Logistical Problem Solving Exercise

[NedBaldwin]

The following is an operational exercise I have thought about.
I am curious about how others would approach it.

Objective: Move command from Point A to Point B.
Distance: 10 miles
Mode: marching on a single country road

Question: Starting from Point A at first light, how many men can you assemble at Point B by sunset?

What assumptions are necessary - speed? length of day? marching formation? force composition?​

Follow-on question: did Civil War commanders/staff conduct this kind of analysis?

 

[Elennsar]

The issues that come to mind for me:

1) Quality of training. Undisciplined troops will be falling out of line to pick berries, among other things.

2) Quality of experience. More experienced troops are going to be more experienced marchers and less likely to get footsore.

3) Quality of leaders. Better leaders make it easier to keep ranks closed up and ensure appropriate rest breaks.

4) Level of supplies - shoes are obviously part of this, but if my men are hungry, that's gonna hurt - and probably increase the number who drop out to find something to eat.

5) Weather conditions. Hot weather will increase drop outs for obvious reasons. Snow and such aren't going to help either.

6) Terrain. Presumably we're talking a relatively flat area, but even at that, are we crossing any rivers? If so, do we have to ford them?

I'm sure there are others, these are just the first six I can think of as primary elements.

Edit: This might be worth reading http://antietam.aotw.org/exhibit.php?exhibit_id=187

 

[BillO]

If you're going to wait for daylight your already about 4 hours behind schedule.

 

[Greg Taylor]

Re: Follow-on question. What did they teach at West Point?

 

[John Winn]

Good responses already that cover some of the factors that could affect the answer. You don't say if it's summer or winter; that would affect how many hours before sundown.

I'd just say that ten miles isn't that far for marches of the day. Fifteen to twenty miles weren't uncommon distances. All marches had stragglers, experienced or not. So, I'm going to say if all of the factors Lt. Co. Elennsar mentioned were in your favor, probably 95% would get there. The more of those factors that aren't in your favor, the fewer who arrive by the end of the day. Worst case scenario: for a ten-mile hike on a road I'd guess at least 75% would make it. Heck, seems on even some of those famous forced marches at least 50% made it over longer distances.

Regarding your follow-up question, I'm going to guess that not many commanders performed analyses. I think they'd just have said "well, we need to be at B by sundown so get 'em up and move 'em out." War games and the like were a few generations in the future.

 

[1SGDan]

Other things to consider:
What will they be expected to accomplish at Point B?
Will anything be marching with them?
What other traffic may be on the road?
What are the weather conditions?
Is enemy contact a possibility?

If they are marching to combat they may have artillery, ambulances, or ammo wagons attached. Rain will slow the march as will other traffic. If there is a possibility of enemy contact flankers would be deployed slowing the advance.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Follow-on question: did Civil War commanders/staff conduct this kind of analysis?

I'll take the follow-on; yes, or at least they could have. There are entire chapters devoted to marches, lengths of marches, etc., in Jomini.

 

[NedBaldwin]

Good responses already that cover some of the factors that could affect the answer. You don't say if it's summer or winter; that would affect how many hours before sundown.

I'd just say that ten miles isn't that far for marches of the day. Fifteen to twenty miles weren't uncommon distances. All marches had stragglers, experienced or not. So, I'm going to say if all of the factors Lt. Co. Elennsar mentioned were in your favor, probably 95% would get there. The more of those factors that aren't in your favor, the fewer who arrive by the end of the day. Worst case scenario: for a ten-mile hike on a road I'd guess at least 75% would make it. Heck, seems on even some of those famous forced marches at least 50% made it over longer distances.

Regarding your follow-up question, I'm going to guess that not many commanders performed analyses. I think they'd just have said "well, we need to be at B by sundown so get 'em up and move 'em out." War games and the like were a few generations in the future.

An interesting response but what I am thinking of is how large a force you can move, not necessarily what % stay together on the move.

The idea is this: Say you have 50,000 at the start -- seems to me that you will not be able to move all 50,000 down a single road in a single day. But how many could? Is there a theoretical maximum?

How fast would the column move? I'll assume 2.5mph (Im assuming infantry marching).
So the head of the column would reach destination in 4 hours.

How much more time do you have in the day after the head of the column gets there? I'll assume another 10 hours.

So whats the throughput of the road over 10 hours? Depends on so many things.
Dan and Elennsar raised some great questions about parameters that will shape the answer.
It almost seems too complex to come up with a real answer.

 

[NedBaldwin]

I'll take the follow-on; yes, or at least they could have. There are entire chapters devoted to marches, lengths of marches, etc., in Jomini.

Thanks. I will have to get my hands on Jomini

 

[John Winn]

An interesting response but what I am thinking of is how large a force you can move, not necessarily what % stay together on the move.

The idea is this: Say you have 50,000 at the start -- seems to me that you will not be able to move all 50,000 down a single road in a single day. But how many could? Is there a theoretical maximum?

How fast would the column move? I'll assume 2.5mph (Im assuming infantry marching).
So the head of the column would reach destination in 4 hours.

How much more time do you have in the day after the head of the column gets there? I'll assume another 10 hours.

So whats the throughput of the road over 10 hours? Depends on so many things.
Dan and Elennsar raised some great questions about parameters that will shape the answer.
It almost seems too complex to come up with a real answer.

Sorry .... didn't quite get your drift.

Well, with 50,000 your column would likely be ten miles long (you didn't specify how many we were talking about).

I figure that assuming a column four wide (typical). If each man occupied four feet that's a column 9.5 miles in length. So there'd be at least four hours after the first got there for all the rest to arrive if nothing hampered their progress. I'd say a lot of those guys would be setting up camp pretty late in the day.

 

[kenjcruz]

A good read on the logistics of moving a Civil War army is Southern Storm by Noah Trudeau. Sherman's March was as much a logistics exercise as it was a war making exercise. It discusses the initial planning done for the March and documents each days march, the distance, roads taken, the weather, etc.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Thanks. I will have to get my hands on Jomini

Good news is that there's a pretty inexpensive reprint out there (may even be a Google book, for that matter) that was done by the U.S. Army during the Civil War itself, so it's probably representative of the language/terms in use at the time...

ETA Yup, free Google book: http://books.google.com/books?id=nZ4fAAAAMAAJ&dq=art+of+war+jomini&source=gbs_navlinks_s