Background
The Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill (sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of Camden) was a battle of the American Revolutionary War fought on April 25, 1781, near Camden, South Carolina. A small American force under Nathanael Greene occupying Hobkirk’s Hill, north of Camden, was attacked by British troops led by Francis Rawdon. After a fierce clash, Greene retreated, leaving Rawdon’s smaller force in possession of the hill.
Despite the victory, Rawdon soon fell back to Camden and two weeks later found it necessary to abandon Camden and withdraw toward Charleston, South Carolina. The battle was one of four contests in which Greene was defeated, though his overall strategy was successful in depriving the British of all South Carolina except Charleston. The battlefield marker is located at Broad Street and Greene Street two miles north of the center of modern Camden.
On the morning of April 25, 1781, Rawdon was still under the impression that the Continental army was without its artillery. At approximately 9:00 am he left the security of the Camden fortifications with 900 troops. Unknown to Rawdon, Carrington had returned to Hobkirk’s Hill that morning, together with the artillery and provisions, which were distributed to the Continental troops. At around 11 am, while many of the Continentals were occupied with cooking and washing clothes, their advanced pickets detected the British forces which had gained the American left by a long march skirting a swamp next to the ridge occupied by the Continental Army.
The advanced pickets, under Captain Robert Kirkwood, were able to delay the British advance giving Greene time to give orders and line his forces up for battle. He placed the Virginia Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Campbell on the extreme right with another Virginia Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Hawes to their left. On the extreme left, Greene placed the 5th Maryland Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Ford, with the 1st Maryland Regiment commanded by John Gunby to their right. The artillery was placed in the center with North Carolina militia in the rear. The three 6-pound cannons and 40 Virginia gunners were directed by Colonel Charles Harrison.
Having extricated his forces from the woods and forced back the pickets, Rawdon arranged his forces and slowly advanced up the ridge towards the waiting Continentals. Greene, perceiving the British forces were presenting a narrow front, ordered an attack. He instructed Campbell on the right to wheel his men to the left and engage the British on their flank with Ford to take his men and make a similar movement on the left. Greene ordered the two remaining regiments in the center to advance with bayonets and confront the enemy head on, while Washington was to take his cavalry around the British left flank and attack the enemy in the rear. The forceful movement of the Americans and the unexpected contribution of their artillery to the exchange inflicted heavy casualties on the British, but their line held.
During the advance of the 1st Maryland on the British left, Captain William Beatty Jr., who was in command to the right of the 1st Maryland regiment, was killed causing his company to stop their advance. Gunby ordered his men to stop their advance and fall back with the intention of reforming their line. At this time, Benjamin Ford of the 5th Maryland was mortally wounded, which threw his troops into disorder. When the Continental flank began to fall apart, Lord Rawdon and the Volunteers of Ireland (Rawdon’s Personal Regiment) charged. The Maryland troops rallied briefly to fire a few rounds and then fled. Lord Rawdon, although outnumbered nearly two to one, and without artillery, took the field.
The Game
TJ reached out to me to see if we could schedule a last minute Rebels and Patriots game. He had a whole bunch of 25mm painted AWI figures he had recently picked up and wanted to take them for a spin. I also wanted to see if maybe Men Who Would be King might not work a little better for the period than Rebels and Patriots (same author).
I did not have much time to put something tougher, so I looked at some scenarios online. The Regimental Fire and Fury variants have a number. I chose Hobkirk’s Hill, as it was small and would be very easy to set up (basically a battle on a hill in the middle of the woods.
I had to make a few adjustments. The victory conditions would be based on total points. The British would get one point if they caused 15% casualties on the Americans. The Americans would get one victory point if they caused 33% casualties on the British. The British could get one point if they had a unit on the hill, within eighteen inches of the road, at that end of the game. The game would be twelve turns long.
Unit sized were loosely based on the scenario strengths, with small units being six models, medium units twelve models and large units twenty models. Cavalry would be four models. Artillery would be a single model with variable crew.
The set up was per the scenario, with the British setting up eighteen inches from the continentals (with the exception of the skirmish screen).
We got going with the British taking the first turn and marching forward. The British advance got bogged down against the continental skirmishers. The allowed the continentals to maneuver their position to the left and threaten the British right flank, pining that force.
The British pushed forward into the fire and took heavy casualties on their forward units. The fire kept coming and the British threw in the towel, determining they could not push the continental line back. With that, the game ended in an unhistorical American defeat.
Well, that took a bit over an hour. Since we had the players, one of the players switched sides and we tried it again!
This time, the attack plan was a little different. The British would move as fast as possible to outflank the hill before the continentals could advance, using their artillery and cavalry to slow any Continental counter actions.
The attack got going with a bang and moved forward up the hill. The Continentals, with their poorer command, could not react fast enough. The British were able to mass their units on single continental regiments and rout them off the field.
The game went on until turn nine. With their reduced strength, the Continentals had no hope of throwing the British off the hill. The Continentals threw in the towel, after they had taken heavy losses and we ended in a historical result on the replay!
I would have to say that while the game worked well, it took a lot of game master interventions on my part to keep the period feel. I would have to say that the rules as written just do not work out for the period, so we will probably go back to Rebels and Patriots for the skirmish games and Valour and Fortitude for the small battles.
- Manteuffel