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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of the Wilderness

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseGunsHorseHorseGuns02 km4 kmN

USA (US Army of the Potomac, 101,895 men under Grant) attacked Confederacy (Cs Army of Northern Virginia, 61,025 men under Lee) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 27.8 hours of fighting on a front of 8.4 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that Confederacy held. Losses: USA 17,666 (17%), Confederacy 7,750 (13%).

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 wingInfantry20,189
USA centreInfantry26,919
USA right wingInfantry20,189
USA reserveInfantry16,824
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry6,502
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry6,502
USA artillery (318 guns)Artillery4,770
GrantCommander—
In this plan101,895

Confederacy

Lee

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry12,097
Confederacy centreInfantry16,129
Confederacy right wingInfantry12,097
Confederacy reserveInfantry10,081
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry3,631
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry3,631
Confederacy artillery (224 guns)Artillery3,360
LeeCommander—
In this plan61,026

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan101,89561,025
Losses, this plan17,6667,750

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 202, “The Wilderness”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
27.8 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
8.4 km (attacker), 6.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker101,89517,66613,003318Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Repulse; Stalemate
Confederacydefender61,0257,7507,261224Defensive/offensive plan; Repulse; Stalemate; Withdrew

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.