FORT RIDGELY (September 17th, 2007)
run and AAR'ed by David MacRae (a fine chap!)
August 22, 1862. The Sioux have risen in Minnesota and are killing
every white person they can catch. Hundreds have gathered at Fort
Ridgely for protection. Unfortunately an
expedition from Fort Ridgely
was massacred a few days
ago and the commander was killed. About a
dozen soldiers have managed to return to the fort to supplement the
meager garrison. The Sioux attacked two days ago with a smaller force
as the rest were attacking the town of New Ulm. Yesterday there was a
terrific rainstorm. Now the Sioux are back. They have been unable to
set the building ablaze with their fire arrows because of the rain
but now, as the old warriors look on from a safe distance, the young
bucks are about to assault the fort.
The fort is defended by 12 men and officers of C company and 9 of B
company of the 5th Minnesota infantry
armed with U.S. Army rifle
muskets, 12 Renfield
Rangers armed with muskets, 6 artillery pieces
(2 x 12# howitzers, 2 x 12# Napoleon Guns, 1 x 6# gun and 1 x 24#
gun.) The are also 6 civilians armed with shotguns and about 100
terrified women, children and old men
taking up space in the
buildings and in the
middle of the compound. Barricades have been
thrown up in the spaces between the buildings .
Outside the fort are War chiefs, Mankato, Little Crow and Brave Eagle
each with 8 bands of 12 warriors each. It's going to be a hard day at
Fort Ridgely.
The Sioux start long range skirmishing as they creep up on the fort,
moving quickly to come within range to charge.
A 12# Napoleon roars out with devastating effect as Ordinance
Sergeant John Jones sacrifices crew at other guns to man a full crew
at that gun. Two Indians from one of Little Crows bands fall and
after a desultory return fire they retreat to a ridge line to
regroup. To the east the 24#er rings out and a band of Mankato's
Indians retreat to reconsider the advisability of assaulting the guns
with the "rotten balls (canister shells)".
Meanwhile the Sioux were returning fire with little effect against
the heavy barricades but were still advancing and many had reached
the barn and cabins that were outside the fort perimeter. Suddenly
several bands assaulted the fort from all sides. From the south the
Indians were so numerous they couldn't all reach the barricades and
several began taking shots from the barn. The cannons shouted out
again and two bands lost so many warriors they completely left the
field. As the Indians assaulted the South
barricade the shotguns
silenced the Indian yells with a terrible (12 dice) retort.
Three more bands retreated to the cover of the
ridge but hand to hand
fighting was taking place
along the south, north and east barricades.
The Sioux had some success as they were excellent close range
fighters but continued to fail their medicine rolls before they had
cleared any of the barricades as both Mankato and Little Crow fell in
the assaults. Two bands did however hold firm as more bands were
advancing on the fort. A volley from the barn managed to kill three
of the civilians huddled in the center of the fort and ... reel two ran
out and the projectionist could not find the final reel of the
film.
Unfortunately attendance at the club was low this week and we had
only two players to play the Sioux one of them being your narrator
who should have been managing things as a referee instead of playing
and we started at least a half hour late than we should have because
it took us longer to get to the school than it should have.
The soldiers were still staunchly defending
the fort but there were still
many Sioux left and moving forward and some of those who had
retreated were making their medicine rolls to return. One barricade
was still engaged so the soldiers had lost the benefit of their hard
cover there, but were holding well against all the other attacks.
In the end it was just too close to call.
We'll run this scenario again when we are likely
to have more players. I also had discovered at the last minute that I
had only 1/2 as many Indians as I should have and was frantically
painting right up until the time I left for the game so the pictures
may look a bit helter skelter. Matt and Bob and Dave the Toy Dealer
all played extremely well and I had lots of fun.