1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 736: The Fall of Washington

Washington, D.C., early December 1861.

The bronze Statue of Liberty on the dome of Capitol Hill had half of its face cut off by a cannonball, and the torn American flag drooped on the flagpole like a skinned snake.

Charred barrels and military caps floated on the Potomac River. The oak forest at Arlington Manor on the other side of the river was still smoldering. Smoke and ashes fell on the gray tweed uniforms of the Confederate soldiers, as if God had sprinkled a handful of bone meal.

After 39 years, the United States once again lost its capital, Washington, which was named after their founding father.

The American flag in front of the White House was slowly lowered by the Confederate flag bearer and replaced by the American flag of the Confederacy.

Two famous Southern generals, Robert Lee and Beauregard, entered Washington as victors, escorted by guards.

Logically speaking, Robert Lee should have been happy about capturing the enemy's capital.

But there was no smile on Robert Lee's face, let alone the joy of victory.

Robert Lee looked at the ruined buildings in Washington, the barricades that had not yet been cleared, the bodies that had fallen near the barricades, and the floor tiles soaked with blood, and couldn't help but sigh.

Just half a year ago, these young men who were enemies of each other were citizens of the same country and serving in the same army.

Beauregard, who was standing by, wasn't in a much better mood either.

Although McDowell's Army of the Potomac was vulnerable during the Second Battle of Manassas.

But in the Battle of Washington, to defend the capital of the United States.

McDowell and his Capital Army, which was composed of citizens who were either gathered or temporarily recruited, still showed amazing willpower. They were an admirable opponent.

The Northern Army knew that it could not defeat the powerful and powerful Southern Army in a field battle, so it gave up the Southern Army and fought a field battle.

McDowell played to his strengths and avoided his weaknesses. He took advantage of the fact that there were many local citizens in the Capital Army who were more familiar with the streets and architecture in Washington city. He built barricades in Washington city and used every house in the city to engage in brutal street fighting with the Confederate Army.

Faced with the layers of barricades that stretched across the streets of Washington and the Northern Army hiding in buildings and firing cold guns and cold artillery.

The Confederate Army had no shortcuts to take. They could only clear each house one by one under the Union Army's firepower and take down each barricade with their flesh and blood.

The Confederate Army even had to clean every cellar carefully.

At first, the Confederates paid no attention to the cellars, but the Union troops of the Capital Army took advantage of this and hid in the cellars once the buildings were lost.

When the Confederate Army left the building and continued to advance, the Union Army soldiers who were hiding in the cellar like rats took the opportunity to come out and shoot at the Confederate Army's descendants.

Although this behavior was extremely ungentlemanly and despicable, it did cause great casualties to the Confederate Army.

This left an indelible psychological trauma on the Confederate Army.

Once the Confederate Army successfully captured a building, the first thing they did was to find and clean out the cellar.

At the beginning, the Confederate Army would go down to the cellar to clean it up, but the casualties caused by cleaning the cellar in this way were too great.

Later, the Confederate Army figured out a way to clean the cellar without having to enter it.

The Confederate Army used flammable materials, mainly bottles filled with alcohol and liquor, which they lit and threw into the cellar, directly burning or suffocating the Union Army hiding in the cellar.

Even so, the Confederate Army paid a heavy price for every step forward in Washington, D.C.

The Confederate Army originally expected to capture Washington in just two weeks, but it took a full two and a half months to completely occupy Washington.

In the Battle of Washington, the Confederate Army suffered more than 7,000 casualties.

This was the heaviest casualties suffered by the Confederate Army since the war began.

Although the casualty figure was not large, the Confederate soldiers who died or were wounded in Washington were basically elite veterans.

Many of the Confederate soldiers who died were veterans and non-commissioned officers who had participated in the Mexican War and had rich combat experience. This was an irreparable loss for the Confederate Army.

"The latest intelligence from the Sparrows is that even though the federal government has lost Washington, they still have no intention of negotiating peace with us." Beauregard said dejectedly.

According to their original plan, as long as they captured Washington, the capital of the Northern Confederation, they would be able to force the Northern Confederation to the negotiating table to end this damn war.

The reality did not develop as they expected, and the Lincoln administration remained strong toward the South.

As the deputy commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army on the front line, Beauregard understood the situation of the Confederate Army.

In fact, after the Second Battle of Manassas, the Confederate Army's strategic reserves were almost exhausted. At that time, the Confederate Army was already at the end of its strength and could not continue to launch large-scale offensives.

The Washington Campaign was able to proceed smoothly, thanks in large part to the munitions and military pay provided by the West.

"There has been a ceasefire in the west." Robert Lee's face was also filled with worry.

"The French have formed an alliance with the West. It is said that the French ambassador in Philadelphia is already putting pressure on the Northern Union to promote a ceasefire between the Northern Union and the West."

France needed a reliable ally in America to spread French influence to America.

Before and after the war, the Confederacy also tried hard to gain recognition and assistance from France.

It’s a pity that France did not choose the South or the North in the end, but chose the West as France’s ally in North America.

The alliance between France and the American Republic means that the value of the South to France is no longer that important and is just an optional existence.

This undoubtedly made the already not optimistic diplomatic situation of the Southern Alliance even worse.

Internationally, the Northern Union held on to the issue of slavery in the South from its moral high ground.

To this day, no decent country has dared to ally with the South despite the world's condemnation.

Even the West, which flirted with the South and secretly provided military assistance, did not formally establish diplomatic relations with the Confederacy. They simply sent agents to maintain contact.

"Do we really want to give the Westerners an advantage? We are not fighting this war for the Westerners!" Beauregard said angrily.

"If the Yankees and the North stop fighting, we will face the pressure from the North alone."

"This is exactly what I am most worried about, and this is exactly what is happening." Robert Lee dismounted in front of the White House and blew a breath of warm air on his frozen hands.

"Perhaps this is the cleverness of Liang Yao. He won the favor of Napoleon III. I really don't know how he fooled Napoleon III into forming an alliance with him."

Seeing the arrival of their two highest generals, the Confederate soldiers shivering in the cold wind in front of the White House uniformly gave a very clean and neat salute to their beloved commander.

Robert Lee nodded slightly in response and walked into the White House with Beauregard.

As soon as they stepped into the White House, the two received a telegram from Baltimore.

The sender of this telegram was General Jackson.

After occupying Washington, Jackson's vanguard troops marched non-stop to Baltimore, northeast of Washington.

The Northern Confederacy knew that with all the bad things they had done in Maryland and Baltimore before the war, the people of Baltimore had already prepared to welcome the Confederate Army into the city with food and drink.

Considering that Maryland was a slave state before the war and the Northern Union had no mass base in Maryland, the Northern Union Army did not choose to continue to defend Baltimore and use the streets of Baltimore to fight another street battle with the Confederate Army.

Instead, they chose to withdraw actively, moving their precious troops further north to Philadelphia, the temporary capital of the Northern Confederation.

Jackson thus captured the important city of Baltimore without bloodshed.

(End of this chapter)