Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of 1812

Battle of Lundy's Lane

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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 wingReserveGunsGuns0200 m400 mN

USA (US Army, 2,000 men under Brown) attacked Great Britain (Br Army, 3,000 men under Drummond) in Canada. The CAA Database of Battles records 6 hours of fighting on a front of 0.5 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that Great Britain held. Losses: USA 860 (43%), Great Britain 878 (29%).

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

USA

Brown

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry422
USA centreInfantry563
USA right wingInfantry422
USA reserveInfantry352
USA artillery (16 guns)Artillery240
BrownCommander—
In this plan1,999

Great Britain

Drummond

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry688
Great Britain centreInfantry917
Great Britain right wingInfantry688
Great Britain reserveInfantry573
Great Britain artillery (9 guns)Artillery135
DrummondCommander—
In this plan3,001

What the sources report

USAGreat Britain
Strength, this plan2,0003,000
Losses, this plan860878

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 148, “Lundy'S Lane”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
6 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
0.5 km (attacker), 0.7 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker2,000860—16Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Stalemate; Withdrew with heavy losses
Great Britaindefender3,000878—9Defensive 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

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.