"On emerging from the woods, we encountered a charge of cavalry. When my section was made aware of the enemy’s approach, the cavalry was not fifteen yards distant. The command "Gallop” was then given, and the rout was made in the greatest confusion. Previous to our encounter, several regiments had passed us at a run, completely routed, without our being aware that we had lost the day. Had there been any support for our battery, had one company of infantry stood fast, the cavalry could easily have been repulsed, and the shameful consequences avoided. Our battery moving at a gallop, the carriages one by one broke down, and the pieces one by one were scattered along the road."
S. C. LYFORD,
Second Lieutenant, First Dragoons, U. S. Army. July 25, 1861. Bull Run (
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730186&seq=381&q1=)
"Our loss in killed, wounded, and missing cannot be determined, as large numbers of wounded and unwounded were drowned when the boats were swamped as well as in attempts to swim the river during the night, and no reports as yet have been sent to me. The Fifteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts Regiments, Baker’s California regiment, and a part of the Tammany regiment lost a large number of men, who were made prisoners. Colonel Lee and Major Revere, of the Twentieth, and Colonel Cogswell, of the Tammany regiment, are reported missing. Lieutenant-Colonel Ward, of the Fifteenth Massachusetts, was severely wounded. We have lost two howitzers and one rifled gun belonging to Captain Vaughan’s Rhode Island Battery, and a considerable number of small-arms (say 1,500), with equipments."
EDWARD W. HINKS,
Colonel Nineteenth Mass. Vols., Commanding Brigade. Ball's Bluff (
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730194&seq=330&q1=)
Once a unit decides to run,
they really run. Artillery is abandoned, haversacks are left behind or removed and guns are often thrown away. They move as quickly away from the enemy as they can. Any efforts by officers (if they are themselves not running) to stop them are either not heard or are ignored. Only once the routing unit has put a considerable distance between the enemy and themselves do they begin to slow their run. The worse thing is, it's infectious. Once one unit goes, those next to them also go, especially if the departing unit has now exposed their flank.
The game replicates the rout fairly well although there is some problem with the direction of some routs in my opinion. The routing of artillery is absurd (they simply couldn't limber the guns and then move off with them in their routing frenzy). The artillery absurdity is quite rare so can be accepted as a quirk as I do not think it would be a solvable problem in the game engine.
I also believe that, in the interests of historical reality, the Optional Rule Rout Limiting should
never be selected. However, in my experience, it almost always
is selected. I don't know of anyone who will play with it unselected. Only one of my games was played with Rout Limiting
not selected. That opponent never failed to select it again.