Kriegsspiel

Wargame Returns to the Museum

By Ana Edwards

On a Friday afternoon last April, fourteen students from the Deutsch-Norwegischen Schule (German-Norwegian School) in Oslo, Norway, completed a morning’s worth of programs at our Tredegar campus. They had a semester-long survey of US history from settlement to Reconstruction and in English class had studied the African American experience. Their trip to the US included visits to Jamestown, Williamsburg, and The American Civil War Museum, followed by Monticello, Montpelier, and Gettysburg, where they did a project on Civil War memory and monuments.

Katharina Schlichtherle, an English and History teacher at Deutsch- Norwegischen Schule, brought her first students to visit ACWM in 2018 for an immersion in Civil War history. She was so pleased that in this post-pandemic visit, Schlichtherle requested as close to the same itinerary as possible. This group spent the morning on a Brown’s Island tour followed by self-guided explorations of A People’s Contest, Greenback America, and Southern Ambitions. After lunch they were treated to one of our youth groups’ favorite programs, Medical Practices of the Civil War.

Kelly Hancock entertains questions from the students on 19th century disease and medicine.

John Dixon, ACWM

The culminating experience was the utterly hands-on, all-in activity called Kriegsspiel, the German word for “wargame.” This game was designed as a training tool for young officers in early 19 th century Germany and eventually

adopted in the United States. As an umpire moderated game with very few rules to remember, it exposes present-day participants to Civil War strategy, tactics, and the art of command using 19 th century techniques. The goal of the activity is to help players gain a better understanding of how the battles were fought, the importance of clear communication, and a greater appreciation for the demands placed upon Civil War generals commanding large armies without the communication technologies we take for granted.

Robert Hancock, ACWM Director of Collections and Senior Curator, is also our resident master strategist and umpire for this game. He started with an orientation to the game and then divided the group into Union and Confederate forces. The target of the simulation was one small bit of farmland in rural Maryland just north of Antietam. The Union troops were to push southward and capture the town, while the Confederate forces were to hold the town and prevent Union progress.

Each side held a War Council to determine their strategy for accomplishing the task and then, deployed to the field (the Lobby) after which no further direct communication was permitted. There were no instant messaging services on the 19 th century battlefields, and, even today, technologies can break down. Commanders and their officers relied on scouts and runners to get written communications to and from decision-makers. Since it was a dangerous job, not all messages made it through, so these men had to assess situations and make their decisions–sometimes snap decisions–whether or not they had all the intel they would have liked.

Robert Hancock offers the students name tags with their roles in the game.

John Dixon, ACWM

Four members of the education staff acted as runners between the student-generals and their officers “in the field,” though all messages went first to the umpire before being released, at his discretion, for delivery to its intended recipient.

Like a game of blind chess, the umpire tracks the movements of both armies and supplies the relevant commanders with information or intelligence based on the situation.

Over the next two hours, everyone had a fun, thoroughly engaging experience. Initially the action was cautious and unsure, but as their movements were reported to the umpire and their respective positions and progress revealed, commands and responses increased in frequency and pace until not a runner was still. There were gains and losses throughout, but few could be sure which side was winning until the game was called by the umpire. At that point, the teams came together and clustered around Robert for the better part of an hour, each wanting to see the impacts of their various decisions and how they contributed to the outcome.

With battlefield maps in-hand, Robert Hancock (standing) points out some last-minute strategy hints before the game starts.

John Dixon, ACWM

We have a better understanding of how American students might approach engaging with the American Civil War, but it is always with a bit of anticipation that we host an international group. How much do they know of American history, and how does it intersect with their own country’s history? What stories will appeal to them? Our goal was to meet their teacher’s desire for her students to travel to Virginia– so often the centerpiece of significant events in American history–and have a rich and immersive experience with authentic artifacts and knowledgeable staff. What we were able to provide, even as we are managing shifting pandemic protocols for in-person engagement, was a day that grew from quiet and reflective exploration of the exhibit themes to direct learning with our Civil War medicine program to the highly competitive yet highly collaborative 19 th century field training. They had a blast! And so did we.

Hopefully, the students also took away an appreciation of the difficulties of true leadership and the importance of communication for a group trying to achieve a single goal. They had a contagious enthusiasm, and we look forward to hosting another group from the Deutsch-Norwegischen Schule. END

Ana Edwards is the ACWM Education Programs Manager

Cheyanne Woodward (right), ACWM-Education Outreach Specialist, served as a messenger in the game. She listened to instructions from the game’s generals to deliver to the umpire, Robert Hancock, and would then return to report the outcome.

John Dixon, ACWM