Baltimore is the largest seaport city in Maryland, USA, and one of the largest ports on the East Coast of the United States, and in the sixties of the nineteenth century, it was also the third largest port in the United States after New York and Boston in terms of port throughput.

However, the strategic position of Baltimore City is more important than its economic position, as it is only more than 60 kilometers away from Washington's richest man, so it can be said that it is close at hand.

To make an analogy, Baltimore is a bit like China's Tianjin, but closer to the capital, after all, Tianjin is 135 kilometers from Beijing, while Baltimore is just over 60 kilometers from Washington, which is more than half the distance.

It is precisely because Baltimore is quite close to Washington and its strategic position is extremely important that the United States has attached great importance to this place from the beginning, such as the first railroad in American history, the Baltimore-Ohio Railroad, was built here, and as early as 1844, the Baltimore direct railroad to Washington has been completed and opened to traffic, and even this is the setting point of the first long-distance telegraph in the United States.

Suffice it to say, the capture of Baltimore would be tantamount to opening the door to Washington, which is more strategic than the capture of Boston.

You know, although Washington is the capital of the United States, in fact, in the past, due to the special political situation in the United States, it was only regarded as an administrative office area, and the local population was not large, only a few thousand people, which could only be regarded as a small town, or after the outbreak of the Civil War, due to the needs of the war, the whole city expanded dramatically, and it became a large city with a population of more than 100,000.

And in this time and space, because of Lincoln's decisive measures, especially his authoritarian policies in the later stages of the war, Washington's population was much larger than in history, peaking at more than 300,000 people, but more than eighty percent of them were people. They are all military and government personnel, and the rest are mostly military families and related service personnel.

In other words, Washington at this time is no longer a small place that can be abandoned at will, unlike in the past, when the situation was not good, it moved the capital and returned to Philadelphia, and during this period, Washington was the center of the United States, the heart of the United States. It is also Lincoln's power hub, and once it is abandoned, it will not only be a great blow to the morale of the American military, but also a great impact on Lincoln's power structure.

Moreover, Baltimore is between Washington and Philadelphia, and is the railroad junction between Washington and Philadelphia, and once Baltimore is occupied by the enemy, it will also cut off the connection between Washington and Philadelphia, and there is nowhere to run.

That's not to say there's nowhere else to leave Washington. It's just that the strategic shift in this period needs to rely on roads and railways, and without railways and roads, it is difficult to operate material transportation. At this time, Washington's main highways and railways were mainly direct to Philadelphia or to Richmond.

To get to Philadelphia, the former had to go to Guò Baltimore, while the latter Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States. The Confederate Potomac Corps was confronting the Confederate Northern Virginia Corps in Fredericksburg.

Because of Baltimore's location, it has been valued by the federal government from the very beginning. So much so that soon after the start of the war, it became an area directly under the jurisdiction of the federal government, and on the basis of the original fortress, the entire port of Baltimore became a complete fortress port, purely in terms of defense capabilities, much stronger than the port of New York, which can be called the current first fortress port in the United States.

In order to strengthen the defense of Baltimore and prevent the enemy from attacking from the sea, not only did the entire port become fortified, but also stationed a US Navy fleet, with more than 30 large and small warships, including 12 ironclad ships alone, which can be said to be the largest fleet of ironclad ships in the United States.

Such a fortress defense, a powerful naval fleet, and 30,000 garrisons, plus a railroad and telegraph lines between Washington and Washington, once this place is attacked, with only one telegram, Washington can mobilize 50,000 men to Baltimore within 24 hours, relying on the terrain and naval fleet here, the defense force is unprecedentedly strong, known as the port that does not fall.

However, it was this port that never fell that fell in less than half a day, and it was not even until the other side completely occupied the entire city and sent troops to prepare to attack Washington that Lincoln received the news of the fall of Baltimore Harbor!

It is true that the scale of the offensive of the Anglo-French alliance is indeed unprecedented, but if it is facing Baltimore, which is on guard, it is unrealistic to capture it in a short period of time, so in the final analysis, it is the alliance army that has played a Trojan horse trick or an internal response trick to capture Baltimore so quickly and has not yet transmitted the news in time.

In fact, in Maryland, where Baltimore is located, at the beginning of the war, the whole society was more sympathetic to the South, and even thought about breaking away from the Union and joining the Confederate States when the war began.

As early as 1861, at the beginning of the war, when a unit of the Union Army was transferring trains in Baltimore, it was besieged by the citizens of Baltimore, leading a Baltimore riot, but because the Baltimore legislators were still a little hesitant at that time, they did not declare their independence from the Union in time, so they were suppressed by Lincoln in time, and turned Baltimore into a military administration, and even the mayor and police chief of Baltimore were arrested.

After that, Lincoln continued to suppress the entire Maryland legislators and government personnel, and all the city governments, police departments, and parliaments in the entire region were taken over by Lincoln's federal government, and the entire Maryland became a state of military control, and all became states directly under the federal government.

This method did strongly control these regions and prevent them from seceding from the Union, but because the methods were too rough, other remote places were angry, such as Arkansas and Tennessee, and it was only after hearing the news that they resolutely announced their secession from the Union and officially joined the Confederates.

Since then, although Lincoln has increased his military control of Baltimore, expanded the fortress, and released the navy, which seems to be impregnable, in fact, Lincoln's actions are only superficially controlled, and most of the local aboriginal people have a grudge against Lincoln's policies and do not buy it. Especially after Lincoln promulgated the compulsory military service system, and arrested the strong men here as soldiers without restraint. The resistance of the locals is even stricter.

Although the locals were dissatisfied with Lincoln's policy, Lincoln had the barrel of the gun, so everyone dared to be angry, but later, due to the defeat and loss of the US army in the western battlefield, it was beaten by the Chinese, and the troops were empty, so they began to continuously draw Baltimore's troops, and finally the garrison army here was only about 30,000.

The dwindling number of troops, coupled with news of the continued defeat of the Union Army, was very encouraging to the locals. So they didn't have to worry about the Confederates themselves, they themselves sent people to the south, contacted the Confederate army, and began to discuss the matter of dedicating the city.

It can be said that in order to defect to the Southern Army, the Baltimoreans have been planning for more than half a year, during which they have not only established a secret and huge intelligence line, but also plotted against a large number of local officers, especially a large number of naval officers.

To know. As a result of Lincoln's constant troop movements, more than a third of the troops stationed in Baltimore were natives, and what about the Navy officers. Although most of the main generals were from other places, more than half of the sailors and ordinary soldiers below were locals.

It's not hard to understand that Baltimore was originally a port city. It is because of the maritime trade that it flourished, so the local shipping industry is very developed, and there is no shortage of sailors or anything.

After Lincoln took charge of the place. began to mobilize naval warships here, but most of these naval warships are wooden sail warships, and they need to rely on local port facilities and sailors for maintenance or something, and only some senior commanders are outsiders.

Originally, this method was a good one, and it greatly reduced the financial burden on the federal government, but unfortunately the federal government was happy, and the locals, especially the sailors who served in the army, were not.

The reason is very simple, many of these sailors are forcibly requisitioned by the federal government, and when they face those local sailors, although they can't say that they don't give a little money, the money they can give is also quite limited, that is, to maintain a state that makes you starve to death.

Later, due to the naval blockade of the British and French forces, trade was cut off, and prices were extremely high, but the federal government did not raise salaries, which made these lower-class sailors feel that the standard of living was not a little lower than in the past, and many families did not even have enough to eat, so they had to let their daughters go out to be **, and let their sons go out to be thieves, and life could not go on at all.

But the problem is, if you don't serve the army, you don't have any other business to make money, after all, the maritime trade has been cut off, except for the occasional smuggling ship, you can't see any trade ships at all, and the sailors have no business at all, and they don't serve the army, what else can they do? Is it a career change?

It's not impossible to change careers, but now that all industries are in a depression, there is really no good job except being a soldier, but if you become a soldier, the high death rate is scared to death, and the locals are resolutely unwilling.

You know, Baltimore was conscripted many people to serve as soldiers before, and a large number of soldiers were transferred to the western battlefield to fight against the Chinese, but as a result, they waited for the federal government's death notice.

The so-called notice of death is not a detailed notice, and it is impossible for the government to write a letter to the family of each soldier, but only to give a notice indicating that all members of such and such a regiment have died in battle, and this such and such regiment generally refers to the troops recruited in a certain place in the local area.

This is also the characteristic of American conscription in this period, that is, to recruit troops in one place, often to form a regiment or a battalion of locals, such as the famous Brooklyn 14th Militia Regiment, which refers to a local regiment recruited in Brooklyn, New York, and all the people in the whole regiment are fellow villagers.

Originally, this kind of conscription method had many advantages, not to mention that it was conducive to unity and rapid formation of combat effectiveness, but it was also convenient to count the notices given to the families of soldiers who died in battle.

In many cases, the team counts the deaths of its own soldiers, and then the regiment headquarters writes a death notice to the families of the soldiers, and at most declares a death pension to the government.

After all, they are all regiments composed of locals, everyone knows the roots, and it is convenient to write death notices, and only such a team of locals can accurately send the death notices to the families of the fallen soldiers.

However, when fighting with the Chinese, the US military was basically in a state of total annihilation in all wars, and once the entire regiment was defeated, the regiment headquarters itself could not write a death notice to return, and at most it was allowed to write a ransom request to the family, asking the family to give money to ransom the person.

But I can write letters to my family. After all, Li Yongji wanted to use these prisoners as cheap migrant workers from the beginning, so the ransom was set high, and ordinary people really couldn't afford it, and if they couldn't afford it, they couldn't write letters, because it also cost money to write and send letters, and the price was extremely high, and ordinary American prisoners couldn't even raise money to write letters.

Such a result. That is, the U.S. government had to replace the regimental headquarters and send a notice to the place where the conscription was recruited, usually to the local administrator or a person of high moral character, telling them that the entire legion was completely annihilated, and that I don't know how many people died, how many people were wounded, and how many people were captured, but the government is trying to save it, so please be patient and wait for Yunyun.

Just think about it. The repercussions that such a notice of extermination could cause in the local area not only heartbroken the families of those soldiers, but also terrified the hearts of other people who did not serve in the army. is even more resistant to being a soldier, it's too late to hide, who dares to be a soldier?

Hence the large number of death notices. It's like the last straw that breaks the camel's back, making the Baltimore locals angry as a whole, plus the tandem of caring people. Many people, including the local garrison, began to turn their hearts to the Confederate Army.

Many people were already disgusted with the war, and they were disgusted with Lincoln's dictatorial policies, whether it was compulsory military service and forced paper money, or military management policies, which made everyone extremely dissatisfied.

Of course, in the past, many young people did not want the country to be divided, and hoped that the country could continue to be unified, so they agreed with the northern government, but now that it seems that the northern government cannot support it, the southern army is winning one after another.

In this way, Baltimore was infiltrated by the Confederate Army from top to bottom, and even if there was a local Patriot organization in Lincoln to suppress it, the number was too small to resist the popular will of the entire Baltimore people.

After that, it's simple, Robert. Lee personally formulated an offensive plan, on the one hand, he personally led his troops to launch a large-scale attack on Fredericksburg to attract the attention of the White House, and at the same time, a large number of British and French warships carried the main army of the Allied Army to attack Baltimore from the sea.

Because the number of warships of the Anglo-French alliance was too large, it can be said that it was overwhelming, so the US naval fleet had to retreat in the harbor and rely on the port fortress to resist.

But they didn't know that the commander of the fortress had long been rebelled by the Southern Army, and many naval officers and soldiers had also become members of the Southern Army, so after the fleet returned to the port, they quickly controlled the middle and senior officers of the fleet and captured this huge American fleet without blood.

Then, without much resistance, the British and French warships carrying the Allied forces entered the harbor one after another, unloaded the troops directly in the harbor, and rushed into Baltimore City with such a swagger.

However, during the attack on Baltimore, they finally encountered some resistance, and many army units loyal to the federal government began to put up fierce resistance, but unfortunately, their numbers were too small and there were too many constraints, so it was not long before they were completely crushed by the superior Union forces.

Perhaps it should be said that a telegram should be sent to Washington at this time so that they can prepare early, but unfortunately, the telegraph room to Washington was accused early, and the staff inside has been sending false news to Washington, just as the Chinese once did.

Eventually, the telegraph men confused the White House until the rout troops who had escaped from the Baltimore direction returned to Washington to report the news to them, and Washington learned that Baltimore had actually fallen in the rear.

In short, the Allied forces united with the British and French coalition forces with their mental calculations and unintentional, and after more than half a year of preparations, they made great efforts in one fell swoop, and the result seemed to be easy, but the process was quite complicated, which can be called another military masterpiece of the Confederate government.

Of course, the reason why the Confederate government was able to play such a good tactic was also related to Robert. Lee is concerned, because he is now the commander-in-chief of the Union Army, and he is extremely trusted by President Davis, and in terms of power, he can even be said to be Davis second.

With so much power, Robert. Li was able to mobilize resources from all walks of life to plan this attack with peace of mind, coupled with the fact that the federal government itself had many problems and did not control the state of affairs, and with the help of the British and French forces, this was a success in one fell swoop!

Anyway, Robert. Lee's plan succeeded, and they quickly took Baltimore, which not only broke Lincoln's plan, but also allowed the Union Army to truly grasp the initiative on the battlefield from then on.

It is precisely because the significance of the Baltimore landing battle is that it was the node at which the Confederate Army changed from strategic defense to strategic offensive, so this battle is also called the Great Turning Point Battle, and in terms of historical status and final results, this is indeed a turning point battle. (To be continued......)