Time Astra

Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Franklin (1864)

All battlesThe event in the chronicleWikipedia
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 wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGuns01 km2 kmN

Confederacy (Cs Army of Tennessee, 26,897 men under Hood) attacked USA (US 4th & 23rd Army Corps(+), 27,939 men under Schofield) in Tennessee. The CAA Database of Battles records 7.5 hours of fighting on a front of 4 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that USA held. Losses: Confederacy 6,252 (23%), USA 2,326 (8%).

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

Hood

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry5,255
Confederacy centreInfantry7,007
Confederacy right wingInfantry5,255
Confederacy reserveInfantry4,379
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry2,500
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry2,500
HoodCommander—
In this plan26,896

USA

Schofield

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry4,953
USA centreInfantry6,604
USA right wingInfantry4,953
USA reserveInfantry4,128
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry3,200
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry3,200
USA artillery (60 guns)Artillery900
SchofieldCommander—
In this plan27,938

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan26,89727,939
Losses, this plan6,2522,326

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 213, “Franklin”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
7.5 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
4 km (attacker), 3.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker26,8976,2525,000—Frontal attack; Repulse
USAdefender27,9392,3266,40060Defensive plan; 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.