The Battle of Davis' Smithy 1777

Yesterday found me playing the role of ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne commanding the forces of Congress in an American War of Independence game set in 1777.

Sir William Howe is marching through New Jersey with the aim of capturing the Congressional capital at Philadelphia. The Americans have moved to intercept the Crown Forces and to frustrate their march on to Pennsylvania.

Assuming that the Crown forces will advance on the flanks (most probably their left) Wayne deploys a small covering force in the centre. Generals Adam Stephen and John Armstrong are conducting flank marches with their militiamen to attack on the Crown right and left respectively.

Wilhelm von Knyphausen leads a strong force of Hessians supported by the Queen’s Rangers to advance up the Middletown road on the Crown left.

Nathaniel Greene’s Continentals deploy to block Knyphausen’s advance but they are sorely outnumbered.

General Cornwallis moves out to set up a blocking position on the British right.

It is not long before General Stephen’s militia arrive on that flank and they begin to engage the British at long range with their light gun and riflemen.

Confident that Stephen’s men are holding the British right in check and that the enemy will not advance in the centre, Wayne starts moving troops over to the American right to support Greene. The fight flows back and forth with success and failure on both sides.

Despite the reinforcements, Nathanial Greene’s continentals are beginning to feel the pressure and are slowly driven back by the advancing Hessians.

Long range shooting from Adam Stephen’s militia on the other flank succeeds in driving back a British battalion. Cornwallis fails to rally them and they keep retiring. Then the American riflemen supported by their light gun sees off yet another unit. Encouraged by their success the militiamen advance in force only to be met by a withering fire from the British regulars which stops the American advance in its tracks.

Wayne by now has moved all his men from the centre over to the right to support Greene.

His light dragoons cross Spotswood Brook and charge the Hessians but the enemy volley, supported by a light gun off to the flank, drives them off.

At this point John Armstrong’s militia arrive on the Crown left. This should have taken the sting out of the Hessian attack on that flank. However, as Cornwallis is successfully holding the Crown right, General Howe is able to lead his strong reserve to meet them. In the firefights that ensue most of Armstrong’s militia are driven off.

Rallying his remaining men Armstrong steadies them to receive a bayonet charge from the British grenadiers. The militiamen fight valiantly, forcing one unit of grenadiers to retire, but in the end they are overwhelmed and driven from the field.

With dusk falling it is beginning to look a little bit sticky for the Americans. Armstrong has been driven off and some of Knyphausen’s men have begun to break though the American lines along the Middletown road to the west. It will take a concerted push to prevent the Crown forces from continuing their march on to Philadelphia. In the nick of time Wayne’s light dragoons and a unit of continentals charge the enemy and break them.

Technically the result is a draw but Wayne writes a hasty dispatch to Congress telling of his victory over the Crown forces. So it is celebrated as such.

It was a great game set up by Peter O’Toole using his Up the Long Ladder rules.