Chancellorsville: Bloody May, 1863

Chancellorsville: Bloody May, 1863 is a two-player wargame simulating Jackson’s infamous flank attack that occurred west of the Chancellor House (Chancellorsville) on May 2, 1863. As the Confederate player, you must try to crush Hooker’s unsuspecting army. As the Union player, you must regroup from the initial shock of the blow, hold onto the Chancellor House, and counter-attack against Lee’s outnumbered forces.

Following the debacle at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, President Lincoln replaced Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac with Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Hooker came up with one of the most audacious flanking maneuvers of the war. Leaving two corps at Fredericksburg to pin Lee, he would march the rest of his army north and west, cross the Rapidan River, and place himself at Chancellorsville. The move, if successful, would place the Army of Northern Virginia between two Union armies, ready to be crushed as if in a vise. The opening move worked, but then Hooker sat still as if waiting (or daring) for Lee to attack him. Lee did indeed attack. But the move was so unconventional as to catch Hooker completely by surprise. Lee divided his forces in the face of the enemy—a textbook no-no—not once, but twice! First, he left a group at Fredericksburg to delay any Union crossing in that area. Then, with his remaining forces, he left only two divisions in front of Hooker, while the remainder of his army under Jackson (28,000 strong) marched around the Union right and attacked them in the rear at sunset on May 2, 1863.

CBM is an old-fashioned beer and pretzels game that is not burdened with cumbersome command & control or supply rules.

Paul Koenig's Bloody Civil War Series is based upon the intermediate system of Avalon Hill's Gettysburg 1977.