AAR: Down The Valley

[VaTrooper]

This seemed like the best place to post this so here you go:

The Saturday "tactical" was the highlight of my weekend. We were sent out in front of our infantry to locate the enemy which we located about a 1/4 mile later. Myself and another trooper were slightly in front of the rest of the men and had stopped to let the rest close up when we heard talking to our front. At the time our officer sent a rider back to let the infantry know the situation. While waiting on the infantry to come to our support our officer while trying to get a clearer idea of the enemy's strength and position alarmed the 2-3 man picket that they had in front of the main body. Within a few minutes activity could be seen in the woods to our front as the enemy started to advance toward us. Their advance was slow at first and we held our position firing at them from the road. It wasn't long though before they came on in force through our rifle and shotgun fire and pushed us back even though such a maneuver WOULD HAVE come at a high price for some of them. We fought a fighting retreat for a couple hundred yards before finally meeting up with the front of the infantry column. At this time we fell back to replenish our ammo and we tried to get into some more action, dismounted, on our right flank but the infantry had swung the battle in our favor and we missed out. The planned battle was a let down after the exciting morning. We again were in advance of the infantry and moved out on our right flank. We came upon the enemy position in a mounted skirmish line only to top the hill and find the enemy's unmanned guns to our flank and the vehicles used to move them not much further away. At that time we fell back and dismounted and ended up swapping shots with a small group of infantry that supported the cannons. We did end the day charging them only to have them tighten up forcing us to each side of them preventing slaughter with our sabers. Sunday's battle left such a bad taste in my mouth from the start that I'll only tell my story to that point. Again we led the infantry out onto the field and fell out in a skirmish line only to crest a hill and find 6-7 plain clothed civilians in the middle of the dang battlefield that had gained permission to stay there and take pictures. It was disgusting.

[TNCivilian]

I bet you wished you had a couple pieces of horse artillery ride right up to them and start unlimbering the guns! Bet they would've moved then, having permission or not.

Didn't they have any clue they were going to be right in the way?


I don't doubt it left a bad taste in your mouth, it would mine as well.

Unbelievable




Steve Wermuth

[toptimlrd]

Steve,

I wouldn't be so sure, they would probably think "Oooooh this is going to make a cool picture" just before their heads were removed from their shoulders by the blast. Many people today have a severe lack of common sense.

[Memphis]

At least no one was injured. A booger on the windshield is one thing, but a call for EMS is a lot worse.

[jurgitemvaletem]

The entire weekends experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I agree with Mr. Shifflett though, the high point in the weekend was without a doubt saturday mornings actions.

Saturday afternoons actions were a big let down. Sunday mornings actions ( the deciding factor for me attending the event) were canceled do to wining. Sunday afternoon, allbeit better than saturday afternoon was again severly dissapointing.

Oh well, all we can do now is look forward to september storm and pray that some lessons were learned.

[dclarry]

This seemed like the best place to post this so here you go:

The Saturday "tactical" was the highlight of my weekend. .... The planned battle was a let down after the exciting morning. We again were in advance of the infantry and moved out on our right flank. We came upon the enemy position in a mounted skirmish line only to top the hill and find the enemy's unmanned guns to our flank and the vehicles used to move them not much further away. At that time we fell back and dismounted and ended up swapping shots with a small group of infantry that supported the cannons. We did end the day charging them only to have them tighten up forcing us to each side of them preventing slaughter with our sabers. Sunday's battle left such a bad taste in my mouth from the start that I'll only tell my story to that point. ....It was disgusting.

Will,

First, it was nice to meet you this past weekend. Second, as I was one of the Federal cannoneers on the top of the hill watching Saturday's battle unfold, I can tell you I understand your disappointment. Even while the scenario was underway I knew that the Confederates were not going to enjoy this. After-action discussion only confirmed this. How anybody made it to the scripted scenario after what we artillerists heard was a physically exhausting, but exciting, tactical was a surprise in itself.

While waiting on the reverse sloop of the hill, we cannoneers were surprised to see your cavalrymen come over the crest and 'spot' us (of course, you knew we were already there from the scenario plan). We were surprised because we were explicitly told in the pre-action briefing that absolutely no one would come near us. I myself explicitly asked whether we should expect to take hits or be overrun. I was told by no means would anyone come close enough to shoot at us. The point of the scenario, we were briefed, was to show how the unexpected presence of the Federal battery on the ridge determined the course of the battle, forcing the Reb infantry away to fight in a different part of the field. We left the tow vehicles near the clump of trees a few hundred yards back because we were assured that no one would top the hill and/or pass our battery, period. Nobody but us would even know they were there, let alone see them.

After your infantry showed up, I saw your troop at the bottom of the hill, and thought "What is that cavalry unit getting out of this?". A few of my gun detachment echoed similar thoughts. Also, we could not figure out why anybody remained at the base of that hill as long as they did. Our lieutenant told us we were to engage the infantry as they massed at the hill's base as long as they presented a target, but that should only be for a very short time. Then we would support the main battle and provide counter-battery fire. That's not what happened, as you know. Your infantry hung out for what seemed like an eternity_at a range of about 600-700 yards from a Federal battery that was told to blast away without any fear of a Confederate assault. My gun alone fired 23 rounds, only slowing for fear of running out of ammunitions. Instead of "Why don't the enemy come?", it was "Why don't the enemy leave?" . There was some mis-communication somewhere. 23 rounds at rate of 1 round every 3 minutes is a one-hour bombardment. Even speeding up to 1 every 2 minutes is a 46 minute bombardment of an essentially static, massed target.

I can see why you were disappointed. There was little action for your troop that we could see. When you did finally charge us, we looked at each other with that "What the ...? That's not part of the script" look. In a real battle, that would be the smart move, going for the ridge. However, in a real battle nothing would have survived our artillery fire, man or horse, at the bottom of that hill to even try and take the ridge, getting past our supporting infantry. But in a real battle, nobody would have lingered under our guns. And, to be truthful, in a real battle your cavalry troop would have captured our guns in the first five minutes, when you first came upon us waiting for the scenario to begin.

[bill watson]

Whining? or Wining? Usually it's beer.....

[VaTrooper]

Lawernce,
I didn't actually think that the gun you had posted on our side was angled enough to do any damage to us. It seemed to be more pointed to the corner of the crowd where our infnatry came from and our mounted gun was waiting. But I may be wrong. The charge at the end was more or less for the infantry bunch that were posted with you because they were waving us on for the last half an hour of battle but there was no point in doing any more than poping off a shot every now and then.

PS: I've been meaning to email you to get all your contact info for my records.

[dclarry]

Will,

You are probably right, probably no gun aimed at your group. Certainly I heard no order directing fire on you. My gun, on our far right only engaged the infantry and the horse drawn piece, as you say. I saw your troop, but my gun never attempted a shot at you. I just assumed the left piece (my left) would have, but that's a dangerous assumption on my part. I should not have stated that your group would not have survived the artillery fire, I could not really know that.

In fact, being on the far right, I was not all that aware of what the supporting infantry were up to until your charge. You could have overrun them and been upon me before I knew what was happening. Which, actually, is what happened. Several riders came right into the guns, to the consternation of our officer.

[VaTrooper]

The infantry that was supporting you recalled their skirmish line in good fashion and had formed up well enough that it would have been hard work to wipe em up with our swords. Pistols and carbines on the other hand would have worked quite well. Who else would like to share their .02 cents?