Scott Hippensteel publishes article on how Civil War battlefield terrain influenced combat outcomes
Scott Hippensteel, professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, published the article “Fatal Terrain: How the ground on which Civil War armies fought helped dictate the nature of combat—and resulting casualties” in The Civil War Monitor.
As part of the Science and War column, Hippensteel explores how the battlefield terrain during the American Civil War influenced combat outcomes, specifically the ratio of killed in action to wounded. Battles like Pickett’s Mill, South Mountain, Allatoona Pass, and Gettysburg involved at least one exceptionally high-relief slope.
Hippensteel gathered data on the number of killed and wounded soldiers and divided it by the number of soldiers involved in the fight.
“The working hypothesis for this inquiry is that units attacking uphill will suffer more fatal gunshots to the head, neck, and upper/middle torso, resulting in a higher rate of fatalities in combat,” said Hippensteel. “When this uphill fighting takes place over relatively shorter ranges, the results are even more lethal.”