Appomattox game: the last attack of the Army of Northern Virginia
One road west, Federal cavalry across it, and whatever infantry may be behind. Appomattox closes Grant's Campaigns in Civy War, on a map drawn of the two armies' positions that morning.
One scenario, playable from either side. Every battle runs five minutes on the clock against a Green, Regular or Veteran enemy: the attacker has to break the line before nightfall, the defender has to hold.
Appomattox
Grant's Campaigns
April 9, 1865 · dawn
As the Union, hold the Lynchburg road and close the last door. Crook's dismounted troopers, with Mackenzie's, Devin's and Custer's cavalry, stand across it. Hold until Ord's infantry, marching all night, comes up behind them: Foster's and Turner's divisions of the XXIV Corps, Birney's division of United States Colored Troops, then Griffin's V Corps and Chamberlain's brigade.
As the Confederacy, the attacker, break through to the west. Gordon's corps, Grimes's, Walker's and Evans's divisions, with Fitzhugh Lee's and Rosser's cavalry, drives at the road toward Lynchburg and the mountains, while Longstreet's men hold the rear. If there is infantry behind the cavalry, it is over.
The battle
On April 2, 1865, Grant broke the lines at Petersburg, and Lee's army abandoned Petersburg and Richmond. For a week it ran west, starving, with Union columns racing alongside. On the evening of April 8 Sheridan's cavalry got ahead of it and seized the supply trains at Appomattox Station.
At dawn on April 9 Gordon's attack drove back Sheridan's troopers. Then the cavalry parted to reveal Ord's Army of the James and Griffin's V Corps in line of battle, the United States Colored Troops of Birney's division among them. Gordon sent word that he had fought his corps to a frazzle, and Lee said there was nothing left but to go and see General Grant.
That afternoon, in Wilmer McLean's parlor, Grant wrote out generous terms: the men paroled and sent home, officers keeping their sidearms, every man who claimed a horse or mule keeping it for the spring planting, and rations sent across the lines for 25,000 hungry men. When Union batteries began firing salutes he had them stopped. The other Confederate armies surrendered within weeks.
Free or paid
Paid: part of Grant's Campaigns, a one-time purchase of six battles from Champion Hill to Appomattox (Fort Donelson, the first, is free). The map is the period map of Appomattox Court House showing the positions of the two armies on April 9, 1865, from the Library of Congress.
Thirteen battles, the Drill Field and the Field Manual are free. The Historical Campaigns, Grant's Campaigns and The Western Campaigns are optional one-time purchases that restore on every device signed in to the same Apple ID.
