"Largest ACW battles - infantry actually engaged" Topic

Hi,

This is a pretty straightforward question, but as I'm planning how to fill out my ACW armies, I thought I would double-check here. What I am interested in is the total number of men engaged in the largest battles of the ACW, so that I can purchase/paint with some plan in mind … for a change! ;)

In general, I've been assuming Gettysburg provides a good target: in round numbers, 75,000 Union infantry and 60,000 Confederate infantry present (even if they weren't all fighting at the same time).

I know that the Confederate army at Fredericksburg may have been a bit larger, but haven't been able to parse the exact numbers of infantry – however I think it would only have been a few thousand men larger at most? Likewise, the Union at Fredericksburg, and especially Chancellorsville, was theoretically much larger than that of Gettysburg, although those numbers were never fully utilized, and I don't have detailed OB's.

So does 75k for the Union and 60k for the CSA sound about right? It seems that the AoP had access to around 100k infantry during the Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville period, but it seems to be an anomoly. Would bumping the CSA numbers to 65k take into account the largest that the ANV grew at Fredericksburg? Remember, this only infantry under arms.

Cheers,

Christopher

The battle with the largest totals present was, I believe, the Seven Days Battle, but only a small fraction of the armies were engaged at any given time.

Hi Christopher,

Here are the figures I compiled for the size of the armies at the biggest ACW battles. How many of these were "actually engaged", I couldn't say, but maybe this helps.

Battle Union Confederate
Seven Days 104,000 92,000
Chancellorsville 133,868 60,892
Fredricksburg 114,000 72,500
Cold Harbor 108,000 59,000
Gettysburg 94,000 72,000
The Wilderness 102,000 61,000
Spotsylvania Court House 100,000 52,000
Chickamauga 60,000 65,000
North Anna 68,000 53,000
Antietam 75,500 38,000
2nd Bull Run 62,000 50,000
Shiloh 66,812 44,699
Vicksburg 77,000 33,000
Missionary Ridge 56,359 44,010
Nashville 50,000 30,000
Stones River 41,400 35,000
Atlanta 34,863 40,438
Seven Pines / Fair Oaks 34,000 39,000

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
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CaTenWolde…you have a PLAN?….shame on you sir; you're showing the rest of us up as sad, obsessive creatures with no self-control.

I know … it took me a long time to overcome my shame and build up the courage to post here!

However, in my defense, I've had many other plans, and they lasted about as long as (and were as effective as) McClellan's plans …

I believe if you can field the complete armies for Antietam or Gettysburg, you can fight any battle out there.

I noticed Resaca was missing from the above list. Most or all of the two army groups were facing each other by May 15th. It would place near the Wilderness and Gettysburg on the list above.

I made a Resaca scenario for VnB. Once you reduce the Federals to "effectives" the numbers were about 50,000 vs 40,000.
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@67thtigers: Thanks for that scenario.

Infantry? Ummmm.

The largest Confederate army that ever fought was during the Seven Days with about 113,282 PFD, and the only time in the East they outnumbered the Federals. Reducing that to infantry, and excluding the fixed garrisons gives:

Dept of NC etc: 14,431 inf, 880 arty, 210 cav
Jackson and DH Hill: 31,623 inf, 1,486 arty, 1,160 cav
Longstreet and AP Hill: 29,112 inf, 1,532 arty
Magruder: 14,947 inf, 831 arty
Res. Arty: 1,238 arty
Stuart's Cavalry: 3,996 cav, 141 arty

= 90,113 inf, 6,108 arty (exc/ garrison arty), 5,366 cav

2nd Corps: 15,460 inf, 919 arty, 239 cav
3rd Corps: 16,047 inf, 855 arty, 717 cav
4th Corps: 12,060 inf, 582 arty, 712 cav
5th Corps: 23,716 inf, 1,193 arty, 999 cav
6th Corps: 16,867 inf, 798 arty, 920 cav
Arty Res: 1,942 arty (field and horse) (exc/ 941 in siege train)
Cav Div: 1,954 cav (arty included in reserve)

= 84,150 inf, 6,289 arty, 5,541 cav

There you have ca. 174,000 engaged infantry. I would guess that is the biggest number of engaged infantry in a "battle".

You can also find OOB's in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. It's a four volume set and is pretty reliable.
On a side note, the numbers involved mentioned in any history won't be 100% accurate. The Confederacy counted (thus listed) only bayonets – or combat personnel- in their rosters, where the Union counted everyone – teamsters, quartermasters, surgeons, etc.

Thanks for all the help! The Seven Days was difficult to parse, so that's especially useful.

I'm aware of the differences in who counted whom and why, which makes things even more difficult. But these numbers give me some broad goals to work towards while I delve into the details of individual campaigns and battles.

Cheers,

Christopher

You can also find OOB's in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. It's a four volume set and is pretty reliable.
On a side note, the numbers involved mentioned in any history won't be 100% accurate. The Confederacy counted (thus listed) only bayonets – or combat personnel- in their rosters, where the Union counted everyone – teamsters, quartermasters, surgeons, etc.

There's an understatement. Not only did the methods for computing strengths differ between the two sides, quite often the attempts to equalize the computations are skewed to show an army was stronger or weaker than it actually was. Although I like B&L, they are guilty of this as anyone.

The only thing that approaches any sort of reliability vis-a-vis numbers, are the Consolidated Monthly Reports of each side. These, however, are only reliable for that date, a snapshot of the unit, as it were.

For the Gettysburg Campaign, when my old club built the armies, we took the numbers from the June 30th rolls, for the federals, and what we could locate from the same reports for the Lee's units. In some cases, we found the AAR's of CS regiments, which were pretty accurate when they gave their numbers, since the reports were written in a timely manner and taken from the notes and roll books of surviving officers and 1st sergeants of the reporting command. We sometimes did this for the federals.

But in any case, for the federal forces, many, if not all, of their CMR's may be found either in the LoC or the Army Historical center at Carlisle. Copies of these are almost, but not always, available in state archives. For example, in Maine, copies of almost every regiment's consolidated monthly report are available in bound volumes and may be viewed with only a short notice to the staff.

A quick note regarding CS numbers: Many of those "bayonets" counted included musicians, who were mustered with their respective companies for morning and evening reports, etc, so the ACTUAL numbers of men with weapons is often a little skewed by that. PLUS, some regiments counted only the enlisted in formation, while others did include the officers present for duty as well.

Never say never when it comes to the ACW.

Stop painting when you can do Gettysburg at a 1:5 ratio.

Cleburne1863 – thanks for the pointer about Resaca – duly added to my list.

67thtigers: interesting scenario. When you played it, how did it go?

Chris