Eutaw Springs...

[vtsaogames]

I just started readng Eutaw Springs by Robert Dunkerly and Irene Boland. This will require some changes to my Eutaw Springs scenario. The British and Loyalists formed up further away from their camp than my scenario has it. Most critical, the Crown strength of a bit over 1,300 should have the foraging party of 310 removed. The foragers were captured or dispersed before the battle proper. Add in the 80 sick in the camp and the front line stength is below 1,000. No wonder the Whigs were having trouble over-running the British camp. I have more reading to do. Apparently the authors think the looting of the camp by hungry troops was less critical than the failure of Light Horse Henry Lee to charge after the Crown line collapsed. But the change in front line strength alone changes the situation.

Perhaps I should have realized that the foragers needed to be deducted from the fighting line before this but this spells it out clearly. I won't get to test this until some time in the new year, after revising the OB and scenario. 

There are a couple glitches in the book so far. The map shows what must be Malmedy's NC militia. Every other unit has a note in the legend but this one. One Continental brigade is noted as having nearly 50% fatalities. The table shows that number includes killed and wounded. Yes, I'm deep into the appendix while still in the early part of the book. Can't help myself.

[Inkpaduta]

You clearly are doing good wargaming research.

[FifteensAway]

Look forward to your final analysis.  Eutaw Springs has been a table top rarity in these parts the last 30 plus years, maybe - and only maybe, once that I can recollect. 

[CapnJim]

Hmm.  I've dome Eutaw Springs at conventions, but it's been a few years.  The sources I've looked at have both Crown and rebel forces at about 2000 or so.  As I said, Hmm....

[vtsaogames]

The Crown OB in this book is based on Stewart's muster rolls from the day before the battle. Previously I used Novak's OB which must be based on the same source since it agrees exactly. Previously I wasn't sure if the foraging party was included in these numbers. The book's numbers for Greene's army are ~2,200 instead of Novak's ~ 2,000, but then notes that 200 were left to guard baggage. I suspect they were militia, since the book's SC militia numbers are about 200 more than Novak's.

Greene's army deployed in two lines, each with about the same frontage as Stewart's single line. Both used the standard two-rank "loose files" formation common since 1776. This indicates Greene had a larger number of troops than Stewart. Interestingly, the book notes the 3rd Foot, the Buffs, were new in country and the first part of the British line to give way.

The book says Stewart lamented two things after the battle: having sent the foraging party which so depleted his fighting strength (but gave warning of the impending attack) and his lack of cavalry.

I have been interested in this battle for a very long time. Back in 1959 I badgered my mother into buying me a book about Francis Marion, inspired by the Disney TV series Swamp Fox. The young adults biography ended with the Battle of Eutaw Springs, and a line drawing of Marion's men in a firing line. The book was my first clue about the difference between history and the Hollywood version.

[vtsaogames]

Finished the book. It says Henry Lee was with his infantry when the order came to charge. The messenger couldn't find him, half his cavalry charged and was repulsed by Coffin's cavalry. Another book I have at home has a much darker tale. Other Virginia officers say he was trying to tell them what to do and so missed the messenger. Lee was very unpopular later. He was a Federalist, a minority stance in Virgina, opposed to the war of 1812. He was badly beaten defending a journalist. He also ended up in debtor's prison and there were those who accused him of being a fraud. So people had an axe to grind. It explains why his son, Robert E., was so proper.

Hard to know exactly what Light Horse Harry did that day.