Game of the Week, August 24–30

From August 24 through August 30, this week’s Game of the Week is Civil War Battles: Campaign Gettysburg, featured at 25% off. The game follows Robert E. Lee’s 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania from the opening cavalry clash at Brandy Station and the fighting in the Shenandoah Valley through the crisis at Gettysburg and the alternative defensive line prepared near Pipe Creek.

Gettysburg is famous as a battle, but Campaign Gettysburg is compelling because it presents the uncertainty before and after the famous days in July. Lee must keep a dispersed army supplied while searching for the Army of the Potomac; the Union commander must protect Washington and Baltimore, concentrate quickly, and decide where to make a stand. On roads that converge at a small Pennsylvania town, reconnaissance, timing and terrain can turn a campaign long before the decisive attack is ordered.

Lee’s Invasion of Pennsylvania

At Chancellorsville in May, Robert E. Lee defeated Joseph Hooker but lost Stonewall Jackson and did not remove the Union threat to Richmond. Grant was tightening the siege of Vicksburg. Lee therefore sought an invasion to relieve pressure on Virginia, gather supplies, influence Northern politics and foreign recognition, and force the Union army to fight on ground of his choosing.

Lee moved north from Fredericksburg on June 3, passing west of the Blue Ridge into the Shenandoah Valley under mountain cover. The Army of the Potomac followed on the eastern side of the range, compelled to remain between Lee and Washington. At Brandy Station on June 9, Union cavalry under Alfred Pleasonton attacked J. E. B. Stuart near Culpeper. The battle was indecisive, but Federal cavalry had challenged the Confederates in their concentration area and emerged more confident in finding Stuart’s horsemen.

Lee’s infantry continued north. Richard Ewell’s Second Corps entered the lower Shenandoah Valley and attacked Winchester, where Robert Milroy’s Union division was isolated. The Second Battle of Winchester, fought from June 13 to 15, ended in a Confederate victory and opened the Valley route to the Potomac. Milroy’s command was driven out or captured, and Lee’s army crossed into Maryland and Pennsylvania while the Union army still sought its position. The campaign’s operational problem was already visible: Lee’s army was moving rapidly, but its corps were spread across a wide front and its cavalry did not always provide the information Lee needed. Stuart later admitted the intelligence failure.

“The whereabouts of our army was still a mystery…”

— Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, official report, August 20, 1863

Union command was unsettled. Hooker had followed Lee north, but he was in conflict with General-in-Chief Henry Halleck over the disposition of the garrison at Harper’s Ferry. On June 28, Hooker resigned, and George Gordon Meade was appointed in his place. Meade inherited an army on the march and had to balance two responsibilities: cover Washington and Baltimore while bringing his forces together against Lee. He prepared a defensive position along Pipe Creek in Maryland, but he could not know whether events would allow the Army of the Potomac to occupy it.

The two armies converged on Gettysburg because roads brought them there. On June 30, Union cavalry under John Buford reached the town and recognized the value of the ridges south of it. The next morning, Confederate infantry approaching from the west encountered Buford’s dismounted troopers. What began as a meeting engagement expanded as both sides sent reinforcements to the battle. John Reynolds arrived with part of the Union I Corps and was killed early in the fighting. By afternoon, Confederate pressure forced the Federals through Gettysburg, but Buford’s delay had bought time for the Army of the Potomac to occupy Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and the heights toward Little Round Top.

On July 2, Lee tried to break the Union position on both flanks. James Longstreet’s assault on the Federal left became a series of desperate actions at places whose names have become synonymous with the battle: the Wheatfield, Devil’s Den, the Peach Orchard, and Little Round Top. On the Union right, Richard Ewell’s men fought around Culp’s Hill and East Cemetery Hill. The Confederate attacks gained ground but did not unhinge the line. Meade’s army used its interior position to shift troops along the ridge, while Lee’s corps struggled to coordinate attacks across difficult terrain and at a distance from headquarters.

Lee, on July 3, ordered a final assault against the Union center after a massive artillery bombardment. Pickett’s Charge crossed open fields under concentrated Federal fire and was repulsed with severe losses. The decision ended Lee’s hope of forcing Meade from the heights. On the night of July 4, the Army of Northern Virginia began withdrawing toward the Potomac. Rain-swollen rivers, damaged roads, and a long wagon train slowed the retreat, while Meade faced the difficult choice of pursuing a battered but still dangerous enemy with an army exhausted by three days of combat.

The campaign did not end when the firing at Gettysburg stopped. Federal cavalry and infantry pressed toward the Potomac, and fighting continued around the Confederate retreat route, including the action near Falling Waters. Before Lee escaped into Virginia, Lincoln set the Union government’s expectation in a telegram to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck.

“Now if Gen. Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the litteral [sic!] or substantial destruction of Lee’s army, the rebellion will be over.”

— Abraham Lincoln, telegram to Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, July 7, 1863

The telegram was transmitted verbatim to Meade. For the player, the campaign’s central question is therefore larger than who holds Cemetery Ridge. Can Lee concentrate his scattered corps and turn movement into a political and military triumph? Can Meade preserve his army, choose between Pipe Creek and Gettysburg, and convert superior information and interior lines into the destruction of the invasion? Those choices make the roads to Gettysburg as important as the famous fields themselves.

For a closer look at the role—and absence—of the Confederate cavalry screen during the approach to Gettysburg, see our accompanying essay.

What's in the Game

• Campaign Gettysburg includes 628 Scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including a solo tutorial scenario plus specialized versions for both head-to-head play and vs. the computer AI.
• The master map (117,936 hexes) includes all the significant locations fought over in the Gettysburg campaign. Multiple other large maps included as well.
• The order of battle file covers the Union and Confederate forces that participated in the campaign with other formations added in for hypothetical situations.
• Campaign and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.
• Design notes which cover or include the production of the game, campaign notes and a bibliography that includes the sources used by the designer team to produce this simulation game.
• Campaign Gettysburg provides multiple play options including play against the computer AI, Play by E-mail (PBEM), LAN & Internet "live" play as well as two player hot seat.

Book and Video recommendations

Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command. New York: Scribner, 1968.

Brown, Kent Masterson. Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

Sears, Stephen W. Gettysburg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The First Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The Second Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.

Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

Gottfried, Bradley M. The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3–July 13, 1863. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2007.

Hess, Earl J. Pickett’s Charge—The Last Attack at Gettysburg. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Screenshots

We hope you enjoy this week’s Game of the Week: Campaign Gettysburg. Like all WDS titles, it provides countless hours of rich historical gameplay at a very attractive price.