Designer's Notes for
The 2nd Day: Cemetery Hill
by Steve Barba
With this scenario I've finished my SMG recreation of the fighting of July 2nd on the Union right flank. As in The 2nd Day: Culp's Hill, historical accuracy was a primary goal and again my source was Harry Pfanz's book, Gettysburg - Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill.
Confederate Deployment
Deployment was fairly easy on both sides, particularly so with the Confederates. The attack was conducted by Hays' and Avery's brigades of Early's division. They were at nearly full strength so I set them both to 100%. Their initial line of attack was indicated clearly by a map in Pfanz's book. I simply placed the regiments along that line.
Early's men were expecting support from Gordon's brigade on their left and Rodes' division on their right. However, darkness and mis-communication kept them both out of the action. I had considered adding Gordon as a reserve that would cost points, but play-balance would have been thrown off by his inclusion.
The Confederates have 9 regiments in the scenario. With so few units, the Rebels can't afford to lose one due to an unseen rout. Therefore, I included Early in the scenario to make it easier for the Confederate player to keep an eye on all of his regiments at the same time.
Union Deployment
Union deployment was more difficult. Regiments weren't lined up as neatly and troop strength varied. Howard's 11th corps held Cemetery Hill. However, not every regiment was there, many fronted to the west and northwest to keep an eye on Rodes and part of Hill's corps, and none were at full strength. Fortunately, Pfanz cited several Union officers' recollections of their units' strength. From this I was able to piece together a fair approximation of strength which varied from 40% to 65%.
The 11th corps infantry was backed by artillery units from their own corps, the 1st corps and the artillery reserve. Although there were more than four batteries on the hill, Pfanz states that only four of them were able to be brought to bear on Early's attack. They were Stevens, Wiedrich, Ricketts and Reynolds.
The Initial Advance
Early's attack began at the sound of the firing on Culp's Hill. Given this, I could have started the scenario just after instead of at 8:00. However, since I planned to combine this scenario with The 2nd Day: Culp's Hill I decided to start it at the same time. Ultimately, the Rebel player can choose when to begin the attack. To simulate history in the combined scenario, he can wait a few minutes to begin his advance. That's actually good strategy against the AI. If the attack on Cemetery Hill begins at 8:00 the AI will divert units intended for the defense of Culp's Hill to Cemetery Hill. If the Rebel player delays a few minutes, however, some of those units will remain on Culp's Hill and his chances of taking Cemetery Hill will improve significantly. This applies to the combined scenario only.
The attack was directed toward the northeastern face of the hill. Manning this area was Ames' division. Ames was a brigade commander who had been promoted to the command of the wounded Barlow's division the day before. I had considered renaming Barlow to Ames so that Ames would appear as a division rather than brigade commander. However, this would have dropped his skill level from Experienced to Mediocre so I decided to leave well enough alone. In any case, play-balance was already good.
In the real battle the depleted and demoralized troops of Ames' division didn't hold out long against Early's initial thrust. Soon they fell back on their artillery. The fight then centered around holding the Union guns. The Confederates came very close to overrunning and capturing the Union batteries on the hill. As the staggered remnants of Ames' division held on, three sets of reinforcements appeared to drive the Rebels back off the hill.
Reinforcements Arrive
Over on the western side of the hill Howard and one of his division commanders, Schurz, sent the 58th and 119th NY of Krzyzanowski's brigade and the 27th and 73rd PA of Coster's brigade to the fighting on the eastern side. The New York regiments hit the Rebels hard and drove many off the guns. It's unclear what the Pennsylvania regiments did, but evidence exists to indicate that they did join the fight and have an impact. The last reinforcements came from Carroll's brigade (minus the 8th OH) of Hancock's 2nd corps. They arrived from the south and finished the job of breaking the Confederate attack.
All of these units appear in the scenario and you'll find them key to winning as the Union. In fact, I was pleased to see that the course of the battle in SMG often mirrors that of the real battle. The initial attack breaks the 11th corps front lines, the guns are contested and the Union reinforcements arrive to either drive the Rebels back or be too little, too late.
