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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Port Republic

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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 wingReserveGunsGunsHorseHorse0500 m1 kmN

Confederacy (Cs Valley Army, 15,000 men under Jackson) attacked USA (US V Corps, 3,000 men under Tyler) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 4 hours of fighting on a front of 2.4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Confederacy won. Losses: Confederacy 800 (5%), USA 1,018 (34%).

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 wingInfantry3,557
Confederacy centreInfantry4,742
Confederacy right wingInfantry3,557
Confederacy reserveInfantry2,964
Confederacy artillery (12 guns)Artillery180
JacksonCommander—
In this plan15,000

USA

Tyler

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry626
USA centreInfantry835
USA right wingInfantry626
USA reserveInfantry522
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry75
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry75
USA artillery (16 guns)Artillery240
TylerCommander—
In this plan2,999

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan15,0003,000
Losses, this plan8001,018

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 182, “Port Republic”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
4 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
2.4 km (attacker), 2.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker15,000800—12Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
USAdefender3,0001,01815016Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses

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.