Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Eylau

8 February 1807
Prussia
Draw

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, 78,000 men under Napoleon I) attacked Russia (Russ Army, 80,000 men under Bennigsen) in Prussia. The CAA Database of Battles records 14 hours of fighting on a front of 8 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that neither side won. Losses: France 18,500 (24%), Russia 28,000 (35%).

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

Napoleon I

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	13,164
France centre	Infantry	17,552
France right wing	Infantry	13,164
France reserve	Infantry	10,970
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	10,000
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	10,000
France artillery (210 guns)	Artillery	3,150
Napoleon I	Commander	—
In this plan		78,000

Russia

Bennigsen

Unit	Arm	Men
Russia left wing	Infantry	13,224
Russia centre	Infantry	17,632
Russia right wing	Infantry	13,224
Russia reserve	Infantry	11,020
Russia cavalry of the left	Cavalry	9,000
Russia cavalry of the right	Cavalry	9,000
Russia artillery (460 guns)	Artillery	6,900
Bennigsen	Commander	—
In this plan		80,000

What the sources report

	France	Russia
Strength, this plan	78,000	80,000
Losses, this plan	18,500	28,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 120, “Eylau”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 14 hours
Winner: the draw
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Heavy precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 8 km (attacker), 8 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	78,000	18,500	20,000	210	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Stalemate
Russiadefender	80,000	28,000	18,000	460	Defensive/offensive plan; Stalemate; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages 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. 120 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Eylau · 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.