Time Astra

Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Front Royal

All battlesThe event in the chronicleWikipedia
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 wingReserveHorseHorseGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns0500 m1 kmN

Confederacy (Cs Valley Army, 16,000 men under Jackson) attacked USA (US 1st Maryland Regiment, 1,063 men under Kenly) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 3.5 hours of fighting on a front of 2 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense and withdrawal, and that Confederacy won. Losses: Confederacy 35 (0%), USA 904 (85%).

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 wingInfantry3,259
Confederacy centreInfantry4,346
Confederacy right wingInfantry3,259
Confederacy reserveInfantry2,716
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry850
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry850
Confederacy artillery (48 guns)Artillery720
JacksonCommander—
In this plan16,000

USA

Kenly

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry248
USA centreInfantry331
USA right wingInfantry248
USA reserveInfantry207
USA artillery (2 guns)Artillery30
KenlyCommander—
In this plan1,064

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan16,0001,063
Losses, this plan35904

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 179, “Front Royal”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Withdrawal
Front width
2 km (attacker), 2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker16,000351,70048Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough
USAdefender1,06390402Defensive plan; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · momentum +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +3

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.