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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

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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 wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns02.5 km5 kmN

USA (US Army of the Cumberland, 16,225 men under Sherman) attacked Confederacy (Cs Army of Tennessee, 17,733 men under Johnston) in Georgia. The CAA Database of Battles records 2.5 hours of fighting on a front of 15.6 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Confederacy held. Losses: USA 2,051 (13%), Confederacy 442 (2%).

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

Sherman

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry3,310
USA centreInfantry4,413
USA right wingInfantry3,310
USA reserveInfantry2,758
USA artillery (200 guns)Artillery2,434
ShermanCommander—
In this plan16,225

Confederacy

Johnston

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry4,256
Confederacy centreInfantry5,675
Confederacy right wingInfantry4,256
Confederacy reserveInfantry3,547
JohnstonCommander—
In this plan17,734

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan16,22517,733
Losses, this plan2,051442

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 206, “Kenesaw Mountain”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
2.5 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
15.6 km (attacker), 15.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker16,2252,051—200Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate
Confederacydefender17,733442——Defensive plan; 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.