To be honest, Abraham didn't like General Scott very much.
This old man has a strong aristocratic style and likes to talk.
He is more like a southerner.
However, the current federal army is seriously lacking in generals to lead troops. General Scott is very prestigious among the officer class.
Only by appointing General Scott as commander-in-chief can we win over a group of commanders.
Compared to General Scott, Abraham preferred General Grant, who was resolute, persistent, and reserved.
However, Grant still kept slaves at home because of his wife. This caused his personal stance to be criticized by public opinion.
Now Abraham is still full of confidence in the victory of the war.
He believes that war is ultimately a confrontation of strength.
Now that Washington has assembled a group of troops, they will soon attack the south.
By this time, General Pierre Beauregard had led the army to capture Fort Sumter, and the Union's power in the south had been completely destroyed.
Robert Anderson, who guarded Fort Sumter, taught Beauregard artillery courses as an instructor at the Army Academy.
The civil war pitted masters and apprentices against each other, and there are many more examples like this.
John Barfoud was born into the Barfoud family, which has the oldest history in the United States and a prominent aristocratic background. His grandfather served in the cavalry regiment of Robert E. Lee's father, Henry Lee, during the Revolutionary War.
As the son of a southern slave plantation owner, Barfoot was caught in a dilemma when the country faced division, and after repeated reflections.
Barfoed officially declared: "I, John Barfoed, am a captain in the United States of America, a title I am proud to retain."
From then on, Barfoot broke away from his long-standing family and devoted himself to the great cause of liberating slaves until his death from illness.
Winfield Scott Hancock met Roy Armisdale when he was studying at the Army Academy, and the two became close friends. Later, they went through life and death together in the Frontier War, and their friendship further deepened.
But when the war came, they couldn't stay out of it. Hancock had to be loyal to the Federation, and Armidas couldn't betray his hometown. The two good friends in the Frontier War were separated by the civil war.
Until Armidas died in the battle, they never met again. Because most of the middle and high-level commanders on both sides of the war were graduates of the Army Academy.
Therefore, later generations commented that the Army Academy students lost the war and also won the war. They lost as many battles as they won.
After meeting with generals at all levels.
In order to cheer up the people in the north, Abraham made an outstanding speech in Congress to justify the actions of the federal government.
In his speech, he talked about how he understood the war between the North and the South from a moral and historical sense.
He first asked the states to provide the government with 400 million U.S. dollars and 400,000 soldiers. He said: "For those who seem to be prepared to donate all their property, this amount is less than one-twentieth or thirty-third of the total property they own."
He hinted that if the South won, many people's property might not be saved. Because the slave owners' greed for land was endless,
He said: "The country originally spent money to buy this land, and the South was able to establish its homeland there. But now, they want to secede from the Union without even paying a penny. Is this fair?"
He summed up the differences between the two factions from the South's new constitution: "Our opponents have adopted a Declaration of Independence in which Jefferson's words 'all men are created equal' have been deleted. Why?
They also adopted a provisional constitution, in whose preamble they deleted the words "We the People of the United States," which was different from the preamble of the old constitution signed by Washington, and replaced it with "We, the Sovereign States."
Representatives of the independent states."
From this he summarized the nature of the war: "On the Federal side, the struggle is to preserve in the world the form and substance of a government whose main goal is to improve the living conditions of man and to lift the burden of government from all men's shoulders.
Remove the burden of man and clear the way for all those who engage in noble labor."
"Our people's government has often been called an experiment. Now our task is to effectively defend the government against attempts by powerful forces within to overthrow it."
“We must prove to the world that those who can fairly elect men are also fully capable of putting down insurrection, and I must prove to the world that the ballot is the legitimate heir to the bullet, and that once the vote has made its decision fairly and constitutionally,
Do not allow violence to be used again when solving problems!"
"In this way, we can prove to the world that anything that cannot be obtained through elections cannot be obtained through war; in this way, we can also let the world understand how stupid and arrogant the people who started this war are!"
Abraham also discussed the relationship between capital and labor, "But in fact, there is no relationship between capital and labor as they imagined. No free person will be a hired worker for life. These two assumptions and all the consequences
And the conclusions drawn are nonsense.”
"Labor precedes capital, and capital is only the product of labor. Without labor, there would be no capital at all. Labor exceeds capital, and therefore should receive more attention than capital."
"Capital has its own rights, and it should be protected like other rights. It is undeniable that there is a mutually beneficial relationship between labor and capital. The mistake in that view is simply to think that all labor in society exists
In that relationship.”
"Only a few people in our society own capital. They are afraid of labor and are willing to use their capital to hire or buy other people to work for them. And a large third class does not belong to these two groups. They are both
If they don’t work for others, they don’t want others to work for them.”
"In most of the Southern states, the majority of the people were neither slaves nor slaveowners. The man and his family worked for themselves on their farms, in their homes, and in their shops, and the proceeds were their own. They were neither
Relying on capital does not hire workers or enslave others.”
He also put forward his ideal labor relations: "Some people who have just entered society are nimble but penniless. In this world, they work just to earn some wages at first; then they try to save some money to buy something for themselves.
The land and farm tools began to work for themselves; finally they hired some people who had just entered society to be their helpers."
This was the development pattern of many freedmen in the North who immigrated westward.
"This is a fair, reasonable and prosperous system that will bring vitality to everyone and give everyone a chance to succeed. Among us, no one deserves more respect than those who start from scratch through hard work."
"They don't even touch things that are not created by labor. At this point, they do it better than anyone else. These people will not easily hand over the political power they already enjoy, nor will they give up.
Opportunities to move forward. In order to keep their freedom, they are willing to accept any challenge!"
Abraham's speech made up to a certain extent the negative impact that the abolition of slavery had brought to the government some time ago.
He successfully shifted people's attention to maintaining the unity of America and safeguarding the free development of individuals.
Compared with abolishing slavery, maintaining the unity of America seems to be more able to unite more people.
After this speech, Abraham's preparations for sending troops to the south were completely completed.
Northerners are making preparations for public opinion. Southerners are not idle either.
In an internal war like this, the ideological work of your subordinates is very important.
Because this is not like a foreign war, where the country and the nation can unite people together.
Ideological work is sometimes more important than weapons and troops.
After all, every soldier is an individual with independent thoughts.
When they see the cruelty on the battlefield, they will take the initiative to think about why they are fighting.
Since independence, the South has always been under the rule of the large plantation owner class.
Democracy has not been as widespread in society as Washington expected at the beginning of independence, and feudal remnants remain largely in the south.
Some of the dark sides of the big Northern capitalists and factory owners were trumpeted by Southern slaveholders to prove that slavery was not as inhumane as Northerners believed.
A congressman from the South once declared: "Our slaves are employed for life and are well paid; while your servants are employed by the day, are poorly paid and have no one to take care of them... Isn't that right? You are here
New York City sees more beggars in one day than you see in the entire South in your entire life."
At the same time, under the influence of slave owners, southerners considered themselves the heirs of the Norman nobility, far superior to the descendants of the Saxon small farmers in the north.
In fact, according to the census, the descendants of Scottish immigrants from the Celts ranked first among southerners at that time.
Southerners think that northerners are either ruthless businessmen who have no other thoughts but the pursuit of profit, or they are losers who immigrated from Europe and are the scum of the ancient continent.
Thanks to these immigrants, the North has had 19 million white people in the past ten years, while the South has only 8 million.
Therefore, the South feels that the North is using its large population to politically kidnap the South.
This in itself is an injustice.
Davis took advantage of this, and then coupled with the North's attempt to increase tariffs and the Republicans' argument for the abolition of slavery, he successfully united the Southern nobles.
This allowed the newly formed Confederacy to raise a large amount of funds in a short period of time.
These funds were used to arm the army and purchase warships.
The Confederate Army unexpectedly surpassed the Northern Army early on.
Although the south has a poor industrial base, it is indeed wealthy.
Almost every plantation owner was a wealthy man.
July 21, 1861, just days after Abraham gave his pre-war speech to Congress.
35,000 federal troops launched a march on Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.
Because at this time there was a serious mentality of underestimating the enemy throughout the North, believing that the Confederate army was vulnerable. In addition, it was a Saturday, so many Washington citizens, congressmen, reporters, etc., dressed in costumes, brought their wives and children, came to watch the farewell.
Some of them carried picnic baskets, some rode in carriages, and some walked with the army, just like a festival.
Every move of northerners in the direction of Washington is watched.
Both the North and the South have their own people placed in each other's place. In other words, both sides have me in you, and you in me.
The 22,000 Confederate troops, who had already received the intelligence, lined up at the railway hub of Manassas to greet them. The commander was General Pierre Beauregard, who had previously captured Fort Sumter.
At this time, the 9,000-man reinforcements of Joseph Johnston's Shenandoah Army eluded the reinforcements of 15,000 federal troops led by Robert Patterson who were specifically responsible for containing Johnston.
McDowell of the Union Army became the commander of the Army of Northeastern Virginia and was responsible for the war in northeastern Virginia.
Since Virginia joined the Confederacy shortly after the war began, the Potomac River became the border between the North and the South.
The front line can be seen looking out from Washington, and Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, is not far to the south from Washington.
The capitals of both warring parties were so close, making the Eastern Battlefield the decisive battlefield of the Civil War, and the world's attention was focused on the Eastern Battlefield.
Because the terrain here is narrow and densely covered with key areas that neither side can give up, many of the military operations carried out here are clumsy frontal decisive battles that rely on troops and firepower to determine victory or defeat, and there are few large-depth mobile operations.
McDowell was very anxious to win a victory first, so he led his army to leave Washington, D.C., and enter the Virginia border on July 16, 1861.
Like McDowell, Beauregard led an inexperienced and poorly trained unit. The only difference between the two units was that the Confederate Army did not have a 90-day service period, so there was no need to worry about soldiers retiring.
In addition, Beauregard has a secret weapon.
General Bohammu of the Confederate Army described this secret weapon like this: The longest and most beautiful black hair I have ever seen.
Boham was stationed in the Fairfax County Courthouse area near Washington, where he was responsible for monitoring enemy movements.
At noon on July 16, the guards brought a girl who came out of the city and claimed that she wanted to see the garrison commander.
Bohammu looked around and saw that although the girl was dressed like a country girl, she was very beautiful. Just when he was thinking about it.
The girl spoke: "My name is Betty, and I have urgent information to give to General Beauregard."
Bohammu immediately woke up from his daydream, because another task he had stationed here was to be ready to receive emissaries from the city at any time.
Seeing that Bo Hanmu understood, Betty untied her hairpin, and her long hair fell like a waterfall. She looked at Bo Hanmu intoxicated.
Betty took out a silk bag from her hair and handed it to Bohammu, who sent a horse to quickly deliver it to Beauregard.
Beauregard opened the silk bag and his eyes lit up. There was a complete military plan of the Northern Army inside.
The person who obtained this information, sewed it into the silk bag by hand, and then sent Betty out of the city to deliver the information was the Washington socialite Rose O'Neill Greenhow, known as the "Rebel Rose."
After receiving this important information, Beauregard immediately asked Joseph Johnston to come and join him as soon as possible.
At the same time, he first occupied the favorable defensive terrain with his seven brigades and deployed them along the Benniu River.
There is only one stone bridge on the Benniu River, and there are two shoals on the right downstream of it.
Beauregard determined that the Union Army would cross the river through one of the fords, so he deployed half of his troops on the right wing and sent only one brigade to defend the stone bridge. The left side was basically undefended.
Beauregard's real plan was to strike preemptively, take advantage of the Northern Army's unsteady footing, launch an attack from the right wing first, break through the enemy's left wing, and penetrate into the enemy's rear.
On the afternoon of the day when Betty sent the intelligence, McDowell led a total of 13 brigades of 35,000-strong Union troops, consisting of 5 divisions, and set out from Washington eight days later than planned.