Time Astra

Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Bautzen

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveHorseHorseGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

France (Fr Army, 199,000 men under Napoleon I) attacked Prussia and Russia (Pr & Russ Armies, 97,000 men under Wittgenstein & Bluecher) in Saxony. The CAA Database of Battles records 17 hours of fighting on a front of 9.6 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right rear against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 25,000 (13%), Prussia and Russia 20,000 (21%).

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 wingInfantry43,080
France centreInfantry57,440
France right wingInfantry43,080
France reserveInfantry35,900
France cavalry of the leftCavalry7,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry7,500
France artillery (300 guns)Artillery4,500
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan199,000

Prussia and Russia

Wittgenstein · Bluecher

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry15,420
Prussia centreInfantry20,560
Prussia right wingInfantry15,420
Prussia reserveInfantry12,850
Prussia cavalry of the leftCavalry13,000
Prussia cavalry of the rightCavalry13,000
Prussia artillery (450 guns)Artillery6,750
Wittgenstein & BluecherCommander—
In this plan97,000

What the sources report

FrancePrussia
Strength, this plan199,00097,000
Losses, this plan25,00020,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 136, “Bautzen”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
17 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
9.6 km (attacker), 11.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker199,00025,00015,000300Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right rear; Penetration
Prussia & Russiadefender97,00020,00026,000450Defensive plan; Withdrew

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