South Carolina Campaign - British Victory

The battle of Guilford Courthouse

The Crown forces prevailed in our 1780 South Carolina Campaign as it came to a conclusion at the end of Turn 12.

The British finished the campaign with 22 Victory Points (VP) to 13 VCs for the Americans (or rebels, depending on your point of view).

The campaign achieved its primary purpose, which was to generate battles for the American Revolutionary War in the Southern Theater of Operations. There were a total of 12 battles, both big and small. The British won 7 battles and the Americans won 5 battles. One common denominator was that British general Lord Cornwallis never lost a battle in four tries.

Here is a list of the victories, with the winner shown in parentheses. I have also included the links to the battle reports for the battles that I played. Some of the really small actions were done with dice instead of actually playing a game, so I did not include these engagements in my links.

BRITISH VICTORIES:

Cornwallis and Tarleton confer before the start of a battle.

Winnsboro (Cornwallis)  Battle of Winnsboro
McDowell  (Tarleton) Battle of McDowell - Part 1  Part 2
Georgetown (Maitland)
1st Cheraw (Cornwallis) 1st Battle of Cheraw
Hillsboro (Tarleton)
Kingston (Cornwallis) Battle of Kingston
2nd Cheraw  (Cornwallis) 2nd Cheraw at SYWA Convention 2019

BRITISH VICTORY POINTS (22)
Battles Won - 7 points
Captured Leaders - 2 (McDowell and Gates)
Prisoners - 8 regiments
Forts Held - 4 (Granby, Watson, Motte and Georgetown)
Occuppied towns - 3 (Charleston, Savannah, Cheraw )

BRITISH STRENGTH POINTS = 30SPS

AMERICAN VICTORIES:

While Nathaniel Greene did not participate in the campaign, this command vignette could have
been used for  Baron DeKalb, the principal American commander in the campaign.

Fisher's Crossing (DeKalb) Battle of Fisher's Crossing
Capture of Augusta (Sumter)
Siege of Ninety Six (DeKalb) Surrender of Ninety Six
Hobkirk's Hill (DeKalb)  Battle of Hobkirk's Hill
Westbury Plantation (Marion) Ambush at Westbury Plantation


AMERICAN VICTORY POINTS (13)
Battles won - 5
Captured Leader -1 (Cruger)
POWs - 3 regiments
Forts Held - 1 Ninety Six
Occuppied Towns - 3 (Augusta, Camden, and Winnsboro)

AMERICAN STRENGTH POINTS "SPS" = 20SPs

The victory points, as you might glean from the above charts:

1 point for control of each named town with map dot
1 point for each opponent's SPs captured or removed from the campaign from attrition
1 point for each captured leader
1 point for each fort controlled

To control a town, at least one Strength Point (SP) must be occupying the dot on the map. I suppose that either side could have made a sprint to occupy the most number of towns on the final turn, but they didn't do it so as to keep their armies consolidated.

Conclusions
I thought that the campaign mechanisms worked fairly well and I did not find many glitches or loop holes in the campaign rules. The major mistake that I made was not keeping track of SPs that were captured or removed from the game. I had to go back through the previous turns' blog reports to find the missing information.

I had a lot of fun with this campaign and I think that it helped that there were a finite number of game turns (12 turns, each representing a month of the year). It was fun to have battles created by the campaign, with the small battles of McDowell and Westbury Plantation being among my favorites. The battles also forced me to paint some additional regiments for both sides to meet the needs of the campaign.

The next step is to write down the campaign rules as a rough draft and then farm out the campaign to several play testers. After a little more play testing, my goal is to publish the campaign rules as a downloadable PDF. The PDF will feature maps, pictures from actual games, and some original artwork created by Chris Gregg

South Carolina Campaign - Turn Eleven

A peaceful scene at Nelson's Ferry heading towards Camden.

CLICK On All Images to Enlarge

After a bit of a hiatus on the 1780 South Carolina Campaign game, I am back with reports on Turns 11 and 12. The campaign lasts 12 turns, so we have a winner, which will be disclosed in the next and final campaign report.

SC Campaign Map - Turn 11

British Moves - Turn 11 (* indicates units that moved)

* Tarleton moves 3 SPs from Winnsboro to Ninety Six

* Cornwallis moves 6 SPs from Kingston to Cheraw

* The Royal Navy lands 4SPs at Charleston

* Stewart moves 4SPs from Nelson's Ferry to Fort Watson and Fort Motte, leaving one extra SP at  Fort Watson and joins the 2SPs already at Fort Motte to increase his force to a total of 6SPs.

Campbell remains at Savannah with 2SPs

O'Hara (new commander appointment) stays at Charleston with 6SPs

Maitland remains at Georgetown with 3SPs

Rawdon remains at Camden with 6 SPs

Cornwallis' army marches back to Cheraw after capturing Gates' entire army at Kingston, SC.

American Moves - Turn 11 (* indicates units that moved)

* DeKalb moves 6SPs from Fort Granby to Camden, to confront Rawdon's 6SPs

* DeKalb moves 1SP from Fort Granby to Ninety Six to reinforce Sumter's 2SPs

Sumter remains at Ninety Six and now has 3SPs with DeKalb's reinforcement.

* Pickens moves 3SPs from Dorchester to Nelson's Ferry to cut off Stewart from supply

* Marion moves 3SPs from Snow Island to Westbury on the road to Camden to cut Rawdon's supply

* Williams moves 3SPs from Charlotte, NC to Winnsboro, SC

Augusta Garrison - 1 SP

The vanguard of DeKalb's army heads towards Camden

Actions on Turn 11

DeKalb will have a battle with Lord Rawdon at Camden. Each side has 6SPs but there is a possibility that a local militia uprising could increase the American army by up to 3SPs.

Tarleton and Sumter have a potential confrontation at Ninety Six, where both have 3SPs. Since their forces are equal, Tarleton can not besiege Ninety Six. As a result, Tarleton declines to give battle.

Battle at Camden (Hobkirk's Hill)

DeKalb wins a crushing victory over Rawdon, who loses 3SPs during the battle. He is forced to retreat one dot north to Cheraw, where he can join Cornwallis' army. The American side gains +1SP to its army for winning the battle and a victory point as well.

The Battle of Hobkirk's Hill was reported on an earlier blog posting: Hobkirk's Hill Report

AWI Campaign Battle - Hobkirk's Hill

Annotated view of the initial set up of troops at Hobkirk's Hill.
(CLICK ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

Turn Eleven of the South Carolina Campaign produced a significant battle near the British base at Camden. With one more game turn left in the campaign (Turn Twelve), the Americans decided to take a large risk and attack the British stronghold at Camden. Baron DeKalb commanded the American army of 6SPs and decided to go for it, knowing that General Cornwallis' army was too far away to come to the assistance of Lord Rawdon, who defended Camden, also with 6SPs.

The Americans had the opportunity to add from zero to three militia regiments, based on a D6 die roll. DeKalb rolled his dice well and added two militia regiments, giving him a total of 8SPs to 6SPs for the British team.

A sort of "Devil's Den" on the flanks of Hobkirk's Hill.

The British commander, Lord Rawdon, was not aware of the militia reinforcements for DeKalb's army, so figuring that he had better quality troops, he decided to attack the Americans, who were deploying for battle just outside of Camden on a small rise of ground known by the locals as Hobkirk's Hill.

DeKalb deploys his American army on Hobkirk's Hill.

British Order of Battle - Lord Rawdon commanding

Left Wing - Major John Hamilton

Queen's Rangers (provincials)

North Carolina Loyalists (provincials)

55th Regiment of Foot

Right Wing - Lt. Colonel Nisbet Balfour

4th (King's) Regiment

5th Regiment

27th (Inniskilling) Regiment

Reserve Forces -Lord Rawdon

2 x 3-pound cannon

1 squadron of 17th Light Dragoons/British Legion Dragoons

Ferguson's Rifles (provincials)

American Order of Battle - Baron DeKalb commanding

Right Flank - Smallwood

1st Maryland Continental Regiment

6th Maryland Continental Regiment

Center - Lt. Colonel Huger

1st South Carolina State Regiment

2nd South Carolina State Regiment

Reserve Forces - Baron DeKalb

1st Virginia (held in reserve)

1 x 6-pound cannon

Left Flank - Major Caswell

Winnsboro Militia

Additional Raised Militia

Caswell's Mounted Infantry

Spartanburg Militia

The battle commenced with some long range artillery fire from the Continental 6-pounder, which took a bead on the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment, inflicting 4 casualties over the the first two turns. Some minor skirmish fire (from individual stands of figures) created some smoke but few casualties.

By Turn Three both sides had shaken out into parallel battle lines and were marching into musket range. Balfour's right wing advanced quickly towards Hobkirk's Hill, hoping to catch the Americans in a tangle before they could form battle lines. His right flank was covered by Ferguson's Rifle, however, they were pushed back by Caswell's large militia regiment from Winnsboro. His left flank was hanging in the air because he had advanced faster than his supports in Hamilton's brigade.

Annotated positions of each regiment as the battle lines come into close range.

The American artillery and skirmishers continued to prey on the Inniskillings, who had taken 5 cumulative casualties and routed on Turn Three. Since they ran through the 5th Regiment, located directly behind them, that regiment's morale was downgraded to "Shaken".

On Turn Four things started to go south for Hamilton's brigade on the British right flank as the Spartanburg militia emerged from the woods and delivered a point blank volley into the face of the Queen's Rangers, which went "Shaken". Back with Balfour, the Rifles fired at the Winnsboro militia and made them go "Shaken", but the Inniskillings continued their rout and were removed from the game. Well, that was not a good turn for the British side.

The Spartanburg militia advance to the edge of Gill's Field.

Turn Five: The Americans won the first fire initiative on this turn, so the Queen's Rangers (with bayonets) decided that it would make sense to charge the Spartanburg militia (no bayonets) and dig them out of the woods, which would secure the left flank of the British battle line, commanded by Hamilton.

Queen's Rangers try to charge the Spartanburg militia (left) but are repulsed
and fall back through the North Carolina Loyalist regiment, resulting in both units in Shaken status.

Well at least it seemed like a good idea because the Queen's Rangers should have been able to  slaughter the militia due to the bayonets versus no bayonets situation and all they had to do was pass their morale test. The Spartanburg militia passed its morale and decided to hold its ground and fire another volley into the green-coated QR lads, inflicting 2 more hits. The Rangers went "Shaken" on their morale test, which required them to fall back 8-inches rather than to close and fight with the militia. Hamilton's 55th Foot took a volley from the 1st Maryland Continentals and took two hits. They licked their chops as they were finally able to fire back at the enemy and mowed down 4 of the Marylanders, who went "Shaken" from the effect.

In the center of the battlefield, both sides were in musket range now and the veteran 6th Maryland Continentals advanced down Hobkirk's Hill and fired into the 4th (King's) Foot (of Balfour's brigade). To the left of the 6th Maryland, the 1st South Carolina state regiment also fired at the 4th Foot, which took a total of 2 hits combined from the two American regiments, but still became "Shaken" as a result. Fire not so good, mate. The 4th levelled their muskets and made the Americans pay by receiving back 6 hits!

Smallwood's Maryland brigade atop Hobkirk's Hill. The 6th Maryland, in grey hunting shirts,
 is shown in the foreground, the 1st Maryland, in blue, is in the background.

The 2nd South Carolina state regiment fared no better than its sister regiment, receiving 5 withering hits from the British 5th Foot, resulting in a "Shaken" dice roll. Thus in one turn of close range fire, the British inflicted 17 hits on the Americans, receiving back only 6 hits, and causing two American regiments to go "Shaken".

South Carolina brigade (right) and Balfour's brigade (left) close within close range.

Turn Six: good fortune seemed to favor the Crown Forces, for they won the first fire initiative on Turn Six so they were well-positioned to follow up on the success in the previous turn. Rallies come first in my rules and the 6th Maryland and 1st South Carolina recovered their morale from "Shaken" to "Good". The Queen's Rangers, the North Carolina Provincials and the 4th (King's) Regiment were all restored to "Good" morale status.

The Americans decided that charging would be a better idea rather than standing their ground and getting shot down by British close range musketry. The 4th (King's) Regiment probably thought that it was a bad idea because they were charged in the front (1st Maryland) and flank (2nd SC) by the Americans. The King's Regiment passed its morale test, despite their bad situation and so it was now time to rumble into melee.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The 4th Regt. is hit front and flank and rout.

Caswell's Mounted Militia mounted up and began a concealed move through the woods to support the right flank of the 6th Maryland. The Spartanburg militia continued to hold its ground along the fenceline facing the Queen's Rangers. The QR regiment decided that they had seen enough of the Spartanburgers and so they fell back in good order so as to support the 55th Foot. 

The Mounted Militia sneak through the woods looking for an opportunity to charge.

The North Carolina Loyalists decided to try their hand at dealing with the Spartanburg boys by firing at them with a large handful of 6 dice. They whiffed! Old Sparty fired back and knocked off two of the Tarheels, who were confused and "Shaken" by the whole affair and probably a bit embarrassed at being bested by mere militia troops.

Spartanburg militia repulse the North Carolina Loyalists for the second time.

Now it was time to resolve the melee between the two American regiments and the 4th King's Regt. As expected under such long odds, the 4th routed after taking 6 hits in the flank from the 2nd South Carolina regiment. Lord Rawdon now had two routed regiments of British regulars and he had a sour taste in his mouth from the whole business of this fight.

Turn Seven: This looked like it could be the pivotal turn of the game because the the rout of the 4th King's regiment created a gaping whole in the center of the British battle line. Aren't all holes of the gaping variety? Dang nabit, the Americans won the first fire initiative again and so the Spartanburg militia continued to make a name for themselves by firing into the flank of the 55th Foot, hitting 3 figures and adding a fouth hit on the nearby North Carolina Loyalist regiment. The 55th took two more hits from the two Maryland Continental regiments, for a total of 5 hits on the turn. The 55th passed their morale. Huzzah, huzzah for the bully 55th!

The Maryland brigade overlaps the right flank of the 55th Regt.

Back in the center of the field, the 1st South Carolina sought to exploit the gap created by the 4th Foot, but they failed to take notice of Ferguson's riflemen who picked off two of the gamecocks, causing THEM to rout. Now it was the American battle line that had a yawning gap, which is more severe than a gaping hole, from what I understand. 

Balfour's British brigade (on the right) face nothing but open space in front
of them due to the rout of the 1st South Carolina regiment.

The Spartanburgers continued to be oblivious of their mounting casualty list and passed yet another morale test. What would it take to get rid of these pesky militia? In years ahead, historians would tell the tale of Old Sparty and opine that the bullets were flying so fierce that it seemed that they were in a veritable "hornets' nest". As the smoke began to settle a bit on the battlefield, it appeared that Lady Fortune was now flirting with the redcoats. First the Americans and now the British, can't this dame make up her mind?

Turn Eight - The Grand Finale: Things were about to get exciting my friends, and some stupendous events were about to occur. The Americans won the initiative die roll and elected to move first. What's this? thought the British. Why don't those rebels fire at us first? Do they know something that we don't know?

Indeed they did. Caswell's Mounted Militia had been taking it easy at the edge of the woods for several turns now, and nobody (including Baron DeKalb, their army commander) had taken notice of them. Colonel Caswell observed that the time was ripe for a charge into the flank of the British 55th Foot, which he now ordered.

American mounted militia charge out of the woods
and into the flank of the unsuspecting 55th Regt.

The backwoodsmen came charging out of the light woods, screaming like devils (do devils really scream and if so, has anyone actually ever heard a devil screaming?), swords drawn, and they cleaved into the delicate flank of the 55th Foot. The 55th could do nothing more than rout. 

But wait, there's more!

Caswell rode through the redcoats as an appatizer and now feasted on the main course, the Queen's Rangers, who had thought that they might get to sit out the rest of the battle in the second line. They thought wrong. The QR regiment likewise routed off into the yonder and thus served up the dessert course in the form of a pair of Royal Artillery 3-pounders that were in the path of the charge. The artillery crew were cut down to the last man. Finally, with horses heaving and blown, Caswell's glorious charge had run its full course, however, he had almost single handedly wiped out the left flank of the British army, in the form of Hamilton's brigade.

American mounted militia charge into the flank
of the Queen's Rangers, routing them too.

Let's rub a little more salt into the hyde of the redcoats and watch the Spartanburg militia run off the North Carolina Loyalists for good measure.

Turn Nine - the closing act of our little play:  the Americans won the first initiative which allowed Caswell's Mounted Militia another swat at the British piniata. Their foe this time was the 17th Light Dragoons, also known as The Adults in This Room. They had seen enough of Caswell and counter-charged the Americans. Caswell won the melee, 2 hits to none, leaving the dragoons shaking their heads in dismay as both cavalry units fell back from the fight in disorder.

American mounted militia (left) vs British 17th Light Dragoons (right)

Lord Rawdon had seen enough by now. He ordered Nisbet Balfour to fall back and form march column to get away from the American army. Balfour thought that he was winning the battle on his flank when the order to withdraw came. Lord Rawdon brought him up to speed on recent events and Balfour concurred that leaving the scene was a sound idea. As his brigade marched off into the sunset, the North Carolina Loyalists found themselves very much alone on the battlefield. With Hamilton either dead, captured or missing, they missed the order to withdraw and they wisely layed down their arms and surrendered.

Troop positions at the end of the battle.

Conclusion

What an amazing battle Hobkirk's Hill was, with Baron DeKalb's army crushing Lord Rawdon's British army and significantly boosting the American cause in South Carolina. Rawdon had lost three of his 6SPs in the fight and would lose an additional SP as the penalty for being the losing side in the battle. Conversely, the Americans gained an extra SP as a reward for winning the battle, so now DeKalb was the owner of Camden and an army of 7SPs. 

The battle was also notable for the key contributions of two militia units: the Spartanburg militia and Caswell's Mounted Militia. The Spartanburg boys refused to be routed out of their woods, despite losing nearly 40% of their effectives. Their morale was at the highest level all throughout the game and they fended off two better-trained Loyalist regiments during the battle. Caswell's Charge was just simply the silliest thing that I have seen on the tabletop in quite some time. Words fail me on this.

The fate of Lord Rawdon's dwindling force is unknown, as yet. I would imagine that the road back to either Monck's Corner or Charleston would be swarming with American militia eager to take a bite out of the retreating British. The American capture of Camden also puts Lord Cornwallis' main British army in South Carolina out of supply, so he will only have one turn to find supplies again or face the attrition of 1SP per ensuing turn. However, since Turn Twelve will be the last turn of the campaign, the British supply situation is a rather moot point by now.

Fife & Drum Miniatures Video and Terrain Tutorial

Aerial view of the battlefield, with British in the lower right corner
and Americans on the ridge in the center.

I have decided that it is time to enter the world of videos on my blog, and because the videos are usually too large for Blogger's limit of file size, I will be posting this and future videos directly onto You Tube and then provide a link on this blog going back to the You Tube URL

You Tube Video - Hobkirk's Hill

Several days ago I set up the terrain for a new AWI game on my table. It is loosely based on the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, or "Second Camden" as I like to call it. I think that it might well be one of the best looking game tables that I have ever set, so I wanted to mark it by doing a video.

Buildings, Roads, Trees and Fences
Since Camden is located in the back country of South Carolina, I decided that only log cabins would be appropriate buildings to use. All of the buildings shown in the pictures are from the company called "Grand Manner", located in the UK. Herb Gundt painted and based all of the buildings. When at all possible, I like to locate little farms or towns in the corners of the table, where they are out of the way of the action in the middle of the table. Here I can place civilians or make little vignettes or dioramas that add some charm and interest to the table top.

All of the snake rail fences and a few stone walls were made by Herb Gundt.

The trees are a mixture of ones made by Herb, using driftwood trunks and Woodlands Scenics large foliage pieces. He also made some trees using the rubberized horse hair method. I also have a goodly number of K&M trees, from the UK, and while these look very different from Herb's trees, I really like the way the two styles of trees work together and create a look of variety.

The roads are all made by Novus and are made of a rubber-like material that folds and bends nicely with elevation changes. Note to self: buy more Novus roads.

Farmer Gill and Family

The little hamlet of Log Town.

Americans deploy on Hobkirk's Hill

Scenic Background - a Herbaceus Border Perhaps?

I have about three or four bags of model railroad lichen, most of which is a rather garish and bright green color, as well as some dark green, and a light tan-ish color that I can't even describe. However, put them all together and they look pretty good because of the variety of greens working together.

Bright green lichen actually looks good when mixed in with other vegitation colors.

I placed some of my largest trees around the perimeter of the game table so that I can take some ground level photographs and not have a background of bookshelves, wall pictures, painting table, etc. Then I fill in the gaps between the trees with the railroad lichen which really gives the area a pop of color. I also like to put some large trees at the back end of the table because it plays some tricks to the eyes with perspective.  

My game mat doesn't quite fill up the whole surface of my game table, so I leave the plastic rollup tub attached to the end of the mat and use it as support for the wall of lichen that I build up to obstruct the view. I refer to the area behind the tube as my backstage area. I can place rules sheets, pencils, rulers etc here out of sight.

"Backstage" area is hidden by the wall of trees and lichen.

I also make sure to leave a "triangle" of open table in each of the four corners - I place my dice rolling trays in each corner, out of sight.

Corner dice trays are hidden out of sight by the rocks and trees.

More rocks put to good use on the table surface. Note the smaller rocks on the left that I have
randomly scattered across the table in order to break up the golf course look of the bare mat.

Natural Materials - straight from the back yard

Your back yard is a veritable treasure trove of terrain material to use on your table top. I gather up pebbles to scatter across my table mat as these help to break up the golf course effect of an undecorated mat. Larger rocks are placed around the perimeter and in the wooded areas that create mini Devil's Den rock formations. Dead leaves are one of my favorite finds. I crush the leaves or finely chop them into little bits and scatter them across the forest floor of the woods. A few broken twigs are also scattered around the woodsy areas to simulate fallen trees that are now dead.

Devil's Den is made from rocks that I found while walking the dog. T
he figures provide some perspective on the size of the miniatures relative to the rocks.
You can also see some of the chopped up dead leaves on the forest floor behind the rocks. 

Conclusion
In conclusion, the key to a realistic looking tabletop is lots of variety in materials. All that one needs is a bit of an artist's eye to put the whole picture together. You don't need to commission scratch-built buildings because there are plenty of sources for good looking buildings made of cast resin or laser cut MDF wood.

I will be fighting the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill in the next week or two and will post pictures of the battle on this blog. So stay tuned.

Your comments are always welcomed. Just click on the word Comments at the end of this article and fire away.

2nd South Carolina Regiment is Painted

2nd South Carolina Regiment 

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE THE VIEW

Yesterday I completed the painting of the 2nd South Carolina regiment using the new Fife & Drum South Carolina figures. I decided that it was time to put paint to the figures and create the regiment.

The Second South Carolina in line.

Next in the painting queue will be the 1st South Carolina regiment which would give me a nice little brigade of South Carolina troops. Both regiments had the misfortune to have been captured at Charleston when General Lincoln surrendered to the British. Nevertheless, as long as I am going to be running South Carolina campaigns, I might as well have some SC regiments in my collection.

A little further down the road I would like to recreate the siege of Savannah or Stono Ferry.

Other News

Keep a watch on this blog for some exciting news about some new things going on with Minden Miniatures.

Continentals on the March -A Daring Move?

Baron De Kalb directs traffic as his army is on the march.

I set up several "posed" pictures after I finished the Battle of Kingston, from the American Revolution, and wanted to post them on this blog. Continental troops are marching through a town that could be Kingston or another town in the South Carolina Campaign of 1780.

We are on Turn Eleven of Twelve in the campaign and the British have opened up a large differential in Victory Point over the Americans. Desperate times call for desperate measures. With Cornwallis near the Atlantic Ocean at Kingston, the British base in the interior of South Carolina at Camden might be vulnerable to a surprise attack. General De Kalb proposes to attack the Camden garrison (6SPs commanded by Lord Rawdon) with at least 6SPs of veteran Continental troops. 

Following the defeat and capture of Gates' army at Kingston, De Kalb commands the last Continental Army of any significance in South Carolina. So this is a very bold move by the American command, which cannot afford to lose a battle and a lot of men.

The veteran Maryland Brigade leads the column through one of the towns along the route.

A closer view of DeKalb directing traffic. Where are they headed to?

Continental light troops protect the wagon train.

The rear guard.

I am off to Warwickshire in the UK next week, so the Battle of Camden will have to wait to be played until I get back in the final week of June. The battle should be quite a cracker.

Battle of Kingston Report - AWI Campaign

Farmer Gill, a local Loyalist to the Crown, is interogated by Lt. Colonel O'Hara prior to the start of the Battle of Kingston.

CLICK ALL PIX TO ENLARGE

I fought the Battle of Kingston last week and am presenting a report of the action which was contested between Lord Cornwallis' British army and the Rebels' Continental Army of General Horatio Gates. The battle concludes Turn 10 of our twelve-turn South Carolina Campaign of 1780.

Cornwallis won a crushing victory over Gates, eliminating all four SPs of the American army from the campaign and possibly locking in a British win of the entire campaign. There are only two turns remaining in the campaign, which runs a maximum of twelve turns.

Campaign Overview - events leading up to the Battle of Kingston

The map below depicts the location of the various British and American units in South Carolina on game Turn 10. You can locate Kingston in the middle right pointy area along the NC and SC border.

After Gates' defeat by Cornwallis at the Battle of Cheraw, Gates retreated to the Southeast towards Kingston rather than taking the more logical route north to his base at Hillsborough, North Carolina. He knew that he could not survive a pursuit of his army by Cornwallis. As expected, Cornwallis marched towards Hillsborough and Gates marched to Kingston and avoided a fight on Turn 9.

Cornwallis caught wind of Gates' deception and so he turned around and headed back to Cheraw. There, he reasoned that Gates only had two choices of direction: the south road leading back to Camden, where Lord Rawdon had a sizeable army; or southeast towards Kington. It was doubtful that Gates would march to Camden and run into Rawdon, so the only possibility was Kingston.

SC Campaign Map - Turn 10

The only problem with going to Kingston for Gates was that he would eventually be trapped between Cornwallis in Cheraw and the British stronghold at Georgetown. The map indicates that Gates could continue to march east to Little River, SC and then on to Georgetown, but he would be out of supply and begin to lose strength points (SPs) each turn that he was out of supply. So going to Kingston only delayed the inevitable destruction of his army - either through attrition of outright defeat in battle.

By delaying a potential battle for a turn, Gates would have time to construct some hasty earthworks and hope that Cornwallis would attack him and produce a Bunker Hill style battle that would favor the Rebels.

The Opposing Forces

Gates would begin the battle with only 4SPs, having lost half of his army at Cheraw. He rolled dice to determine if the local Kingston militia would turn out and support him, and to his great surprise the fools did turn out to join his rag tag army. Then Gates hived off one stand  from each of his Continental regiments to created a converged battalion of Chosen Men, which would act as a reserve unit. These actions taken together increased Gates' army from 4SPs to 6SPs.

Gates' Army: Thus the Continentals were divided into two brigades: the South Carolina Brigade (1st and 3rd SC regiments) commanded by Colonel Isaac Huger and the Virginia Brigade (1st and 3rd VA regiments) commanded by Colonel George Weedon. The Rebels had one 6-pound cannon that was attached to Weedon's brigade deployed on the left. Huger's SC brigade was deployed in the center-right. The Kingston militia deployed to the right of Huger and the Chosen Men deployed behind Huger's brigade (where they formed a last line of defense inside the town of Kingston).

Cornwallis' Army: The British army was also divided into two commands or wings. The righthand brigade was commanded by Lt. Colonel O'Hara and consisted of the converged Light Battalion, the Guards Brigade and a troop of the 17th Light Dragoons. There was also a 1-pound amusette attached to the brigade.

The lefthand brigade was commanded by Lt. Colonel Silas Cathcart and was comprised of the 4th, the 5th, the 44th and the 55th regiments of foot. Several companies of Ferguson's Rifles, a 1-pound amusette and two Royal Artillery 3-pounders were in Cathcart's brigade.

The Lay of the Land

The annotated picture below depicts the key terrain features of the battlefield as well as the initial American deployment around the town of Kingston, SC. The North direction is in the upper right corner, South in the lower left corner, West in the upper left corner, and East in the lower right corner.

Please click on the picture below to view the terrain and read the annotations to familiarize yourself with the table top terrain. The game was played on a 6ft by 12ft table.

Annotated Overhead View of the key terrain features , annotated in "orange", of the Battle of Kingston. T
he initial American deployment of troops is annotated in "blue".

Gates deployed his small army on a West to East axis in front of the town of Kingston. His right flank was anchored on a hill adjacent to the Waccamaw River, which flows in a southward direction into the larger Pee Dee River, which in turn, flows into the Atlantic Ocean. He deployed his only artillery piece, a 6-pounder, on the "Artillery Hill", facing the probable British arrival on the Cheraw Road to its front. The British entry point for its O'Hara's right wing is at the Cheraw Road next to the Gill Farm.

Lt. Colonel O'Hara's brigade of the rightwing arrives on the Cheraw Road.

The Cheraw Road runs south and intersects the Kingston Pike, making a dog-leg towards the southeast crossing the front edge of Kingston, then making another dog-leg turn to the east, where it exits the table at the Preece Farm (lower right corner).

The British left wing of Cathcart entered the table along the righthand edge of the picture above, between the Gill Farm and the Preece Farm.

Lt. Colonel Cathcart's British Brigade - left wing.

Weedon's brigade: 3rd Virginia regiment deployed behind the abbatis,
with a 6-pound cannon dug in on  Artillery Hill behind them.

American 6-pounder covers the British approach down the Cheraw Road.

Thus does Gates' American army cover a long stretch of the table from the Waccamaw River to the Preece Farm, ignoring the observation of Frederick the Great that "he who defends everything defends nothing." Gates had sufficient time to dig some wolf pits in front of Kingston and to construct some abattis and hasty works along the flanks of his position.

American wolf pits supported by formed troops - 3rd South Carolina regiment.

The Battle Begins

The battle commenced with with the skirmishers and light troops of both sides sniping at each other. The American riflemen picked off the crew of the amusette posted on the left wing in front of Cathcart's brigade. The riflemen also inflicted the game's first casualties on the British 5th Regiment, the surprise of which caused it to go "shaken" for a turn. The artillery fire of both armies were largely ineffective at long range.

By Turn Three, the two sides had closed to within musket range of each other

Overhead view of the initial British advance towards the American lines in front of Kingston.

Overhead view of the British attack as it approaches the the abbatis that have been constructed across the length of the rebel defensive ling.

The British 44th Regiment approaches the wolf pits and engages the rebel skirmishers.

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Battle on the British Right

Light battalion advances towards Artillery Hill in loose files while the Guards march down the Cheraw Road.

Guards and 17th Light Dragoons march past the Gill Farm
to support the Light battalion attack of Artillery Hill.

The 55th Regiment from Cathcart's Brigade assists O'Hara's attack. T
he Light Btn has now closed ranks and engages the 3rd Virginia in front of the abbatis.

The 3rd VA has to fall back towards Artillery Hill or risk getting outflanked by the Guards,
who are crossing the log boom placed in Cheraw Road.

Rather than attacking Artillery Hill, the Guards continue to march down the Cheraw Road,
and then take a left turn to charge into the flank of the 3rd South Carolina regiment of Huger's Brigade.

Attack on the British Left

Cathcart's Brigade is deployed with the 5th, 44th and 55th regiments of foot in the first line, supported by the 4th Regiment in the second line, in reserve. The Royal Artillery battery of 3-pounders was not very effective against the dug in defenders of the wolf pits, so the artillery stayed in the rear areas while the British infantry closed in on the Rebels.

Cathcart's Brigade close in on Huger's South Carolina Brigade.

The 44th Regiment halts in front of the wolf pits. The Rebel skirmishers will have to retire behind the formed friends (3rd SC Regt.) behind them as they can't stand up to the formed British regulars.

The 1st SC regiment routs on Turn Three,  but Gates is there to rally them back into good order.

Eye to Eye Along the Kingston Pike!
The Kingston Militia repulses the attack of the 5th Regiment, who take a morale check and ROUT! Egads.

On Turn Six, the 44th Regiment marched right in the face of the 3rd SC and delivered a devastating volley that "shook/shaken" the hunting shirt clad Gamecocks. The plucky 3rd SC held it together long enough to return the favor at the 44th, and this time it was the redcoats who legged it out of the battle line in rout. A group of rebel skirmishers picked off some of the officers of the 55th Regiment, who went "shaken" as a result. Suddenly, things were not looking so good for Cathcart and the British center. There was some good news for the British, however, as the 4th Regiment filled in the gap created by the rout of the 44th and routed the 1st SC for the second time in the battle. The 1st VA regiment also routed, but Gates' converged Chosen Men filed in behind the Virginians and plugged the hold in the American battle line in the center.

On Turn Seven, things continued to go south for Cathcarts' Brigade. The 5th Regiment attempted to charge the Kingston Militia, but instead they routed as the militia held its ground behind the stone wall. The 44th Regiment was still in rout mode from the previous turn as Cathcart could not rally them. Meanwhile, the Americans were down to only two viable regiments in the center: the Chosen Men and the 3rd SC. The Kingston Militia were still in good morale, but they had seen enough and decided that it was time to march off the field in good order and skatter into the countryside.

Finally, Lord Cornwallis rode over and rallied both the 5th and 44th Regiments on Turn Eight. The crisis in the British center/left was averted.

The 5th Regiment is too panicked to heed Cathcart's (left) orders to halt,
so Lord Cornwallis (right) trots over  to calm the soldiers and rally them

Ferguson's Rifles cover the left flank of Cathcart's Brigade and take on the
Continental skirmishers along the Kingston Pike.

While Cathcart's Brigade had been staggered by withering American muskety, it rallied all of its regiments and prepared to make another assault on the crumbling  American center. At the same time, O'Hara's Brigade had finally run off the defenders of Artillery Hill and now outflanked what remained of Huger's Brigade in the American center.

Last stand of the 1st and 3rd SC regiments -Huger's Brigade

The picture below provides an aeriel overhead view of the battlefield at the end of Turn Eight, which is where the Battle of Kingston ended.

British positions at the end of the battle. Click to enlarge.

The rout was on as the remnants of Gates' army fled through the town of Kingston. At the end of the day, the only remaining viable units were the Kingston Militia and the Battalion of Chosen Men. The remainder of Horatio Gates' army were either running for their lives or casualties in the field. Gates himself was at the head of the mob that was rampaging through Kingston town.

"You there. Yes you! Organize a defense of the town while I ride and get some reinforcements."

The British Guards Btn charges down the Kingston Pike, c
hasing the remnants of the Rebel army into the town of Kingston.

There seemed to be no stopping of the British now as the 17th Light Dragoons led the pursuit and forced the few American formed regiments to lay down their arms and surrender.

The 17th Light Dragoons finish off the Rebels.

The Butcher's Bill

NOTE: the figures in parentheses indicate the beginning strength of the unit, minus their losses = ending strength.

British Army: they began the battle with 220 figures and lost 47, ending the battle with 173 figures.

Cathcart's Brigade

4th Regt.  (32 - 4 = 24)    Shaken & Recovered

5th Regt. (32 - 8 = 24)     Routed & Rallied

44th Regt. (32 - 9 = 23)   Routed twice & Rallied

55th Regt. (32 - 8 = 24)   Destroyed the 3rd SC

Ferguson's Rifles (12)      Lightly engaged

O'Hara's Brigade

Light Battalion (32-14 = 18)   Routed the 3rd VA 

Guards  (32-2 = 30)                 Routed  the 3rd SC

17th Light Dragoons               Pursued and captured remnants of Gates' army

RA 3-pdrs (6 crew/2 guns)      Lightly engaged

American Army: they began the battle with 145 men including 25 local militia and lost 66 figures as field casualties and the remaining 79 figures surrendered, including General Gates and Colonels Huger and Weedon. The battle statistics indicate that Huger's Brigade fought hard and suffered heavy losses. The 3rd Virginia stoughtly defended Artillery Hill versus twice their numbers, but ultimately routed once the Guards slipt past their right flank and cut them off from the rest of the army. Probably the best performing unit was the Kingston Militia, who routed the 5th Regiment during a melee.

Independent Troops

Chosen Men (18-0 = 18)        Covered the retreat of the army before being captured

Kingston Militia (25-5 = 20)  Routed the 5th Regt., retired in good order and dispersed

Weedon's VA Brigade

1st Virginia (20 - 14 = 6)        Routed

3rd Virginia (30 -11 = 19)      Routed after defending Artillery Hill

6-pounder (4 crew)                 Lightly engaged

Huger's SC Brigade

1st South Carolina (24-18 = 6)   Routed twice & Rallied once

3rd South Carolina (24-18 = 6)  Routed after hit in flank by Guards

Campaign Note

So at the end of Turn Ten, the British army had 33 SPs in the field compared to just 19 SPs for the American rebels. The American SPs include 6 SPs of partisans under the commands of Marion and Pickens.

I have yet to add up other campaign Victory Points for things such as towns controlled, captured SPs , captured enemy generals, battles won, etc. However, it looks as though the British have a commanding lead in the campaign with just two more turns to go. My assessment is that the British have likely won the South Carolina Campaign of 1780. Technically they had already done so several turns ago when Banastre Tarleton raided into North Carolina and captured the American supply base at Hillsborough, NC. However, Tarleton forgot that he needed to hold the city and he marched back into SC to create more mischief for the Americans. I too forgot about the impact of capturing Hillsboro so we gamed on through it and won't count it as a victory condition for the campaign.

On Turn Eleven, I expect that both sides will attempt to gobble up as many towns as they can in order to increase their total VPs. The Americans will likely avoid a pitched battle with either Cornwallis or Rawdon and Rawdon commands the only field army that is within striking distance of DeKalb's American army. Cornwallis is too far removed to be able to march and battle another opponent before the campaign ends in two turns.