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Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Five Forks

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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 groundCentreHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns0500 m1 kmN

USA (US V Corps, 30,000 men under Sheridan) attacked Confederacy (Cs Pickett's Div (+), 10,000 men under Pickett) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 3.5 hours of fighting on a front of 2.4 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left rear against prepared defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 634 (2%), Confederacy 6,000 (60%).

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

Sheridan

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry4,440
USA centreInfantry5,920
USA right wingInfantry4,440
USA reserveInfantry3,700
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry5,750
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry5,750
SheridanCommander—
In this plan30,000

Confederacy

Pickett

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry2,364
Confederacy centreInfantry3,152
Confederacy right wingInfantry2,364
Confederacy reserveInfantry1,970
Confederacy artillery (10 guns)Artillery150
PickettCommander—
In this plan10,000

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan30,00010,000
Losses, this plan6346,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 217, “Five Forks”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
2.4 km (attacker), 2.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker30,00063411,500—Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left rear; Breakthrough
Confederacydefender10,0006,000—10Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages 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

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.