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Schematic plan · American Civil War

First Battle of Kernstown

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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.
Rolling, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsHorseHorseGunsHorseHorse0200 m400 mN

Confederacy (Cs Army, 3,087 men under Jackson) attacked USA (US Army, 7,000 men under Shields) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 6 hours of fighting on a front of 0.8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Confederacy 718 (23%), USA 590 (8%).

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

Jackson

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry563
Confederacy centreInfantry751
Confederacy right wingInfantry563
Confederacy reserveInfantry469
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry145
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry145
Confederacy artillery (30 guns)Artillery450
JacksonCommander—
In this plan3,086

USA

Shields

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,414
USA centreInfantry1,885
USA right wingInfantry1,414
USA reserveInfantry1,178
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry375
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry375
USA artillery (24 guns)Artillery360
ShieldsCommander—
In this plan7,001

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan3,0877,000
Losses, this plan718590

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 177, “Kernstown”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
6 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
0.8 km (attacker), 0.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker3,08771829030Frontal attack; Repulse
USAdefender7,00059075024Defensive/offensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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.