MALVERN HILL - Ultimate General: Civil War version .92 - Confederate Campaign #12

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The Seven Days battles ended with a tremendous roar at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862. The contending armies collided for the final time that week on ground that gave an immense advantage to the defenders-in this case McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. With the security of the James River and the powerful United States Navy at his back, McClellan elected to stop and invite battle. The Confederates, elated by their victories but frustrated by their inability to achieve truly decisive battlefield results, obliged McClellan by attacking Malvern Hill.
The hill itself was a modest elevation about 2 ½ miles north of the James River. Its strength lay not in its height, but rather in its fields of fire. Gently sloping open fields lay in front of the Union position, forcing any Confederate attacks against the hill to travel across that barren ground. McClellan unlimbered as much artillery as he could at the crest of the hill, facing in three directions. Nearly 70,000 infantry lay in support, most of them crowded in reserve on the back side of the hill.
General Lee recognized the power of Malvern Hill. In tandem with James Longstreet, one of his top subordinates, Lee devised a plan where Confederate artillery would attempt to seize control of Malvern Hill by suppressing the Union cannon there. Lee believed his infantry could assault and carry the position if they did not have to contend with the fearsome Union batteries.
The Confederate bombardment failed, but Lee’s infantry attacked anyway, thrown into the charge after a series of misunderstandings and bungled orders. Lee himself was absent when the heaviest fighting erupted. He was away looking for any alternate route that would allow him to bypass Malvern Hill. But once the attack started, Lee threw his men into the fray. Some twenty separate brigades of Southern infantry advanced across the open ground at different times. As the Confederate leaders had feared, the Federal batteries proved dominant. Most attacks sputtered and stalled well short of the hill’s crest. Occasionally McClellan’s infantry, commanded by Fitz John Porter, George Morell, and Darius Couch, sallied forward to deliver a fatal volley or two. Pieces of Confederate divisions led by D. H. Hill, Benjamin Huger, D. R. Jones, Lafayette McLaws, Richard S. Ewell, and W. H. C. Whiting advanced at different times, always without success. General John B. Magruder organized most of the attacks.
Late in the day, a few Union brigades and some fresh artillery raced to the hilltop in support. But in fact only a small segment of the Army of the Potomac saw action at Malvern Hill. The dominance of the position enabled less than one-third of the Union army to defeat a larger chunk of the Confederate army at Malvern Hill.
As with each of the other battles during the dramatic week, darkness concluded the action. Malvern Hill had demonstrated the power and efficiency of the Union artillery in particular. Confederate leaders and soldiers alike could look back on poor command and control as the principal cause of their defeat. The casualty totals were more balanced than expected for a battle in which the outcome never was in doubt. Slightly more than 5000 Confederates fell killed and wounded, while roughly 3000 Union soldiers met a similar fate.
Today Malvern Hill is the best preserved Civil War battlefield in central or southern Virginia. Nearly unaltered in appearance since 1862, the battlefield's rural setting and extensive walking trails offer an ideal environment for visitors to study the climactic battle of the Seven Days Campaign.

[@TheMartymar1976]

awesome video as always. Enjoy the history...interesting tidbit.. Gen. Macgruder received ambiguous orders from Lee to attack, which he did twice against dug in Union troops. Lee saw the carnage afterward looked at Macgruder and asked him who could have ordered such an attack. Without skipping a beat, MacGruder said "you did" and handed him the dispatch...Gen Macgruder career went south from there. ..

[@hoosieryank6731]

"In response to your oders, twice repeated."

[@korona3103]

I love these videos, such a great game! I got really snarled up on the Union left flank on this one but it pulled their forces off from the right. I managed to punch through there with my cavalry and reserves. The infantry pinned the rest of his forces against the river while cavalry took both rear objectives and captured a whole bunch of supplies. Casualty rates were about the same, 15k to 10k, which seems like about the typical ratio for these brutal assault battles.

[@ebdaniels8774]

This was timely, I'm currently reading a book about the 15th Georgia and I just started the chapter on Malvern Hill today

[@Vaikungdom]

For 2nd Bull I'd say focus on your left flank and middle position. your right won't be attacked much if at all and if it is, reinforcements will be close when they arrive. you need a good mix of arty and infantry. I've read ppl saying to withdraw to forest but I usually use the fortifications. u can defenitly use skirmishers in the far north for flanking but since u don't have any long range units of those I wouldn't recommend it. might be worth a try to put one or two infantry brigades far north across the stream to get flank fire and shoot at routing units. 2nd day you just sit back and do some small advances where u can find a good opportunity. no need to press at all.

[@Gufberg]

Only way i could win this was through the power of cheese; inferior numbers with veterans held them at the initial defensive point. My left flank got pushed back while the right eventually bend their lines 90 degrees. I took the initial point and only gained the two at the back because a cavalry unit of mine routed in that direction and took them while their troops were busy holding my frontline back lol. Didn't feel like a clean victory; but after 3-4 attempts i just rolled with it.

[@ardalla535]

So far I've tried this 6 times. The best I got was a draw, but my forces were so decimated I could not continue the game. I had no cavalry, about half the artillery he has here, and about 30% less infantry. So it was very difficult. At one point I sort of gave up in desperation and put everything I had on the west side of the river and moved against the woods there and then the artillery. I managed to take both rear flags and with a minute left I charged the center just to see what would happen. With 30sec left I controlled the last flag, but then my infantry routed. In order to get an army of this size I would have to have more funds. I can't get that without putting a lot of pts into politics. But if I do, my army org suffers and I still end up with a small army. Interesting that he managed to get Abercrombie to retreat out of the woods with his infantry on the east bank and the unit was not decimated by the massed artillery. With an army this size, you are not going to lose, so yeh, the strategy is just to keep loses to a minimum.

[@txnetcop]

Malvern Hill was a blood-bath anyway but your casualties were reasonably low. Great video and history review.

[@Muckylittleme]

Your arty sitting in the open getting all those kills is precisely why this game needs multiplayer. AI, as good as it is for a complex RTG such as this, just doesn't see obvious flanks or threats. He marched his troops with flank exposed to those cannon a dozen times and could easily have taken them out or at least forced them back so they couldn't fire cannister.

[@Tritian4]

I sent a couple of cav units and my second corp on their right. I also sent some of my first on their left. I was well into their flanks before I fell on them from the front. I actually had them so well sweeped on the flanks that I actually had my second corp firing on their fortifications from behind. Hell every battle I have fought I have completely massacred the union army. None were left standing.

[@MrBNutzer]

In my opinion, you put your two brigades from your right flank coming out the wood too early into battle. They should support for flanking fire while the Union troops try to defend your major attack on their defense line. Always hurts to see troops down there in the swamp and taking full broadside of fire;o) Its going to be interessting to see how you manage 2nd Bull Run. Cause if i remember right, you dont really need to take Henry Hill for victory. Hold Stone Rigde and inflict 20% more casaulties on the Union side is enough for the win. See many who get in trouble on their very left flank. Just put some snipers and one artillery unit over the river to flank the incoming Union troops and the fight moves into middle which you can control it and support with troops much better. Should have fight this way at 2nd Bull Run, more economically cause i took Henry Hill.

[@Vaikungdom]

Nice battle. You can defenitly do better though. I used my second Corps to go around all the way east and over the bridge and hit the Union arty and hitting em from behind. 21k union casualties to 7,5k for me. Just finished Chickamuaga in my new playthrough. Good luck with 2nd bull run, its hard for CFS for sure..

[@sasha642]

I was almost identical to you