The Battle of Stones River, 1862 (At Dave's place...)

Between December 31st, 1862 and January 2nd, 1863 a large battle was fought in Tennessee in the American Civil War. That was the Battle of Stones River.

The picture (above) was originally found on Wikipedia.

On 18th October 2008 this battle was fought again at Dave Tuck's House.

All the figures were Dave's which he had already set out on the table.

The confederate frontline with the Union frontline immediately in the foreground. Dave was the Commander of the Confederates in this game.

A view of both lines near the top of the table.

Both Union and Confederate Lines at the top of the table. Myself and Andy Hamilton were the Union forces with Andy taking command of most of the force.

Some pesky confederates defending the small hill.

Very early in the game. Dave Tuck (left) with Andy Hamilton (right).

As the game progresses, there is some serious clashing going on. There were huge amounts of soldiers/brigades involved on both sides in this game.

Action in the middle of the battlefield. Most of the action and attacking in this game was done by Dave and Andy because...

....it took my brigades ages just to start moving into position. Here they have moved forward a reasonable amount after several moves. Even then there were loads more soldiers behind these trees that were never used and hardly moved.

A close up of some Confederate figures.

Bottom left, you can see that some of my soldiers had begun engaging Dave's Confederates, driving them back slightly, though their line was still holding.

Andy's Union soldiers in battle on the hill.

The Chaos near the end of the game.

The End of the game after playing for about 5 hours.

The layout of the Battlefield had changed considerably since the game started. By the time it ended it was set up for another huge battle which could have taken another 5 hours to resolve.

The result? The same as the battle ended historically: It was not conclusive. Basically a draw. Neither side could claim victory.

This was the playsheet we used. Actually this was mine. The rules used were Whipping Bobby Lee. How did the playsheet work? In your turn you throw 3 dice. Say you got 3,5 and 4. Using the playsheet you could either do 3 different moves: 3 is move or fire any 1 field gun unit; 5 is action move for any 1 unit of any type; 4 is move or fire any 1 unit of any type. Alternatively you could add all 3 together and get 12. 12 is move any 4 units of any type. However if you wanted to do something else on your turn you could either add or plus 1 or 2 etc to your dice roll. If you wanted 13 on the sheet, you would cross off the +1 box at the bottom of the sheet before you made your move.

Firing and moving would be accordance of the rules of whichever ruleset you were playing with. This sheet has changed since this game, been modified slightly or should I say evolved?

Dave's dog Jasmine. She's a lovely dog who is very lively, friendly and affectionate. She is also hard to take a photo of as doesn't stop still for a minute. Was Lucky to catch this one that day.