American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Pemberton Gets Help Tournament

The Pemberton Gets Help Tournament is now open for enrollment!!

Tournament Background Information:

Lee's Advice

It was April 15th and President Jefferson Davis stood in Gen. Robert E Lee's HQ in Fredericksburg. General Lee had just agreed with the Davis that there simply was no one to take Pemberton's place at Vicksburg. He also pointed out to Davis that even if Pemberton was out of his element he had performed adequately over the past 6 months. Davis agreed but stated flatly that he was certain Grant would make a move in conjunction with Banks south of Vicksburg. He simply did not trust Pemberton to be up to the challenge of maneuvering south of the city with his 5 divisions.

Lee pointed out that if that was true perhaps Pemberton just needed some help. He emphasized that a couple of corps commanders could go a long way towards relieving some of the mounting pressure on Pemberton. He added a good corps commander can make decisions on the spot and wield sufficient forces to avert a disaster while Pemberton maneuvers other corps to an advantageous position.

Davis liked the idea so much that he had a telegram sent straight from Lee's HQ to Gen. Johnston on the spot. Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor in Alexandria Louisiana, Maj. Gen. John C Breckinridge and recently promoted Maj. Gen. WHT Walker in Tullahoma all headed to Vicksburg three days later with orders in their pockets directly from the theatre commander Gen. Joe Johnston. Johnston being very familiar with the forces Pemberton commanded had already assigned divisions to each corps commander. Taylor would divert to Grand Gulf and his newly minted I Corps would be responsible for the vital port and the surrounding area south to Port Gibson and East to New Auburn. Walker took the train to Jackson MS where his III Corps AoM would be based. He would receive Forney's small division now also traveling by train to Jackson, but the rest of his forces would not arrive for some time. Breckinridge arrived in Vicksburg to take command of Maj. Gen. WW Loring's large division and the division of Maj. Gen. ML Smith. This composed all of II Corps until his old division arrived from Tullahoma. Breckinridge would be responsible for Vicksburg and the railroad East to Bolton until Grant's plans were known and Vicksburg was considered safe from direct assault

Note to the reader: If you are familiar with the Vicksburg Campaign you recognize that the only real change I have made to history is to organize the Army of Mississippi into three corps. Why? As you play the campaign (especially as the Rebel commander) you will quickly realize that in reality these are almost like three separate armies. I did this because corps commanders had a great deal of autonomous authority during the Civil War. They were expected to act independently when necessary and execute both offensive and defensive operations without direct supervision or for that matter direct orders. The terrain in this campaign prevented the Rebel army commander from maintaining direct control over the vast area he had to defend. Plus once the Union army and its trajectory was identified there needed to be a commander with enough authority to marshal forces with enough power to actually react to the situation. The question that has been posed for the players to answer is this: Without proper cavalry for scouting operations could the three independently commanded corps have cooperated well enough to slow Grant's advance or perhaps even stop him and exact a defeat great enough to force Grant to retreat back to the Big Muddy.

The Armies:

Tournament Details:

Pemberton Gets Help will offer the following options for participants. Players will be able to choose between two tournament paths:

Play a solo campaign.
Play a Multi_Player campaign

Both campiagns include four 38 turn battles with a grand total of 152 turns overall.

Tournament Start Date: Both campaigns will begin June 1st.

Completion Deadlines:

The time allotted for both campaigns will 180 days.

Optional Rules:

-Artillery capture will remain off as there seems to be no general consensus on its usage.
-Extreme Fog Of War off.
-Manual Defensive Fire off.

Multiplayer Rules

1. 3 Players per side. Each side will designate an over-all commander with the following responsibilities:
- Send/receive and distribute all turns.
- Move other players forces if needed to keep turn turnarounds timely as agreed to with your opponents.
- Take command of forces if a player in his team must drop from the game.
2. Players shall notify their commander immediately if they are going to be delayed completing their portion of a turn.

To Sign Up:

Contact Larry Mills at larrygmills@yahoo.com

Players have the choice to:

1. Sign up for the solo campaign

2. Sign up for the Multi-Player campaign

3. Sign up for both

Let Larry know which one you choose!

(Note: You will need Campaign Vicksburg updated to version 3.0 to participate)

Tournament Coordinator: Major General Larry Mills (ANV)

Special Thanks & Acknowledgements:

We need to thank the play testers!

Earle Cook, Victor Nelson, Danny Canavan, Frank DiNola, David Mallory, Neil Thomas, Michael Stefanowicz, John Dragan, James Boling,
Owen Evans, Thomas Dehoff, Derald Riggs, Gerald Jensen, Jaume Campderros, Nick Kunz, John Lytwalk, Derald Riggs, Jim Garner

Very Special Thanks to my Co-designer WALT DORTCH:

Last Update: May 23, 2020 3:50 AM

Copyright 2019-present

Scott Ludwig