Time Astra

Schematic plan · Latin American Wars of Independence

Battle of Carabobo

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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 groundHorseHorseCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveLa Torre01 km2 kmN

Independentalists (Patriot Army, 6,400 men under Bolivar) attacked Spain (Sp Army, 5,180 men under La Torre) in Venezuela. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 3.2 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Independentalists won. Losses: Independentalists 200 (3%), Spain 2,908 (56%).

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

Independentalists

Bolivar

UnitArmMen
Independentalists left wingInfantry936
Independentalists centreInfantry1,248
Independentalists right wingInfantry936
Independentalists reserveInfantry780
Independentalists cavalry of the leftCavalry1,250
Independentalists cavalry of the rightCavalry1,250
BolivarCommander—
In this plan6,400

Spain

La Torre

UnitArmMen
Spain left wingInfantry835
Spain centreInfantry1,114
Spain right wingInfantry835
Spain reserveInfantry696
Spain cavalry of the leftCavalry850
Spain cavalry of the rightCavalry850
La TorreCommander—
In this plan5,180

What the sources report

IndependentalistsSpain
Strength, this plan6,4005,180
Losses, this plan2002,908

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 151, “Carabobo”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
3.2 km (attacker), 2.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Independentalistsattacker6,4002002,500—Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Spaindefender5,1802,9081,700—Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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.