04-16-2021, 08:34 AM
I set up a Civil War game
three color map, 2000 counters.
It was July 1, 1863,
I marched the gray counters of the 42nd Mississippi,
including William Bluford Holland, my great great grandfather,
along with the rest of Davis and Archer’s brigades
up Chambersburg Pike towards Gettysburg
and ran into the blue counters of Devin’s New Yorkers
with their breech-loading carbines.
We pushed them off the forested bluff hexes of Herr Ridge
at a cost of over 900 men,
but Union reinforcements were arriving,
and they had another nice set of ridge hexes to defend.
I looked at WBH, he looked at me,
we saw where this was going.
He was destined to die
from a stray bullet on Sunday, July 4
after the carnage had ended,
after surviving Pickett’s charge the day before,
before Lee’s retreat.
I thought the first day’s slaughter
might make him amenable
to walk out of the game with me,
but he shook his head and turned back.
I had no heart to play
God any more that day,
And put the game away.
(mmore than 8 lines, so Sioux me
)
three color map, 2000 counters.
It was July 1, 1863,
I marched the gray counters of the 42nd Mississippi,
including William Bluford Holland, my great great grandfather,
along with the rest of Davis and Archer’s brigades
up Chambersburg Pike towards Gettysburg
and ran into the blue counters of Devin’s New Yorkers
with their breech-loading carbines.
We pushed them off the forested bluff hexes of Herr Ridge
at a cost of over 900 men,
but Union reinforcements were arriving,
and they had another nice set of ridge hexes to defend.
I looked at WBH, he looked at me,
we saw where this was going.
He was destined to die
from a stray bullet on Sunday, July 4
after the carnage had ended,
after surviving Pickett’s charge the day before,
before Lee’s retreat.
I thought the first day’s slaughter
might make him amenable
to walk out of the game with me,
but he shook his head and turned back.
I had no heart to play
God any more that day,
And put the game away.
(mmore than 8 lines, so Sioux me
)