1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 667 Bull Creek

Since the North had huge advantages in active military forces, manpower, industrial capacity, etc., everyone from Congress to newspapers, from civilians to the military, were urging Lincoln to take the initiative and win a quick victory.

There were even voices in Congress calling for the removal of McClellan, who was "passive in responding to the war," and for a more aggressive and positive general to replace him as commander-in-chief of the Western Front.

If the news that the Western Army had captured three forts in one day spread, it would inevitably arouse greater public opinion, demanding that the troops on the Western Front 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 had to take the initiative to attack, the situation would be even worse. Mason's brigade's standing army suffered a disastrous defeat even though they were hiding in the fort's defense. Could it be possible to defeat the Western Army by letting McClellan's main force, which was mainly composed of mobilized soldiers, fight against the Western Army's elite in a field battle?

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

The next two forts that the Western Army was going to attack were Fort Kearny and Fort Grande, which were large forts. Lincoln hoped that the defensive battles of these two large forts could be fought more beautifully so that he could also do some good publicity for the Northern Army on the Western Front and boost the morale of the Northern soldiers and civilians.

"Increase the number of places for the third batch of mobilized soldiers by another 5?" Scott suggested. Scott was in favor of continuing to increase the number of places for mobilized soldiers.

Since they could not win by quality, the only way left for the Northern Union Army was to win by quantity. The North could still afford to fight with the West and the South in terms of manpower, even if it had to fight with the West and the South at the same time.

Yesterday's battle has shown that the Western Army is so powerful that even the federal regular troops cannot match it.

Scott also did not believe that the Western Army could capture the three forts held by the Federal regular army with zero casualties, but since the Western Army's top brass dared to publicize it this way, it was believed that the Western Army's casualties would not be too great.

"So far we have mobilized 30 mobilized soldiers. The Ministry of Finance is already overwhelmed. Should we delay the issue of increasing the number of mobilized soldiers?" Federal Finance Minister Salmon Chase couldn't help but roll his eyes at Scott.

Scott, the old man, wanted to add 16 more conscripts with just one sentence. Do you know how much it costs to mobilize one more conscript? A full dollars! That's just the mobilization cost, not including the subsequent cost of supporting one conscript.

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

The front line between the Western Army and the Union Army was the Platte River, and the front line between the Confederate Army and the Union Army was Bull Creek.

Bull Creek is a tributary of the Potomac River that runs 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 rivers and streams in the United States.

However, after the South declared its secession from the Union, the strategic value of this stream, which runs between the Northern capital of Washington and the Southern capital of Richmond, suddenly increased.

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 Confederate Army's front-line headquarters was located in the town of Manassas on the south bank of Bull Creek, while the Union Army's front-line headquarters was located in the town of Centerville on the north bank.

The main force of the Confederate Army at the Bull Run Front was General Beauregard's Army of the Potomac, which was one of the first troops of the Confederate Army to be fully equipped. It consisted of eight infantry brigades, two artillery brigades, and a Virginia cavalry regiment, stationed in Manassas, with a total force of about 33000 men.

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

A regular brigade of the Western Army has 7500 men at full strength, and is equipped with a brigade artillery battalion, a regimental artillery company, a machine gun company, an engineering company, a reconnaissance company, a communications company, and a few cavalry units. It can fight independently without the support of professional artillery units and is a heavily armored combined brigade of this era.

The number of troops in a Confederate brigade was only 2000 to 4000, and it was a pure infantry brigade.

As for the Southern Army's artillery brigade, the gap between it and the Western Army's artillery brigade was even greater.

南军炮兵旅通常是由3~5个炮兵连组成，每连装备4门6磅或12磅拿破仑炮，一个旅撑破天也就只有20门炮。    西军一个野战炮兵营的火力都要比南军炮兵旅强。

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

Fortunately, it is now the early stages of the war, and the Confederate Army still has sufficient mules, horses, and ammunition. The disadvantages between the Confederate and Union artillery are not so great that they cannot even fight back on the front battlefield.

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

The Army of the Shenandoah consisted of four brigades, namely Bartow's Brigade, Jackson's Brigade, Bee's Brigade, and Smith's Brigade, and a Virginia Cavalry Regiment (Stuart's Cavalry Regiment), totaling more than 23000 people.

The Confederate Army also had a special force stationed in the town of Malnas. This Texas force supported the Confederate Army in the name of civilian armed forces. Although the force was called the Texas Volunteer Brigade, its total strength was only two regiments, one artillery regiment and one Japanese mercenary regiment, with a total of 2200 people.

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

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

At the Confederate front headquarters in Manassas, Robert Lee, the Confederate front commander, could no longer sit still after learning that the Western Army had made a breakthrough in the Platte Valley.

Telegram after telegram was sent to Richmond, and the telegraph machine was almost sending out sparks, but the Southern President Davis and his cabinet remained 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 region. The Liang Yao government could have stayed in the Platte Valley, but chose to lead its elite troops eastward.

In contrast, the decision-makers in the South appear to be extremely conservative. They are only satisfied with enjoying the established fact of independence, without any ambition to make progress, and pin their hopes on diplomatic recognition from Britain and France.

It is true that the conservative policies of the South were caused by objective factors such as labor shortage and weak industry.

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

  Not to mention that it is difficult for the Southern regime to obtain recognition and substantial support from Britain and France at the same time. Even if Britain and France recognize the legitimacy of the Southern regime and are willing to establish formal diplomatic relations with the South, will the North give up using military force against the South?

The legitimacy of the Lincoln administration came from abolition, and he himself was an extremely ambitious man. No matter what achievements the South made in diplomacy, the Lincoln administration, 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 march south after a coup, it would be better to take advantage of the Northern Army's unstable foothold and march north to defeat the main force of the Northern Army on the Eastern Front, forcing the Lincoln government to sign a humiliating treaty in Washington.

"According to the information Ms. Rose had the little sparrows pass down, now is indeed the best time for us to take the initiative." Davis's behavior made even Beauregard, a conservative, feel that it was too conservative.

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

Ms. Rose was a Northern socialite who sympathized with the South and maintained ambiguous relationships 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 was the messenger who delivered intelligence from the North to the man.

In the early stages of the war, the South did a much better job of intelligence than the North.

Thanks to the intelligence support from these Northern sympathizers, Robert Lee and Beauregard were well aware of the Union Army's deployment north of Bull Run.

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

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

(End of this chapter)