Clodfelter (2008) battle data: battles

name:clodfelter_battles path:clodfelter_battles.csv format:csv

Battle data for the battles of the American Civil War in Clodfelter, M. (2008) Warfare And Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1494-2007.

Clodfelter has no strict rule for the inclusion of battles; his criteria is to include “all important and significant actions and the results of each conflict” (p. 1). No casualty threshhold is used to select battles because that would have to vary across wars to produce sensical results.

Clodfelter divides the American Civil War into three theaters

• Eastern
• Western
• Blockade War

and divides the battles into thirteen groups: East (1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865), West (1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865), and Blocade War (1861–1862, 1863, 1864–1865).

Note on battle casualty percent. 15 percent for the American Civil War (p. 5).

The following battles had a significant naval component.

• Roanoke Island (Feb 7-8, 1862): large land component (13000, 3000)
• Hampton Roads (Mar 8, 1862): ship vs. ship.
• New Orleans (April 24, 1862): ship vs. fort.
• Galveston (Jan 1, 1863) Both sides had some land forces.
• Fort Hindman (Jan 11, 1863). Both sides had significant land forces.
• Mobile Bay (Aug 5, 1864): Mostly ships.
• Fort Fisher (Jan 13-15). Both sides had significant land forces. Bombardment + assault on fort.

Quirks of the battles in this data:

• Vicksburg: divided into the overall siege and two Assaults

  • Vicksburg (siege) on 1863-5-18 to 1863-7-4
  • Vicksburg (1st assault) on 1863-5-19
  • Vicksburg (2nd assault) on 1863-5-22

• Port Hudson is divided into the overall siege and two Assaults

  • Port Hudson (Siege) on 1863-5-26 to 1863-7-9
  • Port Hudson (1st assault) on 1863-5-27
  • Port Hudson (2nd assault) on 1863-6-14

• Chattanooga: includes a battle for the overall battle and four separate Battles

  • Chattanooga on 1863-11-23 to 1863-11-25
  • Chattanooga (Orchard Knob/Indian Hill) on 11-23
  • Chattanooga (Lookout Mountain) on 11-24
  • Chattanooga (Tunnel Hill) on 11-25
  • Chattanooga (Missionary Ridge) on 11-25

• Cold Harbor: includes a battle for the overall siege and one for the assault

  • Cold Harbor (assault) on 1864-6-3
  • Cold Harbor on 1864-5-31 to 1864-6-12

• The Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8-9, 1862 is split into battles for each day

  • Hampton Roads (first day) on 1862-03-08
  • Hampton Roads (second day) on 1862-03-09

• Seven Days Battles includes an entry for the entire Seven Days Battles (June 25-July 1), as well as one for each separate battle.

  • The Orchard (Seven Days)
  • Mechanicsville (Seven Days)
  • Gaines’s Mill (Seven Days)
  • Savage’s Station (Seven Days)
  • White Oak Swamp (Seven Days)
  • Malvern Hill (Seven Days)

• 2nd Bull Run (Manasas) [VA026] (1862-8-28 to 1862-8-30) and Chantilly [VA027] (1862-9-1) are divided into two battles:

  • Groveton (1862-8-28)
  • Second Bull Run/Chantilly (Second Manassas) (1862-8-29 to 1862-9-1)

• 3rd Petersburg on 1865-04-02 is split into two battles

  • Fort Gregg on 1865-04-02
  • Petersburg (2nd Assault) on 1865-04-02

• Mobile Bay only includes the assault on August 5, 1864 and not the entire siege.

Sources: [Clodfelter2008]

Schema

battle_id	string	battle_id
theater	string	Theater
theater_years	string	theater_years
start_date	date	Start date
end_date	date	End Date
result	string	Result
page	integer	Page

battle_id

title:battle_id type:string format:default

theater

title:

Theater

type:

string

format:

default

constraints:

enum:[‘East’, ‘West’, ‘Blockade War’]

theater_years

title:

theater_years

type:

string

format:

default

constraints:

enum:[‘Eastern Theater: 1861’, ‘Western Theater: 1861’, ‘The Blockade War: 1861-2’, ‘East: 1862’, ‘West: 1862’, ‘East: 1863’, ‘West: 1863’, ‘The Blockade War: 1863’, ‘East: 1864’, ‘West: 1864’, ‘The Blockade War: 1864-5’, ‘East: 1865’, ‘West: 1865’]

start_date

title:Start date type:date format:default

end_date

title:End Date type:date format:default

result

title:

Result

type:

string

format:

default

constraints:

enum:[‘Union’, ‘Confederate’, ‘Indecisive’]

Result of the battle: Union victory, Confederate victory or tie. Clodfelter does not classify battles by result. This variable was added. The classifications follow CWSAC (CWSAC Report battle data: battles) where available.

Sources: [Clodfelter2008]

page

title:Page type:integer format:default

Page number in Clodfelter (2008)