Scenario # 7, Battle at North Anna crossing – 24 May 1864
 

Historical Summary & Scenario Situation.
On May 4th, 1864, U.S. Grant initiated combat in the Wilderness as part of his Overland Campaign to defeat R.E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and to capture the Confederate capitol at Richmond VA.  On May 23, 1864, after losing 36,000 men in the Wilderness and around Spotsylvania Court House, the Army of the Potomac made its fourth attempt to out-march and out flank Lee’s army.  Once again, Lee got there first.

Grant sought to gain the defensible terrain on the south banks of the North Anna River by an attack from the march.  AP Hill anchored the North Anna defenses on the west and easily defeated the probes by Warren’s corps on the 23rd. However, due to illness, Hill’s execution lagged and he missed an opportunity to mass on Warren’s lead division before it dug breastworks.  Grant, eager to gain Hanover Junction, a critical station where the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, and the Virginia Central Railroad joined. These railroads formed the nexus of Lee’s lines of communications. Grant ordered Hancock’s II Corps to exploit his bridgehead at the Chesterfield Bridge on the east side of the North Anna defenses.

This scenario starts with the tactical situation as it was on May 24, 1864.  The II Corps has twin bridgeheads across the North Anna and R.E. Lee has been able to complete his position.  Both forces are maneuvering for a position of advantage and to gain their own offensive objectives.  While II Corps leadership is intact, the corps of “Hancock the Magnificent” has been the spearhead formation of the Army of the Potomac for nearly three weeks without rest.  Without the reinforcement of Tyler’s division of heavy artillerymen made infantry, the II Corps would have been combat ineffective. Divisions are the size of brigades and brigades are the size of regiments. The saviors of Gettysburg now are buried in shallow graves along the path of the army.

On the Confederate side, May 24th represents one of the darker periods in the history of the Army of Northern Virginia.  JEB Stuart lays dead on the field at Yellow Tavern, Longstreet is recovering from severe wounds rendered by wayward pickets in the Wilderness, AP Hill is fighting back from a mysterious malady now known to be the intermediate stages of syphilis, and Ewell is teetering of physical collapse due to his old wound and bad food.  Worse of all, Robert E. Lee, the man who personally saved the Army at the Mule Shoe and the Wilderness, is stricken down with a bout of the “old soldier’s disease” – dysentery.  The only senior commander able to take the field in fit condition is Richard Anderson, the acting commander of 1st Corps. The situation is so dire that Lee’s chief of staff requests that he summon PGT Beauregard from Bermuda Hundred to take command for the coming battle.  Lee regales his staff, “We must strike him a blow !” and summons Ewell to receive orders.

The game lasts 6 turns representing the possible duration of a battle on May 24th.

Scenario Victory Conditions.
Victory is based on a point tally for different, specific geographical or tactical objectives.  The team captains of both teams will receive their specific list by personal email from the Games GA.  The determination of the scenario winner is done at the end of T6.

Historical Results.
Lee refuses to summon Beauregard or acknowledge that he is incapacitated.  Attempting to issue orders to Ewell, Lee takes to his tent for the day. Ewell left to his own initiative, fails to take the advantage he is offered.  Hancock, ever aggressive, sends out Birney’s and Barlow’s divisions to probe toward Hanover Junction.  Encountering the works of 2d Corps, the Union veterans throw up hasty breastworks expecting a Confederate assault. The attack never arrives and the two corps face each other’s entrenchments for the duration.

Grant, now aware of the strength of the Confederate position, probes along the North Anna defenses. Getting bloodied at Ox Ford and along the western approaches, he is content to have the rail lines north of the river destroyed and plots his next move.  Assessing, in error, that the Army of Northern Virginia, like its western counterpart, has been morally defeated and can not leave the earthworks, Grant makes plans for another move to the east that will end at Cold Harbor and the worse defeat that US Grant encountered during the entire war.

Special Instructions.
Only Potter’s Division, Union II Corps, is allowed to execute strategic movement.

No units are allowed to go into breastworks (form: bw command) until T5.

Reference URLs:
http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/va055.htm
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n=4195956&e=283096&s=50