1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 698: Second Battle of Manassas

Pope soon heard the news that the Union Army south of Brannan Manor had launched a brilliant defensive counterattack and inflicted heavy damage on the Confederate Army that had launched a surprise attack.

"The elite troops of the Confederate Army are nothing but this! Jackson is nothing but this!"

Pope was very excited when he learned about this.

Pope now began to suspect that his colleagues at the First Battle of Manassas had exaggerated the strength of the Confederate Army in order to cover up their own incompetence.

The Virginia Army, a powerful Confederate force, had just emerged from the fortifications in the Bull Run River Valley to launch a surprise attack on them.

What was the result? They were beaten and fled away by the brave and heroic northern men!

Pope believed it was necessary to re-evaluate the Confederate Army's combat effectiveness and adjust the original combat plan.

His army was able to defeat the Confederate Army by counterattacking despite being ambushed. Doesn't this mean that his troops were fully capable of defeating Jackson's Virginia Army in a frontal attack?

Since Pope could defeat Jackson's Army of Virginia on his own, why did he wait for McDowell's Army of the Potomac to share this great credit with McDowell?

He can totally take all the credit on his own!

The commander-in-chief of the Union Army's Eastern Front was the powerful veteran General Scott. However, Scott was too old to go to the front line in person. The two main forces of the Union Army on the Eastern Front were commanded by Pope and McDowell respectively.

If he could defeat Jackson and recapture Manassas, he would not only become the savior and hero of the entire Union, but he could also take sole command of the Union Army on the Eastern Front with this great achievement and become the second most important figure in the Union Army after Lieutenant General Scott!

Scott is old and should make way for young people.

Thinking of this, Pope couldn't help but feel excited, as if a bright future was beckoning to him.

"Pass on my order. All brigades and regiments must prepare to attack the Confederate positions and be on standby at all times!"

On the morning of August 1861, 8, the roar of heavy artillery from the Union artillery positions north of the Bull Run position broke the silence on the eastern front and broke the stalemate between Jackson and Pope.

This marked the beginning of the Second Battle of Manassas.

The well-prepared Northern Army led by Pope finally took the initiative to attack Jackson's carefully arranged positions.

Jackson had been unhappy ever since the failed raid on Brannan Farm.

Pope's army's proactive attack gave Jackson an unexpected surprise, and his previous unhappiness instantly disappeared.

In the past two days, Jackson has been racking his brains to find a way to lure Pope into attacking his position. Only in this way can he magnify the advantages of the Confederate Army's more advanced light weapons and carefully constructed fortifications, and kill Pope's army to the greatest extent with the least casualties.

Who would have thought that this stupid guy Pope would come to the door on his own initiative?

Aiweier limped to Jackson's side with a cane and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that I would complete the task you gave me in such a dramatic way."

Jackson's original intention of letting Ewell launch a surprise attack on the Northern Army was to provoke Pope and make Pope, in anger and humiliation, launch an attack on them in retaliation.

Unexpectedly, this made Pope underestimate his enemy, which accidentally achieved Jackson's original intention.

It is not difficult to guess what Pope was thinking. The surprise attack on Brannan Farm made him feel that the Confederate Army was weak and could be bullied, and he could deal with the Virginia Army alone.

"Maybe this is just luck."

The blue-clad ranks of the Northern Army and the increasingly dense artillery fire did not frighten Jackson at all. Instead, he laughed out loud with joy.

The gap in troop strength between the Virginia Army and Pope's Army was too great. He had no confidence in winning a field battle. He was confident of fighting a defensive battle by relying on the fortifications carefully prepared for the Yankees.

Avel looked toward the north with concern. "Jackson, Pope's army is almost four times as large as ours. We are alone. I am still a little worried."

Ewell had suffered at the hands of Pope's army, and he was somewhat worried that the Confederate Army would not be able to withstand the attack of the Union Army.

The Confederate commander-in-chief Robert and President Davis did not have high demands on Jackson, as long as he did not lose the position before Robert Lee's reinforcements arrived.

In other words, even if Jackson and Pope continued to stare at each other until Robert Lee arrived with reinforcements, Jackson would have completed his mission.

Thus, although Jackson did not achieve great success, at least he would not have made any mistakes.

But if Jackson got away with it and was defeated by Pope, Manassas fell, and the Northern Army was able to march straight in and threaten the capital Richmond, Jackson would surely become the sinner of the entire South.

Facing such pressure, Jackson just smiled and acted very confidently and calmly: "Avil, we are not alone, we are the vanguard of the South. Pope is now arrogant and conceited, thinking that our Southern army is vulnerable. Their arrogance and their offensive are exactly what we need most now."

The South's attack on the North was a small-scale attack against a large one. According to conventional tactics, it would be difficult for the Confederate Army to completely defeat the Northern Army. Jackson believed that in order to win, it was necessary to break the rules and take some risks.

Like Robert Lee, Jackson was a relatively clear-headed Confederate general.

He knew that there was a huge gap in national strength between the North and the South. The Northern Army could advance step by step and fight a slow war in an orderly manner, but the Southern Army did not have this capital. The Virginia Army quickly formed a battle array and waited for the Northern Army's attack.

In order to avoid being raided on the flanks by the Northern Army, Jackson deployed more troops on both wings, while the troops in the middle position were relatively thin.

The person in charge of the left wing position to resist the Union Army outside Brannan Farm was Awell, who volunteered to fight despite being injured. The person in charge of the right wing position was Hill, a fanatical warmonger from the South. The person in charge of the center was Jackson's adjutant Lawton.

Pope's Northern Army, relying on its superior military strength, deployed a reverse Crescent Moon formation, forming a semi-encirclement of the Confederate positions.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, a 6000-man vanguard of the Union Army, led by Fitz John Porter, launched a fierce attack on the Confederate Army's left wing position.

Porter led this vanguard of the Northern Army to avoid the Confederate artillery fire under the cover of the woods, slowly moved to a place about 1.5 miles away from the Confederate position on the left wing, lined up, and then attacked the Confederate position.

As the elite force of the South, Jackson's Virginia Corps had been equipped with the Walter 1851E and the full-blooded version of the Walter rifle originally used by the Western Army. The gun was a single-shot breech-loading rifle.

The Union Army lost a large amount of ammunition during the First Battle of Manassas, and the rifles equipped by the Union vanguard led by Fitz John Porter were basically old Springfield M1842 muzzle-loading smoothbore rifles in stock.

Obviously, there is a clear generation gap in the individual weapons of both sides.

The Confederate Army dug countless pits, set many traps, and pulled up many dense barbed wire fences on the Union Army's attack path.

These pit traps and barbed wire caused great trouble to the Union Army's attack, tearing the Union Army's originally dense and orderly formation into pieces.

The attacking Union soldiers had to slow down their pace, or even stop to clear out these damn traps and obstacles.

This way, they were exposed to the Confederate guns for a longer time, and the Confederates in the positions had ample time to aim and shoot at them accurately.

The Union soldiers at the front of the column fell in large numbers during the attack. Some were shot while advancing, while others were shot while clearing traps and obstacles, especially barbed wire.

As the Union Army got closer and closer to the Confederate positions, its casualties increased at an alarming rate.

To be fair, the Union troops in Pope's Corps had more training time and performed much better than the Union troops in the First Battle of Manassas. They were not only better trained but also braver.

The soldiers in the front row fell, and the soldiers in the rear quickly filled the gap left by the casualties in the front row to continue their high-intensity attacks on the Confederate positions.

The fierce battle lasted until 10:40 in the morning. Due to the heavy casualties, Fitz John Porter had to lead his troops to retreat.

The Union Army's attack on the Confederate Army's left wing failed.

Iwell's left wing Confederate Army killed and wounded more than 121 Union soldiers at the cost of 244 deaths and 1600 injuries, and the Confederate Army won the first battle.

Avel successfully washed away the shame of his failed sneak attack here two days ago. He excitedly raised his arms and shouted despite the severe pain in his injured leg, celebrating his victory wildly and venting his pent-up emotions.

The overwhelming cheers coming from the left wing greatly encouraged the Confederate Army in the center and right wing positions.

Pope was furious at the failure of the Union vanguard's attack.

At this time, Pope could have stopped the losses in time, retreated and waited for the arrival of McDowell's Army of the Potomac before launching an attack.

The senior Union officers around Pope also advised Pope in this way. The failure of the vanguard's attack made them gradually realize that Jackson's Virginia Army was not vulnerable, and their victory two days ago might have been an accident.

Pope did not accept the advice of the Union officers. He was still thinking about his first achievement and bright future.

Furthermore, despite suffering huge casualties of over 1600 people, no substantial results were achieved.

Pope had no way to explain such a poor performance to the War Department.

He righteously said to the Northern Army officers who suggested that he stop the attack: "If we give up the attack at this time, not only will the barbarians in the South think we are cowardly, but we will also be sorry for the brave Northern men who have died on the front line!"

Pope personally went to the front line to observe the Confederate positions. He dispatched a small number of troops in a skirmish formation to launch a tentative attack on the Confederate positions from the left, center, and right directions of the Confederate Army at the same time.

Through human firepower reconnaissance, Pope discovered that the gunfire in the center of the Confederate position was relatively sparse, and the firepower was far less dense and powerful than on the two wings.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon, Pope organized a force of 7000 people to attack the relatively weak central position of the Confederate Army.

He personally supervised the attack.

(End of this chapter)