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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Eckmühl

All battlesThe event in the chronicleWikipedia
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 wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorse05 km10 kmN

Austria (Aus Army, 74,000 men under Archduke Charles) attacked France (Fr Army, 66,000 men under Napoleon I) in Austria. The CAA Database of Battles records 6 hours of fighting on a front of 18 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that France held. Losses: Austria 12,000 (16%), France 6,000 (9%).

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

Austria

Archduke Charles

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry15,840
Austria centreInfantry21,120
Austria right wingInfantry15,840
Austria reserveInfantry13,200
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry4,000
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry4,000
Archduke CharlesCommander—
In this plan74,000

France

Napoleon I

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry13,440
France centreInfantry17,920
France right wingInfantry13,440
France reserveInfantry11,200
France cavalry of the leftCavalry5,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry5,000
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan66,000

What the sources report

AustriaFrance
Strength, this plan74,00066,000
Losses, this plan12,0006,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 124, “Eckmuehl”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
6 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
18 km (attacker), 18 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Austriaattacker74,00012,0008,000—Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Francedefender66,0006,00010,000—Defensive/offensive plan; Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.