Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Talavera

28 July 1809
Spain
Victory for Great Britain and Spain

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, 46,000 men under Joseph Bonaparte) attacked Great Britain and Spain (Br & Sp Armies, 54,500 men under Welleslley & Cuesta) in Spain. The CAA Database of Battles records 5.2 hours of fighting on a front of 4.8 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against prepared defense, and that Great Britain and Spain held. Losses: France 7,300 (16%), Great Britain and Spain 6,700 (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

Joseph Bonaparte

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	8,712
France centre	Infantry	11,616
France right wing	Infantry	8,712
France reserve	Infantry	7,260
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	4,250
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	4,250
France artillery (80 guns)	Artillery	1,200
Joseph Bonaparte	Commander	—
In this plan		46,000

Great Britain and Spain

Welleslley · Cuesta

Unit	Arm	Men
Great Britain left wing	Infantry	10,716
Great Britain centre	Infantry	14,288
Great Britain right wing	Infantry	10,716
Great Britain reserve	Infantry	8,930
Great Britain cavalry of the left	Cavalry	4,475
Great Britain cavalry of the right	Cavalry	4,475
Great Britain artillery (60 guns)	Artillery	900
Welleslley & Cuesta	Commander	—
In this plan		54,500

What the sources report

	France	Great Britain
Strength, this plan	46,000	54,500
Losses, this plan	7,300	6,700

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 128, “Talavera”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 5.2 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 4.8 km (attacker), 4.8 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	46,000	7,300	8,500	80	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Repulse; Withdrew
Great Britain & Spaindefender	54,500	6,700	8,950	60	Defensive plan

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 128 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Talavera · 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.