WinSPCW Scenario Testing - Antietam, morning, September 17, 1862

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I begin with the cornfield. General Ricketts sends his 2nd Division against Miller's Cornfield, and a terrible volley of shot and shell from rebel artillery, concentrated around the Dunker Church, begins to work over the Federal line. Union 12-pounders at the North Woods don't have the range to reach the Confederates, so, after counterbattery fire from the few 3-inch Ordnance rifles I have up there, I begin the process of moving the Napoleons forward only after the rebel guns have fired all their shots and are suppressed. A bit gamey, yes, but in this mod, artillery is deadly against other artillery, and an exploding caisson can cause immense damage.

The Pennsylvania Reserves can't take the Confederate artillery fire. Truman Seymour tries to rally his regiments but they mill around in confusion along the Smoketown Road. 1st Pennsylvania also took a volley of musketry from Mississippi infantry hidden in the cornfield.

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The next phase of battle is the advance of Doubleday's 1st Division to the West Woods, his line straddling the Hagerstown Pike. Colonel Phelps's 1st Brigade of New Yorkers takes heavy fire from Virginia and Alabama infantry hidden in the treeline, and begin to break, but the brigade stays intact and, rather than moving forward into that murderous musketry, form a line and begin returning volleys. Their fire causes some of Stonewall's veteran regiments to break.

Gibbon's 4th Brigade has a harder time of it, the Wisconsin boys halting to trade volleys with the Virginians of Jones's Brigade. Marsena Patrick's 3rd Brigade begins working the rebel left flank, and I detach a brigade from George Meade's 3rd Division to support Ricketts in the cornfield. Thus ends turn 1.

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Now I have a problem, with Ewell's division moving up Mumma Lane to hit Ricketts's left flank.

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Still under heavy rebel artillery fire, I have the Pennsylvania Reserves hunker down at the edge of the East Woods, both to avoid drawing fire and to help blunt Ewell's attack. I also dispatch another brigade from Meade's division, along with a battery each of Rhode Island and US regular artillery, to assist.

Meanwhile, John Bell Hood's old brigade of Texans (he now commands the division, and WT Wofford now leads the Texas Brigade) and Whiting's mixed brigade of Alabamians, Mississippians, and North Carolinians (in the real battle, the commanders of all four regiments of Whiting's Brigade were shot) have revealed themselves in the cornfield and begin trading volleys with the Pennsylvanians. Miller's Cornfield now begins to get bloody.

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Doubleday's fight is not going very well. Early's Brigade approaches from the west against Doubleday's right flank, but three of my batteries on the Hagerstown Pike check Early. I also send the remaining brigade of Meade's Division in that direction. Thus ends turn 2.