Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of Texan Independence

Battle of San Jacinto

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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 wingReserve0200 m400 mN

Texas (Texan Vol Army, 743 men under Houston) attacked Mexico (Mex Army, 1,600 men under Santa Anna) in Texas. The CAA Database of Battles records 0.5 hours of fighting on a front of 0.3 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Texas won. Losses: Texas 39 (5%), Mexico 1,600 (100%).

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

Texas

Houston

UnitArmMen
Texas left wingInfantry178
Texas centreInfantry238
Texas right wingInfantry178
Texas reserveInfantry149
HoustonCommander—
In this plan743

Mexico

Santa Anna

UnitArmMen
Mexico left wingInfantry384
Mexico centreInfantry512
Mexico right wingInfantry384
Mexico reserveInfantry320
Santa AnnaCommander—
In this plan1,600

What the sources report

TexasMexico
Strength, this plan7431,600
Losses, this plan391,600

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 156, “San Jacinto”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
0.3 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
0.3 km (attacker), 0.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Texasattacker74339—0Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Mexicodefender1,6001,600——Defensive plan; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +3 · combat effectiveness +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.