Yankee Doodle comes to Steven's Landing

June 5th 1781,  Cornwallis has been chasing Lafayette all through Virgina and has finally committed the deadly sin of splitting his forces in the face of the enemy.  With no relief coming from NY Cornwallis is desperate for supplies for his ragged forces. However, his supply line is stretched very thin so he has dispatched Lt. Col Simcoe with a small force to capture a large magazine store guarded by Baron Von Steuben at the convergence of the James and Rivanna rivers known as Steven's Fork.  The British will need to capture the bridge intact so that they can safely cross to capture the magazine.  Von Steuben needs to prevent them from doing this.  

The Continental forces have setup at the bridge while the engineers work furiously to  prepare the bridge to be destroyed.

The British forces moved down the road while one battalion moved around the hill to flank the Continentals. Unfortunately for Colonel Simcoe the hot June sun had taken it's toll on his troops and they were slow to obey his commands.  One company actually got very confused and headed off to the rear of the column throwing everything into confusion. Meanwhile the over the mountain boys moved up and poured a steady fire into the British as they emerged from the woods in confusion.  The British column was thrown into confusion for some time as a second company of militia moved up and poured a deadly fire into the reeling Brits.

Things were looking up for the Continentals unfortunately the experience and training of the British was starting to show.  Slowly they got themselves organized and moving on the bridge again. The Over the Mountain boys fought bravely in the face of overwhelming odds but the superior numbers took their toll and eventually the militia gave in and fled the field.  However, they managed to hold up the British column while the engineers packed the bridge with explosives.  On the Continentals left flank the British had moved through the rough terrain hoping to outflank the Continentals.  Again the militia held firm and allowed the Continental line troops to move up and outflank the British instead.  Facing stiff resistance to their front and galling fire from their flanks was just too much for the British who broke and headed back down the road.

Having finally pushed through the screen of milita the British began to move on the bridge.  Meanwhile the engineers had finally put all the explosives in place and lit the fuse.  Unfortunately, the fuse appeared to be wet and fizzled out.  As the British drew closer they tried again.  Again the fuse fizzled out.  The British began to assault the bridge itself and were driven back while the engineers reset the fuse.  This time the fuse lit but was burning slowly.  What originally looked like a huge victory for the Continentals was now looking like a win for the British.  Again, the lined up and charged the barricades but were driven back by accurate fire from the Maryland Continentals.  Finally, the British troops had enough of the continual fire from the Continentals and started to flee back down the road.  Even though the engineers never were able to get the explosives lit, the British leaving the field was enough for the Continentals to win.

We used the Black Powder rules which gave a very good game.  Dewey and I noticed that every game we have played with Black Powder has started with at least one general blundering.  We felt the results were quite accurate and the scenario was a good one.  We are looking forward to the next Black Powder game.