22nd Massachusetts Brigade Reporting

Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth, commander, of the 22nd Massachusetts Brigade is prepared to devise a cunning plan that will push the Redcoats back into the ocean and, hopefully, send them packing to their mad King George. If only he could get his men to follow the plan it will be a smashing success.

As you may guess by that horrible attempt at fiction I made progress today to create a hybrid historical/fictional setting for my AWI army. This was first described in War of American Independence – Black Powder Style. Many thanks need to go to Tilman who recently prodded me to design support for my fictitious paint scheme. Thanks also need to be given to Henry Hyde for sharing the secrets to injecting personality into a campaign like he did with The Wars of the Faltenian Succession.

The 22nd Massachusetts Brigade

Why 22nd? Why not 91st or 43rd? I like the number 22. No other reason than that. I chose Massachusetts because I live there and my army is a militia army. What that means for army composition is a majority of the units will be militia with some Continental Army units tossed into the mix.

Composition

I decided to create a predominantly infantry brigade. There will be four infantry regiments, mainly militia but with some Continental Army, plus two artillery batteries of one gun apiece, and one cavalry regiment.

Breathing Life into Pewter

Each regiment and battery needs leadership. In Part VII and Part VIII of The Wars of the Faltenian Succession (see early issues of Battlegames Magazine for details) the topic of adding personality to an army is covered. The way this is handled in that campaign is by naming the commanders and creating ratings for each commander in certain attributes. Intelligence, Initiative, Courage, Charisma, Strength, and Health are produced by rolling a percentage die (d100) and writing down the result.

For my purposes the result is below (many thanks to my wife for helping to name the commanders):

(Int=Intelligence, Init=Initiative, Cour=Courage, Cha=Charisma, Str=Strength, Hlth=Health)

The more I treated these names as real people the more they actually came alive.  Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth is a military tactician and strategist of the highest order.  Massachusetts Bay is lucky to have him creating military strategy for the 22nd.  But, once the plan is planned he’s more likely to sit still perfecting his plan than actually enacting it.  Nathaniel isn’t afraid to lead from the front but his men hate him for it.  They think he’s nothing more than a pencil pusher who has no place in the front lines.  Everything he tries explodes in his face.  He’s can handle the rigors of warfare, the training, the marching, the tireless activity.  But, he doesn’t like to do any of that.

Each commander has his own story to tell.  Colonel Thomas Bradford is liked by his men for his willingness to debate ethics day after day after day after day.  Captain Roger Ayer has the strength of eight oxen and routinely pushes his 6pdr into place all on his own instead of waiting for help from the crew.  Captain Thaddeus Glockenspiel is beloved by all in the brigade but is secretly afraid of combat.  He joined the artillery corp in the hopes of killing all the redcoats before they get too close.  Colonel Abraham Turner is always sick.  He wheezes, coughs, sputters, sneezes, and exudes disease.  His men hate him for his stupidity and his illness.  Colonel William Tinselbrock is a weakling that turns tail at the slightest breeze.  Lastly, Colonel Enoch Smith.  He’s dumber than a brick, needing tons of time to understand the simplest order.  As soon as he knows what needs doing he’ll fight to the death with his brute strength and glass jaw.

The 22nd Massachusetts is nobody’s idea of the ideal fighting machine.  They’re inept, prone to idleness, arrogant, and timid.  Their faults are many.  Can they overcome these faults and give freedom to everyone in the 13 colonies?  Let’s hope so.