Schematic plan · War of the First Coalition

Battle of Jemappes

6 November 1792
Austrian Netherlands
Victory for France

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

France (French Army of the North, 40,000 men under Dumouriez) attacked Austria (Allied Army, 13,000 men under Teschen) in Austrian Netherlands. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 3,000 (8%), Austria 2,500 (19%).

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

France

Dumouriez

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	8,520
France centre	Infantry	11,360
France right wing	Infantry	8,520
France reserve	Infantry	7,100
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	1,500
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	1,500
France artillery (100 guns)	Artillery	1,500
Dumouriez	Commander	—
In this plan		40,000

Austria

Teschen

Unit	Arm	Men
Austria left wing	Infantry	2,926
Austria centre	Infantry	3,901
Austria right wing	Infantry	2,926
Austria reserve	Infantry	2,438
Austria artillery (54 guns)	Artillery	810
Teschen	Commander	—
In this plan		13,001

What the sources report

	France	Austria
Strength, this plan	40,000	13,000
Losses, this plan	3,000	2,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 97, “Jemappes”, 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 attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 5 km (attacker), 6.4 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	40,000	3,000	3,000	100	Frontal attack; Penetration
Austriadefender	13,000	2,500	—	54	Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages morale +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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 97 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Jemappes · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.