Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames
American Civil War Naval
The Blockade
I have two ACW fleets - one for fighting on the Mississippi River, and the other for the (in my mind) far more interesting series of battles fought in and around the estuaries and rivers of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. As there were literally hundreds of Union ships involved, I settled on a few - a representative sample if you will. OK, I admit this includes most of the monitor fleet, but then who can resist the chance of a big game now and again!
If we take it that the Confederates had five main ports west of the Mississippi - Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah and Mobile - then the idea of blockading them sounds pretty straightforward. However, not only were most of these ports defended by powerful fortifications such as Fort Fisher at Wilmington, Fort Sumter at Charleston, or Fort Morgan at Mobile, but there was usually more than one way out of the port sometimes through a maze of side channels. Then you had the defenders, who concentrated on building ironclads capable of breaking the blockade. Then there were ships like the Albemarle, built in a North Carolina cornfield. The Union commanders had to keep on their toes, and be prepared to send their forces just about up any waterway where they could float.
The Confederates could more or less decide when and where to strike, while the Union Navy had to keep up the blockade, night and day, and in all weathers. That goes a long way to offsetting the incredible numerical advantage enjoyed by the Yankees. However, as Admiral Du Pont demonstrated off Charleston in 1863, or more spectacularly at Mobile the following year, the Yankees could also call the shots by launching their own attacks.
This means that unlike our Mississippi games, which tend to revolve around the refighting of two or three engagements, the "Blockade" games are far more likely to involve fewer ships, and a greater challenge to players of both sides. For instance, a game could pit a single ironclad like the CSS Albemarle against a larger wooden force of gunboats - just like the Battle of Albemarle Sound in 1864. We could also run games involving the escorting in or out of a blockade runner, the naval support of land operations, or even a daring night attack by torpedo boats on the Yankee fleet as it lies at anchor off Charleston. While I don't have the ships to refight one of the big battles such as Mobile Bay, or even the attack on Fort Sumter, I have enough to give a scaled-down flavour of the action.
Confederate Ironclads & Union Blockaders
The Blockade The Mississippi
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American Civil War Pre-Dreadnought WW2 Coastal Forces WW2 Pacific