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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Bentonville

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorse01 km2 kmN

Confederacy (Cs Army of Tennessee, 27,000 men under Johnston) attacked USA (US Army of Georgia (-), 60,000 men under Sherman) in North Carolina. The CAA Database of Battles records 15 hours of fighting on a front of 2.8 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Confederacy 2,606 (10%), USA 1,646 (3%).

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

Johnston

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry5,280
Confederacy centreInfantry7,040
Confederacy right wingInfantry5,280
Confederacy reserveInfantry4,400
Confederacy cavalry of the leftCavalry2,500
Confederacy cavalry of the rightCavalry2,500
JohnstonCommander—
In this plan27,000

USA

Sherman

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry13,320
USA centreInfantry17,760
USA right wingInfantry13,320
USA reserveInfantry11,100
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry2,250
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry2,250
ShermanCommander—
In this plan60,000

What the sources report

ConfederacyUSA
Strength, this plan27,00060,000
Losses, this plan2,6061,646

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 215, “Bentonville”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
15 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
2.8 km (attacker), 3.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Confederacyattacker27,0002,6065,000—Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Repulse; Withdrew
USAdefender60,0001,6464,500—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages initiative +1 · surprise +2

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.