Time Astra

Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Selma

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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns02 km4 kmN

USA (US Cav Corps Mil Div Mississippi, 13,500 men under Wilson) attacked Confederacy (Cs Cav Corps (Elms), 7,000 men under Forrest) in Alabama. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 1.6 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 400 (3%), Confederacy 4,000 (57%).

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

Wilson

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry3,211
USA centreInfantry4,282
USA right wingInfantry3,211
USA reserveInfantry2,676
USA artillery (8 guns)Artillery120
WilsonCommander—
In this plan13,500

Confederacy

Forrest

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry1,680
Confederacy centreInfantry2,240
Confederacy right wingInfantry1,680
Confederacy reserveInfantry1,400
ForrestCommander—
In this plan7,000

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan13,5007,000
Losses, this plan4004,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 218, “Selma”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
1.6 km (attacker), 8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker13,500400—8Frontal attack; Breakthrough
Confederacydefender7,0004,000——Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · morale +1 · momentum +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.