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Schematic plan · War of the First Coalition

Battle of Castiglione

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rolling, Mixed groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

France (French Army of Italy, 30,000 men under Bonaparte) attacked Austria (Austrian Army, 25,000 men under Wurmser) in North Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 2.4 km, a single envelopment, left rear against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 1,500 (5%), Austria 3,000 (12%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

France

Bonaparte

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry6,984
France centreInfantry9,312
France right wingInfantry6,984
France reserveInfantry5,820
France artillery (60 guns)Artillery900
BonaparteCommander—
In this plan30,000

Austria

Wurmser

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry5,892
Austria centreInfantry7,856
Austria right wingInfantry5,892
Austria reserveInfantry4,910
Austria artillery (30 guns)Artillery450
WurmserCommander—
In this plan25,000

What the sources report

FranceAustria
Strength, this plan30,00025,000
Losses, this plan1,5003,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 103, “Castiglione”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
2.4 km (attacker), 4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker30,0001,500—60Single envelopment; Left rear; Penetration
Austriadefender25,0003,000—30Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +1 · combat effectiveness +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.