Time Astra

Schematic plan · Jacobite Rebellion

Battle of Prestonpans

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseGunsGunsHorseHorse0200 m400 mN

Jacobites (Scot Reb Army, 2,400 men under Prince Charles Edward) attacked Great Britain (Br Army, 2,200 men under Cope) in Scotland. The CAA Database of Battles records 0.5 hours of fighting on a front of 0.6 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Jacobites won. Losses: Jacobites 110 (5%), Great Britain 1,800 (82%).

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

Jacobites

Prince Charles Edward

UnitArmMen
Jacobites left wingInfantry559
Jacobites centreInfantry746
Jacobites right wingInfantry559
Jacobites reserveInfantry466
Jacobites cavalry of the leftCavalry20
Jacobites cavalry of the rightCavalry20
Jacobites artillery (2 guns)Artillery30
Prince Charles EdwardCommander—
In this plan2,400

Great Britain

Cope

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry389
Great Britain centreInfantry518
Great Britain right wingInfantry389
Great Britain reserveInfantry324
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry200
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry200
Great Britain artillery (12 guns)Artillery180
CopeCommander—
In this plan2,200

What the sources report

JacobitesGreat Britain
Strength, this plan2,4002,200
Losses, this plan1101,800

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 62, “Prestonpans”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
0.2 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
0.6 km (attacker), 0.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Jacobitesattacker2,400110402Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Great Britaindefender2,2001,80040012Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · intelligence +2 · initiative +3 · surprise +2

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.