Schematic plan · War of the First Coalition

Battle of the Bridge of Arcole

15 November 1796
North Italy
Victory for France

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

France (Fr Army of Italy, 17,300 men under Bonaparte) attacked Austria (Aus Army, 12,700 men under Alvintzi) in North Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a frontal attack, defensive plan against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 4,500 (26%), Austria 7,000 (55%).

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

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	4,037
France centre	Infantry	5,382
France right wing	Infantry	4,037
France reserve	Infantry	3,364
France artillery (32 guns)	Artillery	480
Bonaparte	Commander	—
In this plan		17,300

Austria

Alvintzi

Unit	Arm	Men
Austria left wing	Infantry	2,915
Austria centre	Infantry	3,886
Austria right wing	Infantry	2,915
Austria reserve	Infantry	2,429
Austria artillery (37 guns)	Artillery	555
Alvintzi	Commander	—
In this plan		12,700

What the sources report

	France	Austria
Strength, this plan	17,300	12,700
Losses, this plan	4,500	7,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 106, “Arcola”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 48 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 5 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	17,300	4,500	—	32	Frontal attack; Defensive plan; Penetration
Austriadefender	12,700	7,000	—	37	Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 106 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of the Bridge of Arcole · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.