User:Kamek98/Shogun 2/Choshu/Battle of Owada

Battle of Ōwada
Part of Boshin War
Date 20 October 1869 Location Ōwada, Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture) Result Shogunate retreat
Belligerents
Imperial Court	Tokugawa Shogunate
Commanders and leaders
Oninawa Mōrishige †	Uesugi Saneyori † Kokushi Takamune †
Units involved
Chōshū Imperial Vanguard	Aizu Shogunal 3rd Army
Strength
1210	1200
Casualties and losses
916	1140

The Battle of Ōwada was a battle fought on 20 October 1869 between the Imperial Court and the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Boshin War. The battle concluded in somewhat of a victory for the Imperial Court due to the fact they did not lose the battle (and successfully repelled the Shogunate army) despite losing over seventy-five percent of the army under and including Oninawa Mōrishige, a Chōshū Imperial Vanguard general, as a result of the battle.

Uesugi Saneyori, the daimyo controlling the Aizu Shogunal 3rd Army, personally led the Shogunate army in an attack on the Imperial army at Ōdawa with his army. He placed Kokushi Takamune, one of his generals, in chief command of the army.

On 20 October 1869 the two armies clashed. In Ōdawa, Oninawa Mōrishige had been placed in command of 1,000 soldiers stationed at the new Ōdawa garrison (designed in a perceived strategic location that would allow protection of any invasions of Fukui in Echizen Province) that had went under construction weeks before the battle. Due to this, it had been extremely underdeveloped at the time of the battle and the garrison was relatively meager in size. The soldiers under Mōrishige were crowded during the events of the battle. In addition to the initial 1,000 soldiers were 210 additional soldiers which had been stationed under Oninawa Mōrishige at some point before the battle; making comfortable room for individual soldiers even more scarce.

When the Aizu Shogunal 3rd army approached the garrison it was easily recognized as incomplete by the army. Kokushi Takamune had advised moving in on it from three sides because of the north side of the garrison was sealed off by a cliff that was considerably unsuitable for climbing. Uesugi Saneyori had heeded the advise of his chief-in-command and split his army in three. Matchlocks would attack the garrison from the three sides, spear and katana samurai would attack the garrison from the south and west and the remaining army along with Uesugi and Kokushi would attack from the south.

Oninawa had taken initial measures to ward off the invaders from all three sides by using the walls of the garrison and gunmen. Gunmen were lined along all three walls from which they opened fire and shot down a moderate amount of the Aizu Shogunal 3rd Army's front line soldiers in each of the three directions. Archer towers had been constructed during early stages of the garrison's construction. These archer towers were used during the battle and archers contributed to the Imperial army. (The Imperial army's projectiles were mainly different types of guns and cannons)

Little is known how the battle had played out following the initial gunfire of the Imperial army on the Shogunate army's front lines but it is known that Oninawa Mōrishige was cut down by Kokushi Takamune. It is also known that Uesugi Saneyori and Kokushi Takamune were both killed in action whilst inside the garrison so the Shogunate army did breach the garrison at some point. The strength and casualties appear in records but further details are not known.