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Arcer Bush Wars: Difference between revisions
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→1797 - Sustained Inland Raiding and Northern Expeditions
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==== Battle of Loughton ==== | ==== Battle of Loughton ==== | ||
[[File:Battle of Loughton.png|thumb|250x250px|Mid-19th century artist's depiction of Thompson's column sneaking up on Tewekami's warband during the Battle of Loughton. ]] | [[File:Battle of Loughton.png|thumb|250x250px|Mid-19th century artist's depiction of Thompson's column sneaking up on Tewekami's warband during the Battle of Loughton. ]] | ||
Correspondence from Thompson's personal records in the [[Arcer National Archives]] highlights the arrival of a rider to the column informing them of an impending attack on Loughton. "''Upon reaching a small copse of trees, I ordered our number of men [400] to make camp and rest as we had been on the march for two nights since firing the native camps. A rider appeared on the horizon, and upon being hailed and recognized as Carnish, informed us of a local warband making for Loughton. I ordered the Serjeants Major to break camp immediately, and we set off again on the march for Loughtown."'' Heading this warband was Tawaskame's brother, Tewekami, who sought vengeance for his slain brother. | Correspondence from Thompson's personal records in the [[Arcer National Archives]] highlights the arrival of a rider to the column informing them of an impending attack on Loughton. "''Upon reaching a small copse of trees, I ordered our number of men [400] to make camp and rest as we had been on the march for two nights since firing the native camps. A rider appeared on the horizon, and upon being hailed and recognized as Carnish, informed us of a local warband making for Loughton. I ordered the Serjeants Major to break camp immediately, and we set off again on the march for Loughtown."'' Heading this warband was Tawaskame's brother, Tewekami, who sought vengeance for his slain brother. | ||
Thompson's column intercepted the tribesmen just a few kilometers from Loughton, catching many by surprise as they overran the sentries and pickets and plunged into a melee with the Indigenous warriors. In the ensuing combat, twenty men of the militia were killed, but three to four times that number A'awaskan warriors were killed and many more wounded. Thompson consolidated his forces and resupplied the garrison at Loughton, who were grateful that the Arcer Loyal Militia had headed off such a large contingent of Indigenous peoples. After burying their dead in Loughton Cemetery, the two militia forces parted ways, Thompson returning with his men to Kurst. | Thompson's column intercepted the tribesmen just a few kilometers from Loughton, catching many by surprise as they overran the sentries and pickets and plunged into a melee with the Indigenous warriors. In the ensuing combat, twenty men of the militia were killed, but three to four times that number A'awaskan warriors were killed and many more wounded. Thompson consolidated his forces and resupplied the garrison at Loughton, who were grateful that the Arcer Loyal Militia had headed off such a large contingent of Indigenous peoples. After burying their dead in Loughton Cemetery, the two militia forces parted ways, Thompson returning with his men to Kurst. | ||
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* ''Fort Powell - Two Hundred Irregulars'' | * ''Fort Powell - Two Hundred Irregulars'' | ||
* ''Chester-on-Moore - Three-Hundred and Fifty Irregulars'' </blockquote>Aside from a few minor skirmishes during routine patrols, there were no significant combat actions in 1796, as both sides prepared for the following year. | * ''Chester-on-Moore - Three-Hundred and Fifty Irregulars'' </blockquote>Aside from a few minor skirmishes during routine patrols, there were no significant combat actions in 1796, as both sides prepared for the following year. | ||
=== 1797 - Sustained Inland Raiding and Northern Expeditions === | |||
With the establishment of a more permanent link between all the coastal towns and fortifications, the infrastructure in the young Carnish colony was beginning to take hold. As per the War Committee's instructions, Thompson used the months of January to March to prepare his men. Four companies of militia trained, drilled, and rehearsed for the first extended campaign in the Lowlands. Thompson emphasized to his officers and men that they would be dislocated from their supply lines for an extended period of time, in an effort to drive the A'awaskan tribes out of the central Lowlands, and ideally set conditions for a Fort or settlement to be established there in 1798. In the first week of April, they departed Kurst, leaving the Regulars to defend the town and work on its defences in their absence. | |||
[[File:1797 First Bush War (Fixed).png|thumb|Summary of raids, battles, and new settlements during 1797 in the First Bush War.]] | |||
==== Central Lowland Campaign ==== | |||
Thompson's plan was to have several partially dislocated companies, that way they could not be attacked en masse and defeated by the A'waskans. He was keenly aware from scouting reports and prisoner testimony that Tewekami had rallied three major tribes to his cause, emphasizing the shared threat they all faced from Arcerion growing as a colony. As such, scouting reports and sightings from Loughton farmers placed the enemy's strength at over a thousand warriors, the largest warband assembled to fight the Occidental settlement thus far. | |||
Thompson's columns raided, razed, and burned through more than a dozen Indigenous encampments and settlements, each time engaging small numbers of warriors, most of whom fought back with bows and arrows, and melee weapons when close enough. Only on rare occasions did they use muskets against the militia, and they were usually rusty, ill-maintained weapons captured from farmers of older manufacture. Thompson began to send dispatches home that after two months of sustained campaigning, none of his four companies had decisively engaged the enemy, despite destroying many of his camps, villages, and supporters. He received no correspondence back, and thus due to his growing concern that the thousand-strong Tewekami Warband had either overrun the postal office in Loughton, or was shadowing him until the right moment to annihilate the entirety of the Arcer militia, he conducted a withdrawal in June to Loughton, where he found the town intact. He left a singular company to defend the town, and withdrew with his remaining three to Kurst, bringing detailed reports of the multi-tribal camps he found, including some tribes that had even migrated towards the Arcer colonies, bringing hardened fighters from the Aileach mountains and foothills into the Lowlands to fight against the Carnish Crown. | |||
The Lowland Campaign was seen as a tactical success, but did not achieve the strategic victory of crippling Indigenous forces' ability to regroup and send out large warbands to disrupt Arcer settlements. | |||
colony is much bigger, major northern expedition to reinforce Kinnaird | colony is much bigger, major northern expedition to reinforce Kinnaird | ||
Innborough attacked, repelled | Innborough attacked, repelled | ||
Now four-five militia companies, begin raiding more consistently inland | Now four-five militia companies, begin raiding more consistently inland | ||
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fort between port hughes and chester established (Fort Something??) | fort between port hughes and chester established (Fort Something??) | ||
lowland town created | |||
1799 | 1799 | ||