War of the States, War of
the Empires
A Comparison of Battles
in Europe and America of the 1860s
Sociologists and historians have known for over a century
that war is contagious. Social upheavals, technological change
and economic shifts often result in multiple conflicts. So
it was in the period 1859-1871, when the American Civil War
took place as well as wars between France and Austria, Austria
and Denmark, Prussia and Austria and finally Prussia and France.
Plus the Poles rose against the Tsar in a bloody revolt, and
Garibaldi overthrew the King of Naples and tried to knock
off the pope. The pope’s army also fought the Royal
Italian Army in an ill-fated crusade.
Though these wars took place at the same time and used the
same weapons for the most part, there are some key differences.
We’ll take a look at the Civil War and the European
battlefields in this piece, and how those differences translate
into game terms.
The Bayonets of 1859
Though only five years passed between the last battle of
the Crimean War and the outbreak of war in 1859 between France
and Piedmont on one side and Austria on the other, this conflict
usually marks the start of the 1860s cycle of violence. The
Minie rifle had now become the standard infantry weapon, and
the French now introduced rifled artillery. Battles could
now be fought at greater range, with weapons capable of inflicting
even greater damage.
The war had two major battles, at Magenta and at Solferino.
Solferino’s carnage famously caused Henri Dunant to
found the International Red Cross to care for wounded soldiers.
But the actual flow of the battle had a profound effect on
other observers as well.
“The Zouave” by Vincent van Gogh, 1888
When the United States split into warring factions two years
later, many troops (mostly Northern, but some Southern as
well) marched off to the front uniformed as Zouaves. These
colorful French regiments, formed from French colonists in
Algeria, wore baggy pants, bright shirts and tousled caps.
And fought very well; though it looks clownish today the Zouave
uniform signalled toughness and spirit to the young men of
the time. Southern units soon received gray uniforms modelled
on those of the Zouaves’ toughest opponents, Austria’s
sharpshooting jäger battalions.
On the battlefield, the French achieved success with mass
bayonet charges. Austrian troops, having little practice with
their new Lorenz .57-caliber rifled muskets, failed to adjust
for the curved arc of fire of their new weapon and the French
soon entered a “safe zone” as they drew near the
Austrian lines. But very few noticed the ballistic problem
at the time; instead, the Austrian army adopted the dreaded
stosstaktik of massed charges.
The Confederate side attracted the bulk of the pre-war U.S.
Army’s professional officer corps. These men brought
with them the latest thinking of the day: the same conclusion
drawn by the Austrians, that the bayonet charge would overwhelm
firepower. And Confederate armies paid the price, just as
the Austrians would. Historian Grady McWhiney’s bizarre
proposition that Southern troops charged due to their Celtic
heritage is demonstrably false; they did it because their
generals believed it would work.
In our games, the Confederate and Union troops are not distinguished
by special rules. In both Gettysburg
and Chickamauga
& Chattanooga, designer Dave Powell
neatly took care of the Southern penchant for the offensive
in the victory conditions. The Confederate player must attack
in order to win the game.
In Battles
of 1866, Austrian troops don’t exactly suffer
a negative; instead, if they initiate an assualt against the
Prussians, Prussian units get a bonus to their strength in
firing back at them. In the Custoza game, the Italians don’t
get this bonus and have to fight the Austrians straight up.
Elite or Not
From the beginning, the series rules first provided in Gettysburg
for War of the States/War of the Empires were intended
to serve games set on both continents. In retrospect that
was probably an error in judgement; we knew even then that
it would be a couple of years at best before a game set in
Europe would appear even had Gettysburg been a runaway
success.
This caused confusion among some players, as the rules mention
elite units yet there are no elite units in either Gettysburg
or Chickamauga & Chattanooga. Elite units fight
better in both assault combat and cavalry charges; they’re
more likely to inflict damage on their enemies and when forced
to retreat they can disengage without fear of additional losses.
Given the divisional scale of the American Civil War games,
there aren’t likely to ever be any, either. The egalitarian
nature of American society in this period, and the recruiting
methods then in use, made hand-picked elite formations rare
and non-existent at divisional size.
That’s not the case in European armies, several of
which had a mixture of formations based on mass conscription
and those containing long-service regulars. So this time there
will be elite units: the Prussian Guard, the Italian Granatieri
(the Kingdom of Italy’s equivalent) and a smattering
of Austrian brigades (those containing the elite “house
regiments”) and cavalry regiments.
The two societies handled replacements in very different
fashion as well. The American armies often recruited entirely
new regiments, while allowing the old ones to run down. This
deprived new soldiers of the experience of old hands, but
did provide new colonelcies for the politically connected.
European armies by this time usually recruited their troops
from geographic districts, and each regiment usually had a
“replacement” battalion at its home station which
fed new men into the field battalions as they suffered losses.
This gave greater unit cohesion and allowed regiments to pass
on experience. It also meant that every unit should have a
cadre of tough, older non-commissioned officers.
As a result, European units generally have a higher morale
rating than equivalent American ones (either Union or Confederate).
That’s not a comment on American bravery but rather
on the personnel systems that made Prussian, Austrian and
Italian divisions more cohesive than American ones.
Game pieces from the Civil War and European games are interchangeable:
If you want to march the Prussian Guard up Cemetery Ridge,
you can do it. Lee can square off against Moltke or Grant
against La Marmora. Why you’d want to is another question
entirely, but the comparison is there for those who must have
it.
Mike Bennighof
March 2005
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