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Schematic plan · American Civil War

First Battle of Winchester

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseGunsGuns0500 m1 kmN

Confederacy (Cs Valley Army, 16,000 men under Jackson) attacked USA (US V Corps, 7,000 men under Banks) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 1.5 hours of fighting on a front of 1.6 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that Confederacy won. Losses: Confederacy 365 (2%), USA 2,126 (30%).

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

Banks

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,673
USA centreInfantry2,230
USA right wingInfantry1,673
USA reserveInfantry1,394
USA artillery (2 guns)Artillery30
BanksCommander—
In this plan7,000

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan16,0007,000
Losses, this plan3652,126

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 180, “First Winchester”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
1.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1.6 km (attacker), 1.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker16,0003651,70048Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
USAdefender7,0002,126—2Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · morale +1 · momentum +1 · 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.