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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Cedar Mountain

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorse0500 m1 kmN

USA (US Army of Virginia(-), 8,030 men under Banks) attacked Confederacy (Cs Army of Northern Virginia, 16,848 men under Jackson) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 6.5 hours of fighting on a front of 1.6 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Confederacy held. Losses: USA 2,353 (29%), Confederacy 1,338 (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

USA

Banks

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,647
USA centreInfantry2,196
USA right wingInfantry1,647
USA reserveInfantry1,373
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry584
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry584
BanksCommander—
In this plan8,031

Confederacy

Jackson

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry3,756
Confederacy centreInfantry5,007
Confederacy right wingInfantry3,756
Confederacy reserveInfantry3,130
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry600
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry600
JacksonCommander—
In this plan16,849

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan8,03016,848
Losses, this plan2,3531,338

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 188, “Cedar Mountain”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
6.5 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1.6 km (attacker), 1.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker8,0302,3531,167—Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Withdrew
Confederacydefender16,8481,3381,200—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration

Attacker’s advantages 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.