A Shipfull Of Soldiers

Even now, not all of the problems with the landing at Portland have been examined. We will now look into another new one - the simple matter of ship count.






Reality

During the landings in the Crimea, the British made use of 78 ships of various types in order to land 31 battalions of infantry, ten squadrons of cavalry, ten batteries of horse or field artillery and nine siege batteries. On average each battalion of infantry took one transport (with some especially large transports fitting two battalions and some small transports taking half a battalion) and with the fleet including plenty of supplies for an extended campaign (and transport, wagons and so on).

In real Union amphibious operations or movements, the rule was similar for infantry (roughly one transport per regiment or half regiment)





BROS

During the landing at Portland, TFSmith has "more than two score" transports (i.e. more than forty), in order to land nine battalions, no cavalry and four batteries.
With a "Crimean" level of filling, 39 ships (half the number at the Crimean landing) should suffice to carry 15 battalions of infantry, one brigade of cavalry and nine batteries - TFSmith is overestimating the number of ships required by around 70%, even before allowing for how the initial Portland operation is not intended to be an extended siege and so there should be no need for much in the way of wagon transport.


Later, it is mentioned that "the movement of the 30,000 British and colonial troops of Pennefather’s Army of New Brunswick, their artillery, horses, mules, oxen, wagons, and stores from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick south to Maine had required the assembly of a fleet of more than 130 vessels, ranging from Atlantic liners and packets to coastal steamers, tugs, barges, and sailing craft of almost every size, shape, and description".

A copy of the Crimean landing conducted with "more than 130" vessels should allow for the landing, pro rata, of 5/3 of the strength that landed at Eupatoria. This would be 52 battalions of infantry, seventeen cavalry squadrons, seventeen field or horse batteries, fifteen siege batteries and full transport for all units; instead, Pennefather's army contains 27 battalions of infantry, eight squadrons of cavalry and an unspecified quantity of artillery (in three divisional establishments, which would at most be four batteries each) and is smaller than the Eupatoria landing force. (Though he claims it is "actually larger"). It also does not finish arriving until some time in August, as compared to the Eupatoria force which took a week to get ashore (interrupted by a storm), re-organize, coordinate with allies, and march to the Alma river to fight a battle.

During the 1861 section of the timeline, however, Burnside easily makes a landing in the space of a few hours with his own previously assembled transports. This fifteen-regiment operation uses 27 transports total.

Very roughly speaking, a British soldier takes up three times as much space as a Union soldier. This is presumably one of the cheat codes.