Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Pea Ridge

7 March 1862
Missouri
Victory for USA

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.

Confederacy (Cs Army, 16,202 men under Van Dorn) attacked USA (US Army of the Southwest, 10,500 men under Curtis) in Missouri. The CAA Database of Battles records 13 hours of fighting on a front of 6 km, a single envelopment, left rear against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Confederacy 1,300 (8%), USA 1,384 (13%).

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

Confederacy

Van Dorn

Unit	Arm	Men
Confederacy left wing	Infantry	3,708
Confederacy centre	Infantry	4,945
Confederacy right wing	Infantry	3,708
Confederacy reserve	Infantry	3,090
Confederacy artillery (50 guns)	Artillery	750
Van Dorn	Commander	—
In this plan		16,201

USA

Curtis

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	2,344
USA centre	Infantry	3,125
USA right wing	Infantry	2,344
USA reserve	Infantry	1,953
USA artillery (49 guns)	Artillery	735
Curtis	Commander	—
In this plan		10,501

What the sources report

	Confederacy	USA
Strength, this plan	16,202	10,500
Losses, this plan	1,300	1,384

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 176, “Pea Ridge”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 13 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 6 km (attacker), 4 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Confederacyattacker	16,202	1,300	—	50	Single envelopment; Left rear; Repulse; Withdrew
USAdefender	10,500	1,384	—	49	Defensive/offensive plan; Penetration

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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. 176 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Pea Ridge · 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.