(Upcoming) 64 - Sharpsburg: Landscape Turned Red
"Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home."
-- Gen. Geo. McClellan, on reading "Special Orders 191."
They might be the most famous "three cigars" in history. Or rather, the "copy" of an order that some staff person used to wrap them in, and then carelessly dropped them during the Army of Northern Virginia's frantic movements around Maryland during their first "invasion of the North."
It wasn't JUST that these plans completely spelled out Lee's plan...but that Lee's plan involved scattering his army all over the state.
Clever privates found the note and a smooth chain of command got it to the commander remarkably quickly. McClellan had the insight, knew how important it was... and then sat on his hands.
Above: Special Orders 191
The "Little Mac" quotes from this campaign are legendary.
He telegraphed Lincoln:
“I have all the plans of the rebels…My respects to Mrs. Lincoln…Will send you trophies.”
With his profound understanding of the man, Lincoln telegraphed back:
“Please do not let him get off without being hurt.”
To General Gibbon he wrote:
"I will not show the writing-here is the signature, and it gives the movement of every division of Lee’s army. Tomorrow we will pitch into his center, and if you people will only do two good, hard days’ marching I will put Lee in a position he will find it hard to get out of.”
But "pitching in" was something McClellan was not very good at, nor was moving an army quickly. Still, he DID react and put the army in motion much more quickly than Lee had anticipated. Instead of accomplishing these varied tasks and then concentrating his army at a location of his choosing, Lee was caught wrong-footed and forced to fight at South Mountain while concentrating at Antietam. Outnumbered almost 2-1, Lee clung to a defensive position and was able to shift troops from one disjointed Union attack to another.
The result was the single bloodiest day in American history-- 22,000 casualties in just one day of battle. It could have been even worse, as McClellan only used about 2/3 of his army and did not engage in a 2nd day of battle (Lee stood and gave him the chance-- hoping to take advantage of a mistake). Finally Lee slipped away, and McClellan was entirely willing to let him go. Lincoln pushed and prodded and could NOT get the army in motion-- eventually leading to McClellan's dismissal. Bottom line, he did not "whip Bobby Lee," though he proved not-very-willing to "go home" after all.
But all of that is the story before and after Sept 17, 1862.
Our entire focus is on...the "day of battle."
Sharpsburg: Landscape Turned Red is a two player area-impulse game simulating the great battle of Antietam as it is known in the north, or the battle of Sharpsburg in the south. One player takes command of the Union Army under General George B. McClellan and the other, the Army of the Confederate States of America under Robert E Lee.
Many historical works use phrases like “McClellan outnumbered Lee 2 to 1”, or “Lee had his back to the Potomac”, “McClellan had plenty of time”, “He should have destroyed Lee’s entire army!” and so on. The design highlights the fundamental problem (that all sides shared) was their inability to coordinate and move every single unit of their command in unison.
The game shows how hard it was to completely destroy an enemy army, no matter what the numbers. While the Union army outnumbers the Confederates, in this game, numbers count ‘for something’, but not everything. Players will come to understand that Sharpsburg is not the complete ‘cakewalk’ gamers think it should be.
Sharpsburg: Landscape Turned Red and issue #64 of ATO:
Map - One full color 22" x 34" area mapsheet
Counters - 176 full color 5/8" die-cut pieces
Rules length - 12 pages
Charts and tables - 2 pages
Complexity - Medium
How challenging is it solitaire? - Average
Design - Gilbert Collins
Development - Russ Lockwood
Graphics - Mark Mahaffey
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