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Schematic plan · War of 1812

Battle of New Orleans

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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.
Flat, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns0500 m1 kmN

Great Britain (Br Army, 6,000 men under Pakenham) attacked USA (US Army, 3,200 men under Jackson) in Louisiana. The CAA Database of Battles records 0.8 hours of fighting on a front of 2.3 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that USA held. Losses: Great Britain 2,600 (43%), USA 71 (2%).

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

Great Britain

Pakenham

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry1,354
Great Britain centreInfantry1,805
Great Britain right wingInfantry1,354
Great Britain reserveInfantry1,128
Great Britain artillery (24 guns)Artillery360
PakenhamCommander—
In this plan6,001

USA

Jackson

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry678
USA centreInfantry904
USA right wingInfantry678
USA reserveInfantry565
USA artillery (25 guns)Artillery375
JacksonCommander—
In this plan3,200

What the sources report

Great BritainUSA
Strength, this plan6,0003,200
Losses, this plan2,60071

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 149, “New Orleans”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
0.8 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
2.3 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker6,0002,600—24Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses
USAdefender3,20071—25Defensive 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.