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Schematic plan · Spanish-American War

Battle of San Juan Hill

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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.
Rugged, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns01 km2 kmN

USA (US V Corps, 15,065 men under Shafter) attacked Spain (Sp Army, 1,592 men under Linares) in Cuba. The CAA Database of Battles records 10.5 hours of fighting on a front of 3.2 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 1,572 (10%), Spain 850 (53%).

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

Shafter

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry3,479
USA centreInfantry4,638
USA right wingInfantry3,479
USA reserveInfantry2,899
USA artillery (38 guns)Artillery570
ShafterCommander—
In this plan15,065

Spain

Linares

UnitArmMen
Spain left wingInfantry368
Spain centreInfantry490
Spain right wingInfantry368
Spain reserveInfantry306
Spain artillery (4 guns)Artillery60
LinaresCommander—
In this plan1,592

What the sources report

USASpain
Strength, this plan15,0651,592
Losses, this plan1,572850

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 241, “San Juan Hill And El Caney”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
10.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
3.2 km (attacker), 1.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker15,0651,572—38Frontal attack; Penetration
Spaindefender1,592850—4Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages 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.