Time Astra

Schematic plan · US-Mexican War

Battle of Contreras

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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.
Rugged, Bare groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns0500 m1 kmN

USA (US Army, 4,500 men under Pillow) attacked Mexico (Mex Army, 4,000 men under Valencia) in Mexico. The CAA Database of Battles records 0.5 hours of fighting on a front of 2.5 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 60 (1%), Mexico 1,513 (38%).

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

Pillow

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,080
USA centreInfantry1,440
USA right wingInfantry1,080
USA reserveInfantry900
PillowCommander—
In this plan4,500

Mexico

Valencia

UnitArmMen
Mexico left wingInfantry881
Mexico centreInfantry1,174
Mexico right wingInfantry881
Mexico reserveInfantry734
Mexico artillery (22 guns)Artillery330
ValenciaCommander—
In this plan4,000

What the sources report

USAMexico
Strength, this plan4,5004,000
Losses, this plan601,513

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 161, “Contreras”, 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
Rugged, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
2.5 km (attacker), 2.7 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker4,50060——Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Mexicodefender4,0001,513—22Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · training +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2

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.