023-620805-[A]BatonRge+Navy.30 - WDS Forgotten Campaigns

(Alternative 30 minute turns) Perhaps the most notable thing about this battle is that both armies were sick. Summer in Mississippi did not pick sides. Malaria, dysentery, cholera,and sundry other exotic diseases laid low yanks and rebs alike. A brigade of the U.S. 19th Corps, under BrGen Thomas Williams, had landed at Baton Rouge, the state capitol of Louisiana, as a part of a campaign that had begun with the capture of New Orleans and was supposed to culminate with the capture of Vicksburg. A Confederate corps under MajGen John C Breckinrdige was dispatched to recapture the place. The scenario begins when the union pickets raise the alarm: "Johnnies out in the fog!" Breckinridge had naval support from the ironclad C.S.S. Arkansas, which made a collision with the U.S.S. Essex inevitable. Reference: "The Battle of Baton Rouge" by William A Spedale.