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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Brandy Station

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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 groundCentreHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveStuart01 km2 kmN

USA (US Cavalry Corps, 12,000 men under Pleasanton) attacked Confederacy (Cs Cavalry Corps, 10,000 men under Stuart) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 4.4 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right rear against hasty defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 900 (8%), Confederacy 500 (5%).

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

Pleasanton

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,440
USA centreInfantry1,920
USA right wingInfantry1,440
USA reserveInfantry1,200
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry3,000
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry3,000
PleasantonCommander—
In this plan12,000

Confederacy

Stuart

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry2,400
Confederacy centreInfantry3,200
Confederacy right wingInfantry2,400
Confederacy reserveInfantry2,000
StuartCommander—
In this plan10,000

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan12,00010,000
Losses, this plan900500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 198, “Brandy Station”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4.4 km (attacker), 3.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker12,00090010,500—Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right rear; Penetration; Withdrew
Confederacydefender10,000500——Defensive/offensive plan

Attacker’s advantages intelligence +1 · 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.