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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Chattanooga Campaign

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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.
Rugged, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorse02 km4 kmN

USA (US Army of the Cumberland, 61,000 men under Grant) attacked Confederacy (Cs Army of Tennessee, 40,000 men under Bragg) in Tennessee. The CAA Database of Battles records 13 hours of fighting on a front of 4.8 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 5,824 (10%), Confederacy 6,667 (17%).

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

Grant

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry14,640
USA centreInfantry19,520
USA right wingInfantry14,640
USA reserveInfantry12,200
GrantCommander—
In this plan61,000

Confederacy

Bragg

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry8,435
Confederacy centreInfantry11,246
Confederacy right wingInfantry8,435
Confederacy reserveInfantry7,029
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry2,428
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry2,428
BraggCommander—
In this plan40,001

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan61,00040,000
Losses, this plan5,8246,667

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 201, “Chattanooga”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
13 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width
4.8 km (attacker), 7.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker61,0005,824——Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Confederacydefender40,0006,6674,856—Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · 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.