I sent a link of this picture to a friend of mine who's a Grant biographer and, by extension, something of a civil war buff. The only one that he could positively identify in addition to Sheridan and Custer was Wesley Merritt on the far left. He thinks it might be a picture of Army of the Potomac cavalry leaders from 1864 (which would make the Birney identification problematic).
War simulations got pretty advanced around the time of the Civil War, did they not? Perhaps so gronards could comment... it would be cool to "play" some of the actual war sims the generals used...
In the mid-Nineteenth Century only the Prussians were using the "Kriegspiel" technique, so the Civil War generals would not have used anything like wargames in their decisoon-making. It was only after the unexpected success of the Prussians in 1866 and 1870 that other nations began to look at some of the reasons behind their success scuh as the general staff system and use of railroads. One of the Prussian techniques that got some limited attention was wargaming, and there were some small American steps towards using them on occasion.
In the mid-Nineteenth Century only the Prussians were using the "Kriegspiel" technique, so the Civil War generals would not have used anything like wargames in their decisoon-making. It was only after the unexpected success of the Prussians in 1866 and 1870 that other nations began to look at some of the reasons behind their success scuh as the general staff system and use of railroads. One of the Prussian techniques that got some limited attention was wargaming, and there were some small American steps towards using them on occasion.
So when did wargamming as tool for war take-off (with anyone besides the Prussians)? Was it before WWI?
There are further questions I have, and maybe you can point me to a resource on the web for them...
For example: you can think of "tactical" sims (for within one battle) and large "strategic" sims that involve an entire battle or campaign... I seem to remember that miniatures were used for some type of tactical simulations or training in Europe before WWI, and I do remember something about WWI war-rooms with large maps detailing troops and supplies...
I guess that's a major difference... detailed maps versus "what if" gaming....
Wargaming in the form of refereed battles were being used by most major powers by WWI. The games were refereed by officers, rather than result tables, and often suffered from rewarding whatever had worked in the last war.
H.G. Wells wrote Little Wars in 1913, and that is seen as the first civilian attempt at a simulated battle. He said friends in the military who tried it said it was more realistic than the wargames command practiced because it was much more chaotic, and no plan survived the first shot.
I don't remember who wrote the first well regarded miniature naval rules.
The games were refereed by officers, rather than result tables, and often suffered from rewarding whatever had worked in the last war.
I don't disagree with your comments, Jeremy, but let's bear in mind that result tables are based on what worked in the last war as well. Wargame designers have no advantage over military officers in predicting the course of future wars.
