Time Astra

Schematic plan · American Revolution

Battle of Hobkirk's Hill

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 wingReserveHorseHorseGunsHorseHorse0200 m400 mN

Great Britain (Br Army, 900 men under Rawdon) attacked USA (Am Army, 1,551 men under Greene) in South Carolina. The CAA Database of Battles records 6 hours of fighting on a front of 0.6 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Great Britain won. Losses: Great Britain 258 (29%), USA 420 (27%).

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

Great Britain

Rawdon

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry202
Great Britain centreInfantry269
Great Britain right wingInfantry202
Great Britain reserveInfantry168
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry30
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry30
RawdonCommander—
In this plan901

USA

Greene

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry310
USA centreInfantry413
USA right wingInfantry310
USA reserveInfantry258
USA cavalry of the leftCavalry100
USA cavalry of the rightCavalry100
USA artillery (4 guns)Artillery60
GreeneCommander—
In this plan1,551

What the sources report

Great BritainUSA
Strength, this plan9001,551
Losses, this plan258420

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 94, “Hobkirk'S Hill”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
6 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
0.6 km (attacker), 0.9 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker900258600Frontal attack; Penetration
USAdefender1,5514202004Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages intelligence +2 · initiative +2 · surprise +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.