In mid-July 1861, more than ten days after the assassination of President Lincoln of the Northern Union, the Confederate States gathered nearly 80,000 troops, and under the personal arrangement of President Davis, 35,000 soldiers of the Northern Virginia Regiment led by Robert Lee, 30,000 soldiers of the Portmark Regiment led by Brigadier General Borregaard, and 20,000 Mississippi Legion soldiers led by President Davis himself, left Virginia and occupied the southeastern line of Washington, D.C. and Maryland.

In late July, the Potmark, the vanguard of the Confederate Army, led by Brigadier General Borlegad, entered Maryland from the west and engaged in a fierce battle with the Confederate Army stationed in Frederick's town.

At the same time, the Northern Virginia Regiment of the Confederate States to the east, under the command of Robert Lee, captured Annapolis, the capital of Maryland and home to the Naval Academy of the United States of America, capturing not only two shipyards there, but also nearly 300 naval officers and a small number of warships.

Then, the engineering troops at the front had already repaired the railroad destroyed by the Northern Union, and the Northern Virginia Regiment and the Mississippi Regiment personally led by President Davis rushed to Baltimore by train. The Portmark Regiment also approached Baltimore from the west through Howard from Frederick.

The invading Confederate army took like locusts everything they could find, dollars, iron, livestock, horses, four-wheelers, food, and shoes, and levied what they needed in the towns they occupied, and even captured a large number of black slaves from white families who resisted in Maryland, and sent them directly to Virginia for auction to local plantation owners as slaves. However, Robert Lee immediately noticed the inappropriateness of this move, and he hastened to suggest to President Davis that all the actual property seized should be exchanged for bonds issued by the Confederate States, and that these seizures should be traded at half price, and that the slaves should be digested on the spot and traded directly by auction on the plantations as a whole, rather than by the laborious and cumbersome way of transporting the slaves back to Virginia, which would reduce the impact and not arouse the hatred of the Confederate States. But President Davis, basking in the joy of victory, did not heed Robert Lee's advice.

Therefore, when the three legions arrived near Baltimore and prepared to lay siege to Baltimore, the looting along the way seriously irritated the people of the Northern Confederacy, and filled them with anger. In addition, the new president of the Northern Union was in place, the Ministry of Finance borrowed large sums of money from foreign countries and bankers in New York, Philadelphia, etc., and with military spending, volunteers recruited from the northern states in the early stage arrived one after another, and the federal troops that had originally withdrawn from the Washington area also retreated to Baltimore, and for a time, the Baltimore area gathered 110,000 federal troops.

At the end of July, the two sides engaged in fierce fighting in the wilderness southwest and south of Baltimore.

To the south, the Jackson Stonewall Army (which had been expanded from a brigade) in the Northern Virginia Regiment led by Robert Lee was the first to encounter resistance from the First Army of the Northern Union Army, Robert Lee quickly responded, mobilized the rest of the troops in a short period of time and made a detour to the flank of the First Federal Army, taking advantage of the fog in the morning to see clearly, and launched an attack on both sides at the same time, but the morale of the Northern Union soldiers was high, and John Reynolds in the First Army was well organized, concentrating the soldiers on several dirt slopes to defend, Withstood the attacks of the Portmark Legion, and although the losses were heavy, they held out until the fog cleared, while sending people to ask for help from other friendly forces in Baltimore. Unfortunately, before reinforcements arrived, the commander of the First Army, John Reynolds, was killed by Jackson's snipers, and the First Army lost command and suffered from flanking attacks, and by noon, it was quickly routed under the hard impact of the Stonewall Army, and the First Federal Army paid the price of nearly 10,000 casualties and more than 4,000 prisoners, and almost all the troops were wiped out, leaving only about 2,000 people scattered and fled back to Baltimore.

At the same time, Brigadier General Boregard's Potmark Regiment to the southwest also arrived in a small town called Wooden Dog, where a fierce exchange of fire ensued the Federation Army. Mugou Town is a fan-shaped highland, and the reason why the Northern Army chose to garrison this place is because of its special terrain, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. When Beauregard heard that Robert Lee had won a victory in the southwest, he was so moved that he led the main force of the Portmark Corps, with nearly 20,000 men, to launch a general attack on the northern and southern flanks of the Union army on the high ground.

Just as Brigadier General Boregard personally led tens of thousands of men to charge the heights, a federal colonel named Chamberlain on the heights of Wooddog Town made an unexpected move, he led the infantry brigade that had been beaten to only half of it, ordered all his soldiers to be bayoneted, all stood in a row, and he personally led all the able-bodied soldiers to charge against the attacking enemy. Chamberlain's strange charge overwhelmed the Portmark's regiment, and Chamberlain's infantry brigade charged down the slope to the Confederate positions below the heights, killing and wounding hundreds of men, disrupting Beauregard's attack. Then, the main force of the Union Army on the high ground found that there were Union reinforcements arriving from Baltimore from the east, and decisively ordered a counterattack. Beauregard's Potmark Legion was too scattered and had to retreat.

However, just as Boregard's Portmark Regiment was defeated, Robert Lee's Northern Virginia Regiment took advantage of the victory to pursue the First Army of the Confederate Army that had fled to Baltimore, and the 20,000 Mississippi Legion soldiers led by President Davis himself also arrived in Baltimore, so the two armies launched an attack on Baltimore.

At this moment, it was about to get dark, in front of the defensive line that the Union had long set up in the southwest of Baltimore, the Northern Virginia Legion, as the vanguard, was full of fighting spirit, regardless of fatigue, after the two flares were raised, the shells fired by 87 guns overwhelmingly rushed to the defense line of the Union army. The federal artillery behind the defensive positions also began to shoot back, and the artillery of both sides fought together.

At first, the Allied shelling was very accurate, causing serious casualties among the Union defenders. But after a few rounds of cannons, the recoil of the guns lowered the tail of the gun carriage, and the shells began to fly high and fall behind the infantry positions of the Union defenders, who were huddled behind the stone walls and some earthen walls of the line and hid without much damage.

Smoke was billowing and the Allied artillery observation sentries could not say how effective their artillery fire was. After half an hour, the Union artillery behind the line was much less fired, and after another half hour, many of the artillery behind the line stopped firing, and only sporadic ones were still firing. In fact, it was a ploy by the Union defenders, General Winfield Hancock. He saved ammunition in order to deal with the attack of the Confederate powers, but also to deceive the enemy into believing that his artillery had lost its combat effectiveness.

The gunners of the Union army really hit the mark. They thought their artillery fire had destroyed the artillery of the defenders in the north. Even if it's completely dark, we can't wait to launch a general attack!

Even Robert Lee, who was experienced in combat, did not doubt that his desire for victory blinded him, not to mention that he had always liked to surprise with dangerous soldiers. And President Davis is confident that he will win with one blow.

As a result, the artillery of the Allied countries also stopped firing, and after the positions fell silent, it was not long before a large number of infantry from the Confederate countries came into play.

The first to attack were the Jackson Division of the Northern Virginia Regiment and the Longstreet Division of the Mississippi Regiment, two divisions of nearly 30,000 men, the most elite troops of the Confederate Powers. However, Longstreet was puzzled by the commander's order, as they were to cross a half-mile-long open field and attack the Union infantry entrenched in the trenches, not to mention that it had not yet been confirmed whether the Union guns had been destroyed. But the self-confident Robert Lee forcefully demanded that Longstreet carry out the order.

In desperation, the Jackson Division rushed to the front, the Longstreet Division followed closely, the blue Virginia flag in front of the wind, and the green Mississippi flag in the rear, spreading the front more than a mile long, and the two Confederate divisions marched through the open field in a tight formation that was almost parade-like.

As soon as they came into range, the defenders of the Union behind the stone walls and trenches of the defensive line opened fire fiercely! Dozens of Northern Union artillery roared, more than a dozen rifled guns and more than thirty smoothbore guns poured shells at Confederate soldiers a little farther away, while rifles and artillery grenades fired at the approaching Confederate troops.

The relentless rain of bullets caused the attacking Confederate soldiers to fall like weeds under a lawnmower. However, through the smoke and fog, you can see that the soldiers of the Jackson Division are still continuing to charge forward! These brave Virginians were now scattered, groping their way through low walls, rocks, woods, grass, and other cover they might find.

Eventually, the brave Jackson Division broke through the Union defenders' lines, and although only a third of the soldiers were left at the time of departure, and a brigade commander and twelve regiment commanders had been killed, they finally stormed the Baltimore Line! Jackson drew his command knife and launched a hand-to-hand hand-to-hand battle, in which the Confederate forces stole the defenders' artillery, and the two sides fought for the position......

The battle lasted all night, and both sides fought fiercely.

The next morning, under the death order of Robert Lee, the Confederate Army finally captured the southwestern Baltimore line at the cost of losing 12,000 soldiers. However, the Union defenders set up another line of defense less than a kilometer behind, and a group of more than 30,000 Union reinforcements had already arrived in Baltimore, bringing the total number of Union troops stationed nearby to 130,000.

On the Confederate side, after a night's losses, the siege of Baltimore was less than 70,000 troops. Although the Confederate States had better troops, the difference in numbers was too great, and in desperation, under the decision of President Davis, the Confederate States gave up continuing to attack Baltimore and turned to digging trenches and building fortifications.

In this way, the main forces of the armies of the two American countries began to engage in a see-saw strategic stalemate in Baltimore.

...........

Just when all eyes were on the Battle of Baltimore, both north and south, the fighting in Missouri was rekindled. However, this time, unlike the last time Missouri became independent, it was not the Irish Independence Army formed by Missouri Governor Jackson and the Missouri militia formed by former Governor Price that took the initiative to attack the thousands of federal troops led by Brigadier General Nathanel Leon, commander of the federal Missouri theater of operations, but a combined army consisting of 3,000 Irish infantry and 5,000 Indians and 6,000 skinny troops who seemed to have oriental faces. There were also nearly 2,000 black slaves who followed and might act as portrayals or something, claiming to be the Hexi United Legion.

Although the Hexi Combined Army numbered only 14,000 men, it was actually only equivalent to the strength of one division, but it was extremely fierce in battle, and it was even braver than the most heroic and skilled Jackson Division in the Northern Virginia Regiment of the most difficult Confederate Countries. Brigadier General Leon's thousands of Union troops fended off several attacks by Jackson's Irish Independence Army in St. Louis, and did not give Price's Missouri militia any advantage, but this time it was defeated by the United Army of the River West in less than three hours. The well-fortified city of St. Louis was brutally conquered by the Combined Legion of the River West, and even Brigadier General Leon only had time to send people to ask for help from General Fremont, who was stationed in Springfield, a major city in central Illinois, when he was hit by artillery while fleeing across the river, and died in the Mississippi River.

Then, the scattered main force of the federal army in Missouri near the Mississippi River was swept away by this United Army of the River West like a leaf in the autumn wind, and all the other Missouri forces supporting the Union were gradually eliminated by the Irish Independence Army formed by Governor Jackson, and the entire Missouri was completely controlled by the Irish Independence Army.

By the time Fremont received news of the defeat of the Union army in Missouri, the entire state of Missouri, that is, the area west of the Mississippi River, was denied a place for the Union army.

At this time, Fremont received the news that Washington, the capital of the Union, had been captured by Confederate troops, and even President Lincoln had been assassinated.

In fact, an emissary named Lu Ernan of the Hexi United Regiment wrote a letter to Fremont, asking the two sides not to attack each other on the Mississippi River, the natural dividing line between Missouri and Illinois. Fremont took a wait-and-see approach because the army was not well trained, and because the Confederate army was attacking Baltimore from Washington, D.C., Fremont did not respond positively to the Irish envoy named Lu Ernan.

Unfortunately, Fremont still doesn't know who his real opponent is on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. He hadn't figured out who the commander of the so-called Hexi Combined Army was. He could only learn from the Combine Legion, and from Leon's men, who had fled to Springfield, that the enemy army was a combined army of Irish, Indians, and what appeared to be Chinese from the East.

He could only send a telegram to Philadelphia, the current capital of the Union, to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Secretary of State Seward, asking the cabinet to protest against the Chinese Empire in the East, as a declaration of war on the American Federation!

However, not long after his telegram was sent, Lu Ernan, who had been unable to respond, sent a warning letter, claiming that their Hexi United Army was not a Confederate army, but an independent army belonging to the Republic of Missouri. Any foreign force entering Missouri, whether it was the Union Army of America in the North or the Union Army of America in the South, would see it as a foreign invasion, and the United Army of the River West would be defeated by the 1.1 million people of Missouri. At the same time, the letter also explained that the soldiers of the Hexi United Regiment were composed of three separate infantry brigades: the mercenary infantry brigade with a Japanese majority, the Indian Chasseur brigade, and the Irish infantry brigade.

Only then did Fremont realize that the soldiers with oriental faces turned out to be Japanese mercenaries. Japan, he seems to have heard and known, a few years ago the head of the naval academy, Brigadier Admiral Perry, had been there, and finally failed miserably in an eastern island country. But when did the Japanese have mercenaries, I have always heard that there are famous mercenaries in European countries such as Switzerland, but I have never heard of any mercenaries in Japan in the East? Moreover, how did this Japanese mercenary, suddenly appear in Missouri?

Fremont was puzzled. It's just that now is not the time to wonder.

However, he knew that the original idea of this Missouri was to take advantage of the civil war between the North and the South to gain independence. Although Missouri wanted to defect from the federal government, after all, he did not join the Confederate States, and the biggest enemy of the Confederate States at present seemed to be the Confederate States, so he did not want to attack Missouri again, but only defended the east bank of the Mississippi River. Instead, another telegram was sent to the Cabinet in Philadelphia informing about the state of Missouri.