Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Ligny

16 June 1815
Belgium
Victory for France

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 of North (Elements of), 67,567 men under Napoleon I) attacked Prussia (Pr Army (Elms), 82,895 men under Bluecher) in Belgium. The CAA Database of Battles records 7.5 hours of fighting on a front of 12 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 12,000 (18%), Prussia 18,000 (22%).

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	12,070
France centre	Infantry	16,093
France right wing	Infantry	12,070
France reserve	Infantry	10,058
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	6,869
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	6,869
France artillery (236 guns)	Artillery	3,540
Napoleon I	Commander	—
In this plan		67,569

Prussia

Bluecher

Unit	Arm	Men
Prussia left wing	Infantry	17,046
Prussia centre	Infantry	22,728
Prussia right wing	Infantry	17,046
Prussia reserve	Infantry	14,205
Prussia cavalry of the left	Cavalry	4,315
Prussia cavalry of the right	Cavalry	4,315
Prussia artillery (216 guns)	Artillery	3,240
Bluecher	Commander	—
In this plan		82,895

What the sources report

	France	Prussia
Strength, this plan	67,567	82,895
Losses, this plan	12,000	18,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 143, “Ligny”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 7.5 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 12 km (attacker), 12 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	67,567	12,000	13,737	236	Frontal attack; Penetration; Pursued
Prussiadefender	82,895	18,000	8,630	216	Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +1 · 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. 143 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Ligny · 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.