Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Nashville

15 December 1864
Tennessee
Victory for USA

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

USA (US Army of the Cumberland(-)(+), 49,773 men under Thomas) attacked Confederacy (Cs Army of Tennessee, 23,207 men under Hood) in Tennessee. The CAA Database of Battles records 11.5 hours of fighting on a front of 5.6 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left rear against prepared defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 3,061 (6%), Confederacy 5,350 (23%).

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

Thomas

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	8,539
USA centre	Infantry	11,386
USA right wing	Infantry	8,539
USA reserve	Infantry	7,116
USA cavalry of the left	Cavalry	5,822
USA cavalry of the right	Cavalry	5,822
USA artillery (170 guns)	Artillery	2,550
Thomas	Commander	—
In this plan		49,774

Confederacy

Hood

Unit	Arm	Men
Confederacy left wing	Infantry	4,749
Confederacy centre	Infantry	6,332
Confederacy right wing	Infantry	4,749
Confederacy reserve	Infantry	3,957
Confederacy cavalry of the left	Cavalry	540
Confederacy cavalry of the right	Cavalry	540
Confederacy artillery (156 guns)	Artillery	2,340
Hood	Commander	—
In this plan		23,207

What the sources report

	USA	Confederacy
Strength, this plan	49,773	23,207
Losses, this plan	3,061	5,350

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 214, “Nashville”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 11.5 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 5.6 km (attacker), 8 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USAattacker	49,773	3,061	11,643	170	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left rear; Breakthrough; Pursued
Confederacydefender	23,207	5,350	1,080	156	Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · morale +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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 214 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Nashville · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.