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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Stones River

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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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseGunsHorseHorseGuns02.5 km5 kmN

Confederacy (Cs Army of Tennessee, 34,732 men under Bragg) attacked USA (US Army of the Cumberland, 41,400 men under Rosecrans) in Tennessee. The CAA Database of Battles records 15 hours of fighting on a front of 13.6 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that neither side won. Losses: Confederacy 11,739 (34%), USA 12,906 (31%).

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

Bragg

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry6,824
Confederacy centreInfantry9,098
Confederacy right wingInfantry6,824
Confederacy reserveInfantry5,686
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry2,250
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry2,250
Confederacy artillery (120 guns)Artillery1,800
BraggCommander—
In this plan34,732

USA

Rosecrans

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry8,808
USA centreInfantry11,744
USA right wingInfantry8,808
USA reserveInfantry7,340
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry1,600
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry1,600
USA artillery (100 guns)Artillery1,500
RosecransCommander—
In this plan41,400

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan34,73241,400
Losses, this plan11,73912,906

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 195, “Murfreesboro (Stone'S River)”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
15 hours
Winner
the draw
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
13.6 km (attacker), 11.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker34,73211,7394,500120Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Penetration; Stalemate; Withdrew
USAdefender41,40012,9063,200100Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages initiative +1 · surprise +2

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.