American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

How are replacement leaders for divisions and corps casualties selected? Is it by rank? randomly? named leaders before Col Anonymous? by command rating? by leadership rating?

I've recently seen an instance where Pender was a casualty and Perrin was assigned as division commander. The problem with this is Perrin is a Col and two of the other brigade commanders are brigadiers. How did this happen? Is it realistic? If Perrin was a casualty and replace by Col Anon, could Col Anonymous be randomly selected to lead the division?

Please enlighten me.

Regards
Chuck Berdanier
Maj, 2/1/IX, AoO

Chuck,
Others will correct me if I am wrong but I think it has to do with the officer's place and order in the oob files, rather than rank. I had a quick look at one of the Gettysburg oob files (Gettysburg1.oob) and it seems that Perrin is the commander of 1st Brigade so I assume that he automatically gets promoted first if Pender is taken out, being the first in the list of brigade commanders of that division. But if Perrin is killed then is it a col. anon., or Lane, the commander of 2nd Brigade who takes over? I'm not sure about that. Anyway its all down to the way the oob files are structured I think. Interestingly, in the new HPS Waterloo game several leaders are provided for each corps/div/bde and so I guess you would work through them before going to the next level down in the oob.

General Antony Barlow
Army of the Cumberland

In my experience, it is completely random.

I have seen a game at SBR where Lee was replaced by JEB Stuart. Once at First Bull Run, I had a division commander killed near the Stone Bridge and out of four brigadiers the one chosen to replace him was Richardson over at Blackburn's Ford. Not the senior brigadier, nor the commander of the 1st Brigade. Needless to say that the division was out of command for the full six turns that it took Richardson to come over and was meanwhile totally routed. (This incident also defies the theory volunteered four years ago on this board according to which the subordinate closest in space is promoted.)

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

In a Chickamauga game, Bragg quite fortunately was wounded in the early stages (maybe his boils acted up[xx(]). He was replaced by NB Forrest, a great choice as it turned out. My opponent managed to get "ole Rosy" unhorsed, and he was replaced by Thomas. We were both happy with the results.



Maj. Gen. Beno
Pickett's Division, I Corps, ANV

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Col. B</i>
<br />In a Chickamauga game, Bragg quite fortunately was wounded in the early stages (maybe his boils acted up[xx(]). He was replaced by NB Forrest, a great choice as it turned out. My opponent managed to get "ole Rosy" unhorsed, and he was replaced by Thomas. We were both happy with the results.



Maj. Gen. Beno
Pickett's Division, I Corps, ANV
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

While I would agree that any loss of Bragg is truly a gain, I think that Rosecrans too often gets a bum rap. He was by no means the best commander of the war, but he was better than his reputation, I think. The middle Tennessee campaign was one of the most successful of the war driving Bragg completely out of the state with hardly a shot fired – certainly as good a campaign as Sherman’s sluggish advance on Atlanta in the grand scheme of things. Poor Rosey takes all the blame for Chickamauga and none of the praise for all the good things that he was responsible for prior to that battle – which was as much a defeat because of Gen. Wood as because of Rosecrans. Granted, he ran away after the Confederates broke the line and left Thomas to hold the rear, but then again, an army commander almost has to stay away from the front in a situation like that in order to reorganize the routed portion of the army – you have subordinates for a reason, so let them do their job, such as Thomas holding the rear guard. Lee understood that fact and used it quite well. Bragg never did. Of course, now I digress into a whole different can of worms…

Regards,
Lt. Col. Alan Lynn
3rd Battery "Jacksonville Greys"
4th Div, II Corps, AoA
God bless <><

I have never seen Col. Anonymous promoted above brigade command. In fact, I think it can't happen - if there are no named officers left, the divisional command is left vacant.

I've often thought that in the campaign format, that there should be a general means to replace a lost officer with a named officer after a few days or weeks. Granted that in the confusion of battle, the replacement command could be very poorly integrated, and thus deserving of the default "F" rating that Col. Anonymous holds. After a few days, however, the new leader would have time to establish himself within the command structure, and would most likely serve better than that.

It would require some additional research of course, but it would improve the realism of the game to identify who stood behind a particular brigade commander, and create a rated identity for them as replacement officers.

Lt. Gen. Matt Perrenod
<i>The Blue Ghost</i>
VIII Corps, Army of the Shenandoah

So let me see if I got this right. A brigade commander is always replaced by Col Anonymous even though we have the historic record of who took command of the brigade during the battle. Should a division, corps or army commander become a casualty then one of his direct reports, chosen randomly without regard to seniority or rank, replaces him with the exception that it can't be Col Anonymous.

What a way to run a railroad.

Chuck Berdanier
Lt Col, 2/1/IX, AoO

(Case in point. I got promoted between the first post this morning and this one. Who says Col Anonymous's can't get ahead in this man's army? It also goes to show they aren't reading my SITREPs! Or maybe they're believing 'em!)

Colonel Lynn sir,
I find Chickamauga is the most fascinating battle of the war, not least for the strange and strained command and staff situations that existed on both sides. Big George Thomas is about the only senior Yank to emerge with his reputation enhanced, but some scholars suspect he was largely to blame for the catastrophe in the first place, insofar as Rosecrans can be excused for depending too heavily on his strongest subordinate. In response to his constantly repeated requests to shift forces north did the hole open in the Union line, so that when the southern portion of the Army of the Cumberland routed, Thomas actually kept most of the army under his operational control. He had so many units holding the Kelly Field that they could not all fit into the firing line. The monuments there today are very thickly placed. I believe Grant never trusted him for this reason.

Rosecrans, a recent convert to Catholicism, loved to sit up very late with his staff and talk religion, politics, news, philosophy, anything. Prior to Chickamauga, he hadn't slept normally in a very long time, and certainly didn't sleep for at least a couple of days during the battle. Immediately after the battle, his reports to Washington indicated a good deal of panic; otherwise he might have kept his job, since he still held Chattanooga after all.

An important fellow was Rosecrans' new Chief of Staff, a political animal with big ambitions. Following the rout, Rosecrans intended to join Thomas and continue the fight, and so he gave orders to his CoS to organize the defense of Chattanooga and to untangle the routed formations streaming in from the field. That officer begged off, insisting he lacked the clout to make such things happen, and could not remember all of the details anyway. So Rosecrans saw to these vital matters himself, and this officer rode off to join Thomas, who had absolutely no use for him. James Garfield would later win election to the Presidency, campaigning in no small measure on his war record, emphasizing the great moment when he rode through danger to stand by Thomas when his Commanding General was seeking refuge in the rear.

Salute!
GEN Gene Nix, 1/1/II/AotM
Boggy Creek Swamp Rats

Interesting post, Gene. What's the source of the story of Rosecrans/Garfield?

BTW, from a gaming perspective, I don't think you're better off to be rid of either Bragg or Rosecrans. If memory serves, both have a C command rating, most of their subordinates aren't better, and you end of with Col. Anonymous somewhere. Getting rid of McCook (F rating) is a more attractive prosepect.

Lt. Gen. Matt Perrenod
<i>The Blue Ghost</i>
VIII Corps, Army of the Shenandoah

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by mperrenod</i>
<br />Interesting post, Gene. What's the source of the story of Rosecrans/Garfield?

BTW, from a gaming perspective, I don't think you're better off to be rid of either Bragg or Rosecrans. If memory serves, both have a C command rating, most of their subordinates aren't better, and you end of with Col. Anonymous somewhere. Getting rid of McCook (F rating) is a more attractive prosepect.

Lt. Gen. Matt Perrenod
<i>The Blue Ghost</i>
VIII Corps, Army of the Shenandoah

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I believe the Garfield story is detailed in Cozzen's book on the Chickamauga campaign. Good books, all three of them (from Murfeesboro through Missionary Ridge, basically...)

Regards,
Lt. Col. Alan Lynn
3rd Battery "Jacksonville Greys"
4th Div, II Corps, AoA
God bless <><

Gentlemen,
Correct. Cozzen's thick book on Chickamauga, <i>This Terrible Sound</i>, goes into considerable detail. Pages 468-9 address Garfield's ride and its later over-emphasis in his Presidential campaign. Pages 10-13 discuss Garfield's early life and career, his prior military service, and his assignment to the Army of the Cumberland. Opinions on his abilities were mixed, with his peers less impressed than was Secretary of Treasury Salmon Chase, with whom Garfield spent much time while in Washington. "Absolutely useless to Thomas" was a bit harsh of me, as Garfield did bring some ammunition and the first definite news of the Rebel breakthrough that Thamas had.

Salute!
GEN Gene Nix, 1/1/II/AotM
Boggy Creek Swamp Rats

While attending the US Army's Command and General Staff College in 2000, I took the Staff Ride course, a thorough study of the campaign, battle, leaders and the field itself, which we spent two days hiking. I was assigned to get smart on Union BG John M. Brannan, who commanded 3rd Division of XIV Corps.