1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 667 Bull Creek

Since the North has a huge advantage in active military forces, manpower, industrial capacity, etc., everyone from Congress to newspapers, from civilians to the army, is urging Lincoln to take the initiative and fight quickly.

There are even voices in Congress to dismiss McClellan, who "passively responded to the battle", and choose a general with stronger ambition and more positive attitude to replace McClellan as the commander-in-chief of the Western Front.

If the news that the Western Army took three forts in one day spreads, it will inevitably arouse greater public opinion. Require the troops on the Western Front to take the initiative to fight and wash away the humiliating defeat of the loss of Fort Gossen, Fort Cozad, and Fort Lexington.

If they really have to take the initiative to attack, the situation will become worse. Mason's Brigade's regular army still suffered a disastrous defeat while hiding in the defense of the fort. Can the main force under McClellan, mainly mobilized soldiers, and the elite of the Western Army fight in the field to defeat the Western Army?

In any case, Lincoln must suppress this news for now. As for how long this news can be suppressed, it depends on God's will.

The next two forts that the Western Army will attack are large forts, Fort Kearny and Fort Grande. Lincoln hopes that the defense battles of these two large forts can be fought more beautifully, so that he can also do a good job of propaganda for the Northern Army on the Western Front and boost the morale of the Northern soldiers and civilians.

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"Increase the number of mobilization soldiers by 50,000 in the third batch?" Scott proposed. Scott was in favor of continuing to increase the number of mobilization soldiers.

Since they cannot win by quality, the only way left for the Northern Federal Army is to win by quantity. In terms of manpower, even if it is to compete with the West and the South at the same time, the North can still fight and spend.

Yesterday's battle has shown that the Western Army is so elite that even the Federal regular troops can hardly match it.

Scott also didn't believe that the Western Army could take down the three forts held by the federal standing army at the cost of zero casualties, but the Western Army's top brass dared to publicize it so, so the casualties of the Western Army would not be too great.

"So far, we have mobilized 300,000 mobilized soldiers. The Ministry of Finance is already overwhelmed. Should we delay the increase in the number of mobilized soldiers?" Federal Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase couldn't help but roll his eyes at Scott.

Scott, this old man, wanted to increase the number of mobilized soldiers by 50,000 in one sentence. Do you know how much it costs to mobilize one more mobilized soldier? A full 16 dollars! That's just the mobilization cost, not including the subsequent cost of supporting a mobilized soldier.

"The situation is critical, this matter must not be delayed! The Western Army won the first battle, and I'm afraid there will be action soon in the South." Lincoln said worriedly.

The front line of confrontation between the Western Army and the Northern Army is the Platte River, and the front line of confrontation between the Southern Army and the Northern Army is Bull Creek.

Bull Creek is a tributary of the Potomac River, running from northwest to southeast.

Before the war, Bull Creek was just an ordinary, unknown stream, with an average width of about 12 to 13 meters and an average depth of only 2 to 3 meters. There are thousands of such ordinary streams in the United States.

However, after the South declared its secession from the Union, the strategic value of this stream between the northern capital Washington and the southern capital Richmond rose sharply.

Generals from both the North and the South saw the strategic value of this stream and deployed heavy troops on both sides of Bull Creek.

The front-line headquarters of the Southern Army was located in Manassas on the south bank of Bull Creek, and the front-line headquarters of the Northern Army was located in Centerville on the north bank.

The main force of the Southern Army on the front line of Bull Creek was General Beauregard's Potomac Army. The Potomac Army was one of the first troops of the Southern Army to be fully prepared. It had eight infantry brigades, two artillery brigades, and a Virginia Cavalry Regiment, stationed in Manassas. The total force was about 33,000 people.

The brigade-level troop organization of the Southern Army is quite different from that of the Western Army.

A standing brigade of the Western Army has 7,500 people at full strength, and is equipped with brigade artillery battalions, regimental artillery companies, machine gun companies, engineering companies, reconnaissance companies, communications companies and a few cavalry units. It can fight independently without the support of professional artillery units. It is a heavy composite brigade of this era.

A brigade of the Southern Army has only 2,000 to 4,000 people, and it is a pure infantry brigade.

As for the artillery brigade of the Southern Army, the gap with the artillery brigade of the Western Army is even greater.

The artillery brigade of the Southern Army is usually composed of 3 to 5 artillery companies, each equipped with 4 6-pound or 12-pound Napoleon guns, and a brigade can only have 20 guns at most.

The firepower of a field artillery battalion of the Western Army is stronger than that of the artillery brigade of the Southern Army.

The 6-pounder cannon, which the Confederate Army regarded as heavy firepower, had been transferred to the regimental artillery company by the Western Army to be used as support firepower at the regimental level.

Fortunately, it was the early stage of the war, and the Confederate Army still had sufficient mules and horses and ammunition. The disadvantages of the Confederate and Union artillery were not so great that they could not even fight back on the front battlefield.

In addition to the town of Manassas, the Confederate Army also deployed the Shenandoah Army in the Shenandoah River Valley, and the Shenandoah Army was commanded by the Confederate General Johnston.

The Shenandoah Army had four brigades under its jurisdiction, namely the Bartow Brigade, the Jackson Brigade, the Bee Brigade, the Smith Brigade, and a Virginia Cavalry Regiment (Stuart Cavalry Regiment), totaling more than 23,000 people.

The Confederate Army also had a special unit stationed in Manassas. This unit was supported by the Texas Volunteer Brigade in the name of civilian armed forces. Although the unit was called the Texas Volunteer Brigade, it had only two regiments, one artillery regiment and one Japanese mercenary regiment, with a total of 2,200 people.

Although the Texas Brigade was small in number, its artillery regiment had the heavy firepower that the Confederate Army dreamed of: 24-pound heavy artillery.

"The Western Army has officially declared war on the Northern Army, and our president is still indifferent to this. Do we have to rely on the Western Army to fight a war of independence for us?"

Robert Lee, the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, who learned that the Western Army had made a breakthrough in the Platte River Valley at the Confederate Front Headquarters in Manassas, could no longer sit still.

Telegram after telegram was sent to Richmond, and the telegraph machine was about to send out sparks, but the Southern President Davis and his cabinet were still indifferent.

In terms of strategic decision-making, the decision-makers in the North and the West were very radical. The Lincoln government would rather risk fighting on two fronts than give up the central frontier. The Liang Yao government could have stayed in the Platte Valley, but chose to send its elite troops eastward.

In contrast, the decision-makers in the South were extremely conservative, only satisfied with enjoying the established fact of independence, not making progress, and pinning their hopes on diplomatic recognition from Britain and France.

Admittedly, the conservative policies of the South were caused by objective factors such as manpower shortages and weak industry.

But Robert Lee still believed that Davis and his cabinet were too conservative and too naive.

Not to mention that it was difficult for the Southern regime to obtain recognition and substantive support from Britain and France at the same time, even if Britain and France recognized the legitimacy of the Southern regime and were willing to establish formal diplomatic relations with the South, would the North give up using troops against the South?

The legitimacy of the Lincoln government came from abolition, and he himself was an extremely ambitious person. No matter what achievements the South made in diplomacy, the Lincoln government, the Republican Party, and even the Northern Democratic Party would not give up their claims to the Southern territory.

Instead of waiting for the North to mobilize troops and then go south after the coup, it is better to take advantage of the unstable position of the Northern Army and march north to defeat the main force of the Northern Army on the Eastern Front, forcing the Lincoln government to sign a surrender in Washington.

"According to the intelligence that Ms. Rose asked the sparrows to pass down, now is indeed the best time for us to take the initiative." Davis's style made Beauregard, a conservative, feel too conservative.

Beauregard also believed that now was the best time to go north. Once the North and the West reached a compromise, their situation in the South would be dangerous.

Ms. Rose was a Northern socialite who sympathized with the South and maintained an ambiguous relationship with many Northern congressmen. Long before the South declared independence, Rose and many Northerners who sympathized with the South had delivered a lot of very valuable intelligence to the man. The so-called sparrow is the messenger who conveyed intelligence from the North to the man.

In the early days of the war, the South's intelligence work was much better than that of the North.

Thanks to the intelligence support of these Northern sympathizers, Robert Lee and Beauregard knew the deployment of the Northern Army north of Bull Creek.

Therefore, the two of them almost unanimously believed that now was the best time to go north and engage in a large-scale battle with the Northern Army, and then approach Washington.

"The opportunity for war is fleeting, and we can't delay any longer! I will go to Richmond to meet the president! Explain the current situation to the president in person!" Robert Lee walked out of the command post quickly, jumped on his horse, and went to Richmond to ask for orders.