Time Astra

Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of Dessau Bridge

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 groundHorseHorseCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveGuns0500 m1 kmN

Protestant Union (Prot Union Army, 8,500 men under Mansfield) attacked Holy Roman Empire (Imp Army, 16,000 men under Wallenstein) in Anhalt. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 1.1 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Holy Roman Empire held. Losses: Protestant Union 3,000 (35%), Holy Roman Empire 1,000 (6%).

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

Protestant Union

Mansfield

UnitArmMen
Protestant Union left wingInfantry1,408
Protestant Union centreInfantry1,877
Protestant Union right wingInfantry1,408
Protestant Union reserveInfantry1,173
Protestant Union cavalry of the leftCavalry1,250
Protestant Union cavalry of the rightCavalry1,250
Protestant Union artillery (9 guns)Artillery135
MansfieldCommander—
In this plan8,501

Holy Roman Empire

Wallenstein

UnitArmMen
Holy Roman Empire left wingInfantry1,920
Holy Roman Empire centreInfantry2,560
Holy Roman Empire right wingInfantry1,920
Holy Roman Empire reserveInfantry1,600
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry4,000
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry4,000
WallensteinCommander—
In this plan16,000

What the sources report

Protestant UnionHoly Roman Empire
Strength, this plan8,50016,000
Losses, this plan3,0001,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 4, “Dessau Bridge”, 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 defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Protestant Unionattacker8,5003,0002,5009Frontal attack; Withdrew with heavy losses
Holy Roman Empiredefender16,0001,00010,000—Defensive/offensive plan; Double envelopment; Breakthrough; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.