Time Astra

Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Wagram

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 wingReserveReserveHorseHorseGunsHorseHorseGuns05 km10 kmN

France (Fr Army, 140,000 men under Napoleon I) attacked Austria (Aus Army, 140,000 men under Archduke Charles) in Austria. The CAA Database of Battles records 11.5 hours of fighting on a front of 24 km, a single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 34,000 (24%), Austria 45,000 (32%).

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

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry24,406
France centreInfantry32,541
France right wingInfantry24,406
France reserveInfantry20,338
France cavalry of the leftCavalry15,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry15,000
France artillery (554 guns)Artillery8,310
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan140,001

Austria

Archduke Charles

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry28,272
Austria centreInfantry37,696
Austria right wingInfantry28,272
Austria reserveInfantry23,560
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry7,500
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry7,500
Austria artillery (480 guns)Artillery7,200
Archduke CharlesCommander—
In this plan140,000

What the sources report

FranceAustria
Strength, this plan140,000140,000
Losses, this plan34,00045,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 127, “Wagram”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
24 km (attacker), 24 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker140,00034,00030,000554Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration
Austriadefender140,00045,00015,000480Defensive/offensive plan; Single envelopment; Left flank; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +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.