Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of Austria with France and Piedmont

Battle of Magenta

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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, Bare groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsHorseHorseGunsHorseHorse02 km4 kmN

France (Fr & Pied Army, 48,090 men under Napoleon III) attacked Austria (Aus Army, 61,618 men under Gyulai) in Lombardy. The CAA Database of Battles records 9 hours of fighting on a front of 8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 4,530 (9%), Austria 10,236 (17%).

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

France

Napoleon III

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry10,939
France centreInfantry14,585
France right wingInfantry10,939
France reserveInfantry9,116
France cavalry of the leftCavalry604
France cavalry of the rightCavalry604
France artillery (87 guns)Artillery1,305
Napoleon IIICommander—
In this plan48,092

Austria

Gyulai

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry13,417
Austria centreInfantry17,889
Austria right wingInfantry13,417
Austria reserveInfantry11,181
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry1,718
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry1,718
Austria artillery (152 guns)Artillery2,280
GyulaiCommander—
In this plan61,620

What the sources report

FranceAustria
Strength, this plan48,09061,618
Losses, this plan4,53010,236

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 167, “Magenta”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
9 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
8 km (attacker), 6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker48,0904,5301,20787Frontal attack; Penetration
Austriadefender61,61810,2363,435152Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

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

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.