The Battle of Morristown

 The first major battle of the Sneedsville War began in the early morning hours of September 29th, 1800. As a light rain abated, the armies of either side could not see the approach of the other, the terrain blocked by high ridges and heavy forests. From the south, Knoxville's the Army of The East attempted to reach the city of Morristown. From the North, the Army of Rogers of the invading Kingsportions beared down on the city. While the superior generalship of the Knoxvillians ensured they had the initiative, in a stroke of luck, the Kingsportions had managed to get several of their elite units over the twin bridges across Cherokee Lake.

[editor's note: this battle was fought using 2x2 Napoleonics rules, at double scale (4'x4' table) and using 1/72 scale figures. The Kingsportions are represented by French Cavalry (in green), Polish line infantry in dark blue (for the grenadiers/heavy infantry) and Prussian Landwehr, also in dark blue (for the line infantry), there was one unit of light infantry, but they never made it to the table. The Army of the East was represented using Austrian line infantry in tan(line infantry) and British Dragoons in red (Light and Heavy Cavalry). The only difference the CCR made to this battle was I added the CCRs of the commanders to the initiative rolls at the start of the game, which ended up giving a slight edge tot he Army of the East.]

The larger Kingsportion army would take all day to stream across the bridges, seeing their chance, the Knoxvillians used the roads to advance at full speed, attempting to be the first to the city- not one more inch of Knoxvillian soil would be given up without a fight.

With superior numbers, and no sign of Knoxville's cannons, the Commander of the Army of Rogers had a choice to make- slowly and methodically cross the bridge and then invest Morristown- ceding the objective temporarily, or race to the city as well. The orders were clear- take Morristown immediately, and with his highly trained grenadiers, General Rogers would try just that.

The two army reach the city almost simultaneously, turning the streets red, as the initially outnumbered grenadiers from Rogers fire into the approaching Knoxvillians.

Hand to hand fighting ensuing in the city's streets but the superior elan of the Grenadiers throws back the frontal assault of the Army of the East.

Disaster on the western flank- grenadiers fight off a combined assault of heavy cavalry from Knoxville

At this critical juncture, the tide of the battle shifts decisively to the Kingsportions. Now the cavalry, which would have swept in to deal a crushing blow are seriously out of position, and it is all that can be done to prevent the complete collapse of the army as more and more reinforcements from the Army of Rogers add their weight to the battle. Fighting rages on in the city center, but the Army of Rogers continues it's aggressive stance and the cavalry chases down the disordered Knoxvillian infantry. 

A disastrous envelopment by the Kingsportion cavalry, outside the city's limits

The Kingsportion Heavy Cavalry cuts off the line of retreat for the Army of the East

As the superior troop quality and numbers of Rogers army overcomes the overwhelmed army of the East, the call to retreat is made, the city is abandoned and a fighting retreat is made. Cannon fire rings out, halting elements of the retreating infantry and stalling the retreat. The Army of the Easy slips out of the noose to take the only remaining escape route, West to Jefferson city. It is a race off the table as night begins to set in. The Army of the East has failed completely in it's objective and suffered losses the Knoxvillians could hardly stand to lose.

Grenadiers from Kingsport team-up to push out the last remaining Knoxvillian infrantry from the City

As night falls, the remaining elements of The Army of the East slip through the fingers of Kingsport

The losses on both sides are as follows:

The Butcher's Bill

Looks like the cemetery will be overflowing with Knoxville's dead, in-game they lost 3 regiments of line infantry, 1 light cavalry and 2 heavy cavalry. With the Kingsportions in control of 3 of the four lines of escape, this will result in heavy losses at the campaign level. The Kingsportions apparent losses are much lighter, with one unit of grenadier and a unit of light horse lost, however with the heavy street to street fighting, there will be additional losses distributed across the involved units.

Roger's Army of Kingsport

• Commander: Int 56, Init 75, Cou 13, Cha 42, Str 66, Hea 84, CCR: 3 - unscathed
• Greeneville Rifles (light infantry) - No Loses
• Kingsport 1st Line - 25 Dead, 25 seriously wounded, 25 lightly wounded
• Kingsport 2nd Line - 25 Dead, 25 seriously wounded, 25 lightly wounded
• Hawkins Line - 50 dead, 50 Seriously wounded, 25 lightly wounded
• Bays Mountain Boys (heavy infantry) - 50 dead, 50 Seriously wounded, 25 lightly wounded
• Dollywood Exiles (heavy infantry) - 250 Dead,  75 Seriously wounded, 50 Lightly wounded
• Rogersville Dragoons (light horse) - 250 Dead,  75 Seriously wounded, 50 Lightly wounded
• Jonesville 1st Lancers (medium horse) - 50 Dead, 50 Seriously Wounded, 50 Lightly wounded 
• Jonesville 2nd Lancers (medium horse) - 50 Dead, 50 Seriously Wounded, 50 Lightly wounded  
• Kingsport Hussars (heavy cavalry) - 125 Dead, 125 Seriously Wounded, 125 Lightly Wounded
• Greeneville 1st Battery - No loses
• Greeneville 2nd Battery - No Loses

Knoxville's Army Group East

• Commander: Int 65, Init 96, Cou 10, Cha 46, Str 36, Hea 2, CCR: 5 - miraculously unscathed
• White Pine Line - 50 dead, 75 captured  (including 50 seriously wounded, 25 lightly wounded)
• Dandridge Line - 50 dead, 75 captured  (including 50 seriously wounded, 25 lightly wounded)
• Morristown 1st Line - 250 Dead, 375 captured (including 250 wounded)
• Morristown 2nd Line - 250 Dead, 375 captured (including 250 wounded)
• Morristown 3rd Line -  250 Dead, 375 captured (including 250 wounded)
• Jefferson City Dragoons (light horse) - 25 dead, 25 seriously wounded, 25 lightly wounded
• Kodak 1st Lancers (medium horse) - 250 dead, 250 captured (including 125 wounded) 
• Kodak 2nd Lancers (heavy horse) - 250 Dead, 375 captured (including 250 wounded)
• Morristown Hussars (heavy horse) - 250 Dead, 125 Captured (all 125 wounded)

[Post Script: One thing I would do differently replaying this would be to create stats for 'regular' cavalry so that they would not have to fit into either heavy or light cavalry. This distinction is a big difference in 2x2 Napoleonics with heavy cavalry getting a +2 to melee and light Cavalry getting a -1, a swing of 3 points! When you are rolling six-siders, that is huge.

Proposed 'Line/Regular/Medium' Cavalry stats:

 AP: 3
Move: 9" (I use 2x scale, for real 2mm, use 4.5")
Combat: +1 on first charge, +0 otherwise

Personally I don't see the point of light cavalry in 2x2 Napoleonics, there is almost no use to them, they are easy to rout with musket fire, can't shoot and aren't good in melee all while still costing the same as heavy cavalry. The slight increase in movement speed is not worth it. The best I can say is they are useful off-table in the strategic sense, depending how you are running the campaign.

The second thing would be to have lent the general's bonus to the melee in Morristown I forgot to do this and by the time I realized, it was too late... I also accidentally made one extra unit grenadiers, instead of making the heavy horse for the Kingportions elite... call it even?]