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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Quatre Bras

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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 wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

France (Fr Army of North (Elements of), 26,741 men under Ney) attacked Great Britain (Br & du Army (Elms), 33,765 men under Wellington) in Belgium. The CAA Database of Battles records 7 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Great Britain held. Losses: France 4,500 (17%), Great Britain 4,500 (13%).

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

Ney

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry4,693
France centreInfantry6,258
France right wingInfantry4,693
France reserveInfantry3,911
France cavalry of the leftCavalry3,053
France cavalry of the rightCavalry3,053
France artillery (72 guns)Artillery1,080
NeyCommander—
In this plan26,741

Great Britain

Wellington

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry7,259
Great Britain centreInfantry9,678
Great Britain right wingInfantry7,259
Great Britain reserveInfantry6,049
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry1,250
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry1,250
Great Britain artillery (68 guns)Artillery1,020
WellingtonCommander—
In this plan33,765

What the sources report

FranceGreat Britain
Strength, this plan26,74133,765
Losses, this plan4,5004,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 144, “Quatre Bras”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
7 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
5 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker26,7414,5006,10672Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate
Great Britaindefender33,7654,5002,50068Defensive plan; Stalemate; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · momentum +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.