Grant / western campaign of 1862
Grant: The Western Campaign of 1862 Designer Deep Dive
by Jon Southard
T
he campaign in western Tennessee from February to April, 1862 was remarkable, indeed unique, in the history of the Civil War. It began when U.S. Grant — then just a brigadier general, having volunteered for service at the outbreak of rebellion after leaving the army under a cloud years earlier — was sent by steamboat up the Tennessee River, with a command of “twentythree regiments in all,” supported by ironclad gunboats, to capture a Confederate post called Fort Henry. Grant captured Fort Henry and also its much tougher neighbor Fort Donelson (on the nearby Cumberland River) — in the process capturing more than twelve thousand Confederate soldiers, the largest bag of prisoners taken in North America to that time. Grant’s reward for this was to be temporarily suspended from command by his envious superior Henry Halleck. After that was sorted out, Grant moved his army (again by steamboat) far upriver to a place called Pittsburg Landing. There he was to be joined by the army of Don Carlos Buell, who was slowly making his way from Louisville, Kentucky, by way of Nashville, and then across Tennessee. While these operations were ongoing, a separate army under John Pope, likewise supported by naval forces, was maneuvering to capture a strong Rebel fortress at a small island called Island Number Ten at a bend in the Mississippi River.
Just one day before Grant and Buell were to join forces (and two days before Island Number Ten fell), the Confederate army under Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard hit back, staking everything on a furious battle in the woods near Pittsburg Landing, around a little house of worship called Shiloh Church. There have been dozens of games published on the more famous Battle of Shiloh. But so far as I know, only two have been devoted specifically to a treatment of the entire campaign of which this battle was the best-known event. One of these is my own first
design, Grant Moves South, published in 1983 by Quarterdeck Games. And the other is my most recent design, Grant: The Western Campaign of 1862, forthcoming from Compass Games. Given that I’ve now done two games dedicated specifically to this topic and all other designers put together have done zero (although there have been scenarios devoted to the campaign, in games of larger scope), the first natural question is, why do I feel this topic was worth visiting not just once but twice? The simple answer is that it’s a brilliant game situation.
In general, some characteristics of a good game situation might include: famous leaders present, an interesting weapons system in play, wide opportunities for maneuver available, multiple strategies and axes of advance possible, chances for both sides to attack, and the prospect of something really decisive happening. The Tennessee campaign has all these.
The famous leaders were Grant himself — who here began his rise from obscurity to become commander of all the Union armies and eventually, President — and his opponent Albert Sidney Johnston, who on the field of Shiloh became the highest-ranking general on either side to be killed in action during the entire war. The riverine fleets (transports and gunboats) are the interesting weapon system in play here; they give this campaign a feel like no other. No other campaign saw such interplay between naval (riverine) forces and armies on land.
Grant used the river fleets to give his armies a movement ability impossible to achieve by marching. The resulting feel is more like a naval campaign than a land campaign. Johnston had much less in the way of naval forces, but he did have rail movement, as well as powerful fortifications guarding the river lines.
The Union thought it had an answer to the forts in the form of gunboats, but when gunboats made frontal attacks against wellPa p e r Wa r s # 1 0 6
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