The Art of Defence.

Let's get one thing clear right from the beginning; the attacker has more men and more guns than you. That's why he's attacking you. No, he does not have the same number. He has more, sometimes much more, as in Champion Hill and Antietam.

Think about other battles, such as Thermopylae where only 300 Spartans were attacked by something like 100,000 Persians (if Herodatus is to be believed).

Now, would it make sense for the Spartans to go and attack the Persians? Not really. They waited in a mountain pass and held the Persians off (until some rat showed the Persians a path around their rear).

The point is the attacker has more stuff than you. So what does this mean? It means they can usually afford to take more casualties than you. Plus it means they can inflict casualties on you at a greater rate.

If you stand shoulder to shoulder with a numerically superior enemy, trading shots with them, expect to quickly loose the battle. Your brigades will whither faster and you won't be able to replace them, where as the attacker will.

How can the defender even this up? Simply put, you have to force the attacker to come at you "one at a time" so they cannot bring their greater weight of numbers to bare.

If we take the Thermopylae example again the Greeks set up at a part of the pass that was only two meters wide. Although they had only about 1,000 men, including 300 Spartans, the Persians could only fight them with a small fraction of their vastly greater force. Up until Ephialtes showed Xerxes how to get around the mountain pass the Greeks killed wave after wave of Persians (as they were better armoured and had longer spears).

There is no doubt that if they had met the Persians in open terrain they would have been killed in a very short time, as happened when they had to retreat out of the small defile.

Such lessons can be used in Line of Muskets and other wargames. If you are the defender, with a smaller number of troops, you have to force the opponent to come at you so they cannot use all their troops at the same time, giving you a local superiority.

Take for example the battle of Antietam. There has been quite a bit of talk on the site that Antietam is very difficult for the South to win. Not so. It depends on how the South, the defenders, go about fighting the battle. If they advance out of their trenches to "push" the enemy back, they can expect to be shot to bits for very little loss to the attackers. Then they shall certainly loose.

However, if they stand back, in places where the Union cannot shoot at them, then the Union has to come and get them.

Then the Rebs can attempt to get a local superiority in firepower. How do you do that?

The most powerful weapon in the American Civil War was artillery firing canister. This is a cannon firing not one single solid ball (solid shot) but lots of small balls. In fact often the gunners didn't even bother to use real canister shot but stuffed down the barrel anything they could find; rocks, nails, etc. (which is why an "out of ammo" gun can still fire canister at full effect).

One battery firing canister has about the same effect as 2,000 men firing their muskets (ten strength points). So why not sit back and wait for the enemy with several guns ready to shred his brigades? It is the easiest way for the defender to even up the odds.

As the enemy comes on if they run into a fresh brigade with three batteries firing canister (range 1 hex) it is likely that the attacking brigade will be destroyed for little or no loss to the defender.

As the defender you want to hang back, base your defence on a well formed gun line, and wait.

Above the Confederate forces are waiting for the Union. They are in the woods where the Union artillery cannot hit them and they have a strong gun line ready and waiting.

However, sometimes the attacker does not do what you want. When they see your well formed line they may decide to hang back from you and bring up their own artillery and soften you up from a distance. Or even shoot at you from a range of two or three hexes, thus robbing you of the chance to canister them to death. So what do you do?

You withdraw. Before you take too many casualties. You don't stand there to shoot it out with them. Remember, this is what the attacker wants. You limber up your guns and move back to you next line of defence (you have several in mind, don't you?!!!). Don't forget, the attacker is under time constraint and you, as the defender, usually own the objectives. This means the attacker doesn't have time to allow you to gracefully pull back at your leisure. He has to attack you. And, if you judge it right, they will have to come straight at your guns, unlimbered, and ready to fire.

The best example of this is the Union on Seminary Ridge outside Gettysburg. Where is the best place for 1st Corps to set up? If you set up on the western edge of the ridge the Rebs can bring up a lot of guns and blow holes in you. It's a good idea to set up one hex back from the ridge. Then the enemy can't shot at you. And when they attack as they come over the ridge they will get lots of canister in their teeth if you've unlimbered your guns one hex back from the ridgeline.

This is how Wellington won his famous victory at Waterloo. When he saw the French getting their Grande Battery ready to blow him to bits he ordered his men to withdraw over Mont Saint Jean Ridge where the guns couldn't hit him. Then Ney went mad, thinking they were retreating. (What Ney should have done is gone forward with his guns and unlimbered them fifty meters from the British squares. Then the French probably would have won Waterloo. Oh well).

Obviously if the enemy realises what you are doing they may attack where your guns aren't placed. So you have to judge it. If you withdraw too early, you achieve nothing. If you withdraw too late, you will die. The object for 1st Corps in Gettysburg is to delay the enemy while at the same time not dying.

So there you have it in a nutshell. As the defender you want the enemy to fight you with as little as possible. You want them to come forward at a point where you can destroy them piece meal. This means not charging forward in Antietam, and not staying to fight on Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg.

There is a time to fight and a time to do a "fighting withdrawal".

And how do you know when you are doing it correctly? When your opponent starts saying things to you like, "Please stop running away!"

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