hobby by an interest in military history. One of the things I look for in a game is its ability to allow for the recreation of historical events. These memorable events, whether it be the bombing of three Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway or the stand of the isolated 101^st Airborne Division at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, do not have to happen in a game, but I feel that the rules should allow for the possibility of such a situation to occur. Over the years I have been disappointed more often than not in my search for historicity in games. Part of the reason is that, given knowledge of what happened historically, gamers will not make the same mistakes. Another reason is the gamer’s ability to control all of their subordinate units with little of the friction inherent in historical warfare.

It is this friction in the realm of the command and control of forces that I wanted to look at in relation to games on the American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, specifically the evening of 1^st July in the vicinity of Cemetery and Culp’s Hill. My focus is not on whether the Confederates could have taken those hills and kept possession of them, but on the fact that the attack never took place. The question I ask is, given the historical situation at that point in the battle, whether there are any mechanisms present in a game that would inhibit an aggressive Confederate from mounting an attack on Cemetery and Culp’s Hill?

To conduct my research, I drew on an unscientific sampling of brigade and regimental level Gettysburg games – namely the ones currently residing in my closet. This selection process actually has two benefits. The first is that I am already familiar with the game systems involved and the second is that it gives you, dear reader, the opportunity to come up on the Wargamer forums <http://www.wargamer.com/forums/> to provide some gentle constructive criticism and information about games that I did or did not address. Please note that familiarity does not connote expertise, which I do not claim for any of these games or systems. Confirmation of this can be found in the drubbings I have received playing Civil War Campaigns by e-mail.

The four board games.