1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 697: All in

The intelligence collected by the Northern Sparrows and telegrams from the front lines flew like snowflakes to the desk of Robert Lee, commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army.

As Lincoln and Scott sent the Northern Army's reserve troops into the battlefield, although the situation of the war had not been reversed, the offensive and defensive situation between the two sides had indeed changed.

"Crazy! Crazy! Lincoln and Scott are just gamblers!"

This was Robert Lee's evaluation of Lincoln and Scott's actions after analyzing the intelligence.

Lincoln and Scott don't leave any way out!

If the Northern Army were defeated in this battle, the Northern capital of Washington would not be without defenses, but without soldiers to defend it!

Robert Lee calmly analyzed the current enemy and our situation on the sand table. After the Battle of Manassas, the main force of the Confederate Army, led by Beauregard, advanced to Arlington County, five or six miles southwest of Washington.

Although the Union troops led by Pope repelled the Confederate troops in Fairfax on the way south, 2 Confederate troops under Beauregard were still stationed in Arlington County. They slowly moved their camps toward Washington while in a stalemate with the local Union troops and Union guerrillas.

Obviously, Beauregard's Confederate Army could not be moved. Once Beauregard led his troops to support Jackson, there was no guarantee that Washington's garrison would cross the Potomac River to pursue Beauregard's Confederate Army.

At that time, Beauregard would be caught in a passive situation of being attacked from both sides by the Northern Army.

But without reinforcements, could Jackson, who was outnumbered, hold Manassas?

With Jackson's Virginia Army of just over 5000 men pitted against Pope's 1.7 Northern Army, the chances of winning were slim no matter how you looked at it.

To make matters worse, almost all of the Confederate Army's heavy firepower was given to Beauregard, and Jackson only had a light artillery regiment equipped with 6-pound Napoleon cannons.

"Sir, I would like to lead the cavalry brigade to rescue Jackson." Jeb Stewart volunteered.

Stuart was the brigade commander of the cavalry brigade, commanding the only cavalry brigade in the South.

"Not enough." Robert Lee shook his head. "Besides, it would be a waste of resources to let your cavalry guard the city."

Like the infantry regiment of the Virginia Army, the Confederate cavalry brigade was not fully staffed. Although Stuart's cavalry brigade was called a brigade, its total number of personnel was actually just over 2,000.

The Confederate artillery was obviously at a disadvantage compared to the Union Army. Robert Lee deliberately kept Stuart's cavalry brigade to deal with the Union Army's artillery, and he would not use Stuart's cavalry brigade easily.

"If you need a large-scale reinforcement, only Richmond's troops are left to be mobilized," Stuart sighed.

Due to limited manpower, although the Southern men were very enthusiastic about joining the army, it was still difficult for them to gain an advantage over the Northern Army in terms of troop numbers.

If the Union Army had not been fighting on two fronts, with nearly 100,000 Union troops on the Western Front being pinned down by the Western Army in Omaha, the Confederate Army would now be in a more passive situation.

Stuart hit the nail on the head. Now that the Yankees have revealed their cards and are going all in, it all depends on whether Robert Lee dares to join in the all-in.

"What I am most worried about now is whether McDowell's Army of the Potomac is sailing south to cooperate with Pope in attacking Jackson, or to attack our capital, Richmond." Robert Lee expressed his concerns.

Based on the intelligence they currently had, Robert Lee knew that McDowell's Army of the Potomac was moving south, and he also knew that the total number of the Army of the Potomac was around 2.

But he was not sure whether McDowell's target was Manassas or Richmond.

The Confederate Army did not have control of the sea, and the Union Army's Marines still controlled the Port of Norfolk, the sea throat of Virginia. It was not impossible for McDowell's troops to take a risky move and go upstream along the James River to take Richmond directly.

If Richmond's reserve troops were transferred to the Manassas front line at that time, the capital Richmond would be in great danger.

Robert Lee suddenly felt his shoulders extremely heavy, and the enormous pressure of decision-making made him breathless.

It is no exaggeration to say that the correctness of the decision he makes now directly determines the life and death of the Confederacy.

No matter what, at this point, he can only take a gamble!

He bet that McDowell would be cautious and would not risk sending only 20,000 troops deep into the heart of the South to attack the capital. "Send a telegram to the reserve troops in Richmond! Now! Go to the train station and march to Manassas!"

Among the Union generals, McDowell and McClellan were not the only ones who were cautious. Pope, the Union general who confronted Jackson's troops, was also a cautious person and a very conservative person in using troops.

Although the North's intelligence work was terrible, Pope had no idea how many troops Jackson had in North Manassas.

However, according to the intelligence sent back by the scouts of the reconnaissance team, Jackson's troops would not exceed 8,000, and their total strength was far inferior to that of Pope's troops.

There was a certain gap between the troop strength data provided by the Union scouts and the actual troop strength of Jackson's troops, but the intelligence they obtained was relatively accurate, and the scouts' work was satisfactory.

Jackson's Virginia Army was indeed far smaller in strength than Pope's.

Perhaps it was due to the psychological trauma of the disastrous defeat at Manassas, or perhaps it was because Pope had always been so conservative in employing troops.

After some analysis, Pope believed that with 17000 versus 8000, the advantage was not great and there was no chance of defeating Jackson's Virginia Army.

Pope then decided to wait for McDowell's Army of the Potomac to arrive in Manassas, and then the two of them would join forces to attack Jackson.

In contrast, Pope's opponent Jackson used his troops in a very bold and radical way.

Faced with the increasingly tightening encirclement of the Northern Army led by Pope, Jackson did not intend to sit and wait for death, but wanted to break the deadlock with his own strength.

If McDowell's Army of the Potomac had been headed for Manassas, he would have been in a more passive position by the time McDowell and Pope had assembled. Even if Robert Lee arrived in Manassas with reinforcements from Richmond, it would have been difficult to turn the tide.

Jackson decided to disrupt the Union's assembly by launching an offensive against a nearby troop assembly, thereby irritating Pope and causing him to attack his position before McDowell arrived.

A Union troop that was gathering and setting up camp near Brannan Farm caught Jackson's attention. This Union troop was estimated to have four regiments. Judging from their uniforms and equipment, this Union troop looked like a militia, not an elite force of the Union.

Moreover, they were less than 4 miles away from Jackson's defensive position and were setting up camp, which was a good time to launch a surprise attack on them.

Jackson ordered Brigadier General Iwell to lead the 2nd, 4th, and 27th Virginia Infantry Regiments in a surprise attack on the Union Army.

Avel did not hesitate and led his troops directly to the Northern Army that was building a camp. However, when he arrived at the place, he was dumbfounded.

The location chosen by this Union army for camping was quite tricky, with a river on one side of the camp and the dense woods of Brannan Farm on the other.

The woods south of Brannan Farm were too dense, not only blocking their view, but also forcibly dividing Iwell's three regiments into three parts, making it impossible for them to support and coordinate with each other. The scattered forces actually gave the Northern Army time to react.

The Confederate Army in the dense forest could not see the Union Army clearly, but the Confederate Army outside the dense forest could clearly see the white smoke rising above the forest.

The Northern Army that was ambushed did not hesitate at all. They concentrated their superior forces and used rifles and cannons to attack the place where the smoke was coming out of the woods. For a time, the Southern Army that was ambushed suffered heavy casualties.

What Jackson and Irwin didn't know was that the Confederate Army they ambushed was not a militia at all, but a legitimate Northern regular army.

The reason why they did not wear regular army uniforms was that the Union Army expanded too quickly and the logistics department was unable to provide enough uniforms to the army.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Aville hurriedly ordered a retreat, and the three regiments of the Confederate Army hurriedly withdrew to their positions one after another.

The Confederate Army failed to gain the upper hand and ended up losing the rice. After suffering more than 130 casualties, they finally retreated in a panic. Even Aville himself was hit in the leg by a stray bullet during the retreat and had to be carried back by a sergeant.

The huge casualties made the situation even worse for Jackson, who already had a limited number of troops, and he was left with no tears to cry.

Jackson originally wanted to launch a sneak attack to anger Pope and lure Pope into attacking the position he had carefully prepared for Pope. However, he didn't expect that in the end he failed to anger Pope, but instead succeeded in angering himself.

(End of this chapter)