Time Astra

Schematic plan · American Civil War

Battle of Sayler's Creek

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 wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserve02 km4 kmN

USA (US VI Corps(+), 30,000 men under Sheridan & Wright) attacked Confederacy (Cs Army of Northern Virginia (Elms), 21,000 men under Ewell & Anderson) in Virginia. The CAA Database of Battles records 11 hours of fighting on a front of 7.2 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 1,180 (4%), Confederacy 7,000 (33%).

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 · Wright

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry7,200
USA centreInfantry9,600
USA right wingInfantry7,200
USA reserveInfantry6,000
Sheridan & WrightCommander—
In this plan30,000

Confederacy

Ewell · Anderson

UnitArmMen
Confederacy left wingInfantry5,040
Confederacy centreInfantry6,720
Confederacy right wingInfantry5,040
Confederacy reserveInfantry4,200
Ewell & AndersonCommander—
In this plan21,000

What the sources report

USAConfederacy
Strength, this plan30,00021,000
Losses, this plan1,1807,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 219, “Saylor'S Creek”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
7.2 km (attacker), 7.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker30,0001,180——Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough
Confederacydefender21,0007,000—0Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages morale +1 · logistics +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.