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Schematic plan · King William's War

Battle of the Boyne

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveHorseHorseGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

England (Eng Army, 35,000 men under William III) attacked Jacobites (Eng & Irish Reb Army, 23,000 men under James II) in Ireland. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 8 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left rear against hasty defense, and that England won. Losses: England 2,000 (6%), Jacobites 1,500 (7%).

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

England

William III

UnitArmMen
England left wingInfantry6,300
England centreInfantry8,400
England right wingInfantry6,300
England reserveInfantry5,250
England cavalry of the leftCavalry4,000
England cavalry of the rightCavalry4,000
England artillery (50 guns)Artillery750
William IIICommander—
In this plan35,000

Jacobites

James II

UnitArmMen
Jacobites left wingInfantry4,298
Jacobites centreInfantry5,731
Jacobites right wingInfantry4,298
Jacobites reserveInfantry3,582
Jacobites cavalry of the leftCavalry2,500
Jacobites cavalry of the rightCavalry2,500
Jacobites artillery (6 guns)Artillery90
James IICommander—
In this plan22,999

What the sources report

EnglandJacobites
Strength, this plan35,00023,000
Losses, this plan2,0001,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 43, “The Boyne”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
8 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Englandattacker35,0002,0008,00050Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left rear; Penetration
Jacobitesdefender23,0001,5005,0006Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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.