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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Gettysburg

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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 wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveHorseHorseGunsHorseHorseGuns01 km2 kmN

Confederacy (Cs Army of Northern Virginia, 75,054 men under Lee) attacked USA (US Army of the Potomac, 83,289 men under Meade) in Pennsylvania. The CAA Database of Battles records 19 hours of fighting on a front of 5.1 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Confederacy 28,063 (37%), USA 23,049 (28%).

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

Lee

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry15,193
Confederacy centreInfantry20,257
Confederacy right wingInfantry15,193
Confederacy reserveInfantry12,661
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry4,000
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry4,000
Confederacy artillery (250 guns)Artillery3,750
LeeCommander—
In this plan75,054

USA

Meade

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry15,789
USA centreInfantry21,052
USA right wingInfantry15,789
USA reserveInfantry13,158
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry6,500
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry6,500
USA artillery (300 guns)Artillery4,500
MeadeCommander—
In this plan83,288

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan75,05483,289
Losses, this plan28,06323,049

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 199, “Gettysburg”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
19 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
5.1 km (attacker), 4.1 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker75,05428,0638,000250Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Repulse; Withdrew
USAdefender83,28923,04913,000300Defensive plan

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.