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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Chancellorsville

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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 wingReserveGunsGuns02.5 km5 kmN

USA (US Army of the Potomac, 113,000 men under Hooker) attacked Confederacy (Cs Army of Northern Virginia, 60,892 men under Lee) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 22.3 hours of fighting on a front of 6.8 km, a single envelopment, left rear against hasty defense, and that Confederacy held. Losses: USA 17,278 (15%), Confederacy 12,821 (21%).

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

Hooker

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry25,666
USA centreInfantry34,221
USA right wingInfantry25,666
USA reserveInfantry21,388
USA artillery (404 guns)Artillery6,060
HookerCommander—
In this plan113,001

Confederacy

Lee

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry14,002
Confederacy centreInfantry18,669
Confederacy right wingInfantry14,002
Confederacy reserveInfantry11,668
Confederacy artillery (170 guns)Artillery2,550
LeeCommander—
In this plan60,891

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan113,00060,892
Losses, this plan17,27812,821

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 196, “Chancellorsville”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
22.3 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
6.8 km (attacker), 15.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker113,00017,278—404Single envelopment; Left rear; Repulse; Withdrew
Confederacydefender60,89212,821—170Defensive/offensive plan; Single envelopment; Right rear; Breakthrough

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.