Battle of Rachdale

Battle of Rachdale
Part of Vionnan Civil War
Edward Hornigold's The Rallying of the Ninth, Prince Harold rallies the Ninth Regiment to rejoin the battle
Date 12th October 1806 Location Rachdale, Earldom of Brumley Empire of Vionna Status Vionnan Victory Death of Prince Harold Rotail
Belligerents
Empire of Vionna	Frankenlischian Rebels
Commanders and leaders
Empress Elizabeth Jamie Cerly	Prince Harold Rotail † Edward of Gestoria  (WIA) William IV of Briceport Abraham Edmont
Strength
64,000	45,000
Casualties and losses
9,000 Killed and Wounded	11,000 Killed and Wounded 21 Guns Captured

The Battle of Rachdale was a major battle of the Vionnan Civil War fought on 12th October 1806 at the farmstead of Rachdale in the Earldom of Brumley. The Imperial forces of Empress Elizabeth Cerly met an army of Frankenlischian rebels commanded by Prince Harold Rotail and Duke Edward Picroft while Rotail was marching on Frankenlisch. The rebel army was defeated by the Imperial Army in a fierce engagement lasting ten hours.

Background

The rebels had began their campaign with victory at the Battle of St Edmunds and Prince Rotail had divided his force following the battle to march on Frankenlisch and Lawrenceburgh simultaneously. Since St Edmunds, the Prince had not encountered any major Imperial units. The majority of the rebel light cavalry was in the Riverland and the Prince's army was left without a proper scouting force. His portion of the rebel army was made up primarily of troops from Gestoria and Briceport and morale was high, the army was keen to avenge the rebels of 1805 and rumours of Imperial atrocities were widespread. Prince Harold's force was made up of 50,000 troops of mixed quality. As the army passed Brumley, the historical seat of the House of Rotail, Harold detached a division of 5,000 troops to garrison the city and provide a place of retreat should the march on Frankenlisch meet with defeat.

With the rebel advance meeting little resistance, Prince Harold and his commanders planned to invest Kamber Castle with a small force, capture Durolipons and cross the Emerald Channel with their main force. Once the channel was crossed, there would be no more obstacles on the road to Frankenlisch. The Prince gambled on the support of the local people as, if the garrison of Frankenlisch was in full strength, his army alone could not invest the entire city. Brumley was reached on 1st October and the army rested outside the city for three days. The Marquess of Roves took command of the city's garrison and immediately got to work raising new forces from the surrounding region whilst Prince Harold took the 45,000 troops of his main force and continued the march on Frankenlisch.

Prince Harold's advance was observed by light cavalry scouts of the Imperial Army. Colonel Felix Piper of the Imperial 7th Light Dragoons was responsible for keeping the rebel army under watch and sent hourly reports to the Empress about the rebel movements. Due to the lack of light cavalry and skirmishers in Prince Harold's army, Piper's scouts went mostly unseen. The Imperial commanders assumed that Brumley was the rebel's main objective. The city and its surrounding lands were the ancestral lands of Prince Harold's family and, in striking distance of Frankenlisch, the assumption was that the rebels would build their strength there in preparation for a renewed campaign in 1807. When the rebel army arrived at Brumley in full strength, these assumptions seemed to have been vindicated and the Imperial forces began to assemble a seige train to invest the city, but Prince Harold's true intentions swiftly became clear when the majority of the rebel army marched north with him on 4th October.

Well-aware of the dire mood of the Frankenlischian people, the Imperial commanders agreed that allowing Prince Harold to march unimpeded could have disastrous consequences. Though the majority of the Imperial Army was in the Riverland with the Earl of Tarringway, the decision was made to march swiftly to oppose the Frankenlischian advance. In order to speed up her forces, the Empress detached her growing siege train and a portion of the army's infantry and supply train at Esterfield. After leaving its encampments west of Frankenlisch on 6th October, it took the Imperial army five days to march 68 miles to Kamber Castle. In that time, the rebel army moved only 20 miles, slowed down by a large supply train and the necessity to train its inexperienced troops on the march.

Preceding Movements: 11th October 1806

The opposing armies came within sight of each other on 11th October. Forewarned of the rebel approach by Colonel Piper, the Empress had already positioned her army on high ground south of Kamber Castle in its full battle array. Once the presence of the Imperial Army in force had been established, Prince Harold continued his advance regardless - then checked it while still four miles away from the Imperial line. The Prince was not yet willing to engage the Imperial Army in open battle and turned to march south, hoping to draw the Empress away from Kamber and towards more advantageous ground for the rebels.

Prelude

Battlefield

The battle took place directly east of Brumley itself on plain farmland at the farmstead of Rachdale, due south of Kamber Castle where Prince Rotail planned to cross the Emerald Channel. Empress Cerly made her headquarters at a stable which no longer exists. Prince Rotail and Duke Picroft set up their headquarters at the Crowned Stag, a country inn which exists today between two prongs of a forked road. Various tiny farmsteads and hamlets scattered the area, which were collectively known as Rachdale and represented strategic points during the battle.

Opposing Forces

More Info: Order of Battle Rachdale

The 64,000 Imperials with 68 guns were opposed by 45,000 rebels with 42 guns. Although many small rebel units attempted to reinforce Prince Rotail, none succeeded.

The Imperial Army was organised into twelve divisions of around 6,000 men each. There were nine divisions of infantry, two of cavalry and one 'special division' which included mostly skirmishers but also several companies of engineers. Artillery was separated from the divisions and all twelve batteries came under the direct command of Benjamin Pearce, General of Artillery. Imperial troops were almost homogenous when it came to equipment and they were uniformed well, this, rather than their numbers, was the strength of the Imperial Army.

Whereas the Imperials were well equipped and supplied, the rebel army had recently ended a long trek through the Riverland and up through northern Gestoria. The army was lacking in supplies and had some discrepancies in equipment but all-in-all were in relatively good shape. The 45,000 men were divided into Corps and Divisions. The Briceport Corps of 15,000 were in the centre, led by their lord. Picroft's Corps was on the right and on the left was Edmont's Corps. Each corps contained three divisions of 5,000 men each and divisions contained foot, horse and artillery.

Battle

Empress Cerly opened the battle with a suppressing barrage. Due to the expert logistical skills of Benjamin Pearce, her artillery commander, the Imperial guns had been placed swiftly and they were in action by 9 am. The artillery fire, mainly from long guns but howitzers were also deployed, screened an advance by the Imperial Special Division. General of Division Archibald Hendrik deployed companies of skirmishers to each of the farmsteads and hamlets of Rachdale, supported by engineers to reinforce the positions.

The bombardment failed to force Prince Harold to pull his forces back and instead forced his hand and he ordered an advance. The Briceport Corps were ordered forward and, screened by their light infantry and with dragoons on the wings, they advanced against the Imperial positions. The Imperials had planned for the artillery bombardment, which continued as the Count of Briceport's Corps advanced, to force the rebels to pull back until the Imperial positions in Rachdale could be reinforced. By starting the advance early, Prince Harold checked this move by the Empress and the advance of Lord Brice's Corps, while costly, particularly to his dragoons, succeeded in ejecting the Imperials from their forward positions and many pieces of entrenching equipment were captured.

Rotail's guns were quickly emplaced, atop the ridgeline where his headquarters at the Crowned Stag sat, and were brought to bear against Empress Cerly's Third and Fourth Infantry Divisions which had begun a swift counterattack. The two divisions marched against Lord Brice's left flank which was marked by a small barn and farmhouse and succeeded in turning his flanks as the Eighth Infantry Division made a manoeuvre against his right from the cover of a cornfield. The other two corps of the rebel army were quickly ordered forward, Rotail intending to repulse this understrength Imperial attack and sweep against his mother's forces by her left flank, rolling up the battle line. His guns were redirected to fire against the main Imperial line on a wide arc, denying Brice further artillery support. Runners reached Picroft and Edmont at about the same time but both officers took different approaches.

General Abraham Edmont was a cautious man, educated by the book at Gestoria's largest military academy before the Vionnan conquest and he directed an excellent textbook advance against the Imperial right flank, deploying forward skirmishers and keeping his cavalry on his left to threaten the Imperials. He advanced with his staff at the rear of his corps, well out of the range of Imperial fire and under the cover of a battery of 12pdr guns.

Duke Edward Picroft of Gestoria was entirely different, educated at court and raised on stories of medieval glory, he was young and fiery and led his corps from to front atop his white thoroughbred. His corps was arranged by regiments in solid lines and blocks and advanced in these dense formations against the Imperial line which was steadily being pounded at by cannon and howitzers. In contrast to Edmont's attack, Picroft's was badly screened as he neglected to deploy his skirmishers to the front and kept his cavalry in reserve. Major General Faulkner, who commanded Picroft's Third Division, wrote after the battle: It was messy, it was dense, we were pummeled from across the front by infantry and cannon. But by God it was glorious.

The Imperial staff begged Empress Cerly to allow the Imperial line to advance and meet the rebels but Cerly forbade it, as did her brother. The Imperial line remained sitting until the last possible moment, preserving the stamina of the Imperial troops, they stood to just after noon and began firing. Seven brigades of infantry were deployed with two in reserve and the cavalry was on each flank. On the Imperial right flank, the cavalry was prevented from attacking due to Edmont's cautious positioning of his cavalry, but on the left flank, Picroft's decision to keep his cavalry in reserve meant that General of Brigade Arthur Rackham was able to advance his brigade, consisting of lancers, dragoons and line cavalry against the advancing rebels.