Schematic plan · Latin American Wars of Independence

Battle of Pichincha

24 May 1822
Quito
Victory for Independentalists

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.

Spain (Sp Army, 2,500 men under Aymerich) attacked Independentalists (Patriot Army, 2,400 men under Sucre) in Quito. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 1 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Independentalists held. Losses: Spain 590 (24%), Independentalists 340 (14%).

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

Spain

Aymerich

Unit	Arm	Men
Spain left wing	Infantry	478
Spain centre	Infantry	637
Spain right wing	Infantry	478
Spain reserve	Infantry	398
Spain cavalry of the left	Cavalry	150
Spain cavalry of the right	Cavalry	150
Spain artillery (14 guns)	Artillery	210
Aymerich	Commander	—
In this plan		2,501

Independentalists

Sucre

Unit	Arm	Men
Independentalists left wing	Infantry	480
Independentalists centre	Infantry	640
Independentalists right wing	Infantry	480
Independentalists reserve	Infantry	400
Independentalists cavalry of the left	Cavalry	200
Independentalists cavalry of the right	Cavalry	200
Sucre	Commander	—
In this plan		2,400

What the sources report

	Spain	Independentalists
Strength, this plan	2,500	2,400
Losses, this plan	590	340

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 153, “Pichincha”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 3 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 1 km (attacker), 1 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Spainattacker	2,500	590	300	14	Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses
Independentalistsdefender	2,400	340	400	0	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 153 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Pichincha · 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.