Johnston and the staff officers were slightly stunned, judging from the sound of gunfire, the place where the battle took place should be Snake Gap, which was already the right rear of the Dorton Line of the Southern Army, and it was impossible for the Northern Army to appear. Could it be bandits or guerrillas of the Northern Army?

Soon the report arrived: in the direction of Snekgap, the Northern Army was launching a fierce attack on the flank and rear of our position.

Johnston was taken aback: how could this be?

How many people are there?

Judging by the density of fire, at least ...... 30,000 or 40,000 people.

Johnston's cold sweat fell: how could it be?!

Such a large enemy force moved to our right flank, and there was no information about this, how did they get through? Isn't it from the direction of Chattanooga? Transferred from the Eastern Front?

General, what should the right-wing troops do? There are no decent fortifications in the flank and rear directions, and it is almost impossible to hold on!

At this moment, the artillery of the Northern Army on the other side of the canyon roared.

Two hundred cannons roared together, the sound was extremely fierce, and the river was immediately covered with smoke traces of shells, and the debris of the southern army's position was flying, and the smoke and dust were filled.

The right flank is not supported, and the reserves should have been sent, but if the number of enemy troops is really 30,000 or 40,000, there are no strong fortifications behind the right flank, and the reserves are not enough to fill, then it is necessary to transfer reinforcements from the center, but obviously, the northern army in the center is about to launch a large-scale attack!

The battle report came quickly: the right-wing troops could no longer hold on, and there were signs of collapse.

Johnston gritted his teeth: send the reserves up, be sure to resist!

Then, the whole army retreated.

In fact, this Northern Army did not come from the Eastern Front. There were no thirty or forty thousand people. Rather, it was the 1st Division led by Forrest and the two black regiments of the 3rd Division. About a little more than 11,000 people.

The Xuan army bypassed the main position of the Confederate army far away, crossed the river from a shoal, climbed over the ridge, and moved along a small road to Snekegap, which was behind the right flank of the Confederate Dalton Line, and launched an attack.

The Spencer guns were in place, and the four regiments of the 1st Division, the 1st Foreign Regiment and the Kezi Regiment each originally had two Spencer battalions. Now each has increased by one to three, and the German regiment and the Kuizi regiment originally did not have Spencer, but now each is equipped with two battalions of Spencer.

The same was true of the Second Division, where the Spencer battalions of the 2nd Yang Regiment and the Xianzi Regiment were increased to three, and the Jianzi Regiment and the Luzi Regiment were each equipped with two Spencer battalions.

The firing rifles of the six extra battalions were evenly distributed to the provisional 3rd Division, the two veteran demobilization battalions of the provisional 3rd Division were equipped with Spencer rifles, and the two recruit battalions and two black regiments were equipped with firing rifles.

So, for these 11,000 people, there are 5,000 Spencer guns and 6,000 breech single-shot firing guns. And the Battle of Chicomoga as if. The southern army was suddenly attacked by intensive fire, and was stunned all of a sudden. The judgment of the strength of the Northern Army, as well as the Tennessee Corps at the Battle of Cheek Moga, far exceeded the actual number.

As for the ability to successfully detour behind the Southern Army without knowing it, it is thanks to Guan Zhuofan's unremitting intelligence work since he took over as commander of the Tennessee Theater of Operations.

Guan Zhuofan's intelligence sources, in addition to the spies he sent, the most important thing is the fugitive slaves from the south.

For the blacks, there was no secret from their slave owners. Not only the mountains and rivers are dangerous, the army is stationed, the fortifications are set up, and the storage locations are clear, but even which male master has a personal affair with which hostess, and which rich man buried how much grain where, the black slaves are also clear.

Such fugitives were everywhere in the North, and after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, there were even many of the two black groups in this operation, and some even escaped from Atlanta.

Another source of intelligence is more interesting, the local poor whites in the South.

This was somewhat unexpected by Guan Zhuofan. It turned out that not all whites supported the Confederate government, and many low-income whites not only did not support it, but also hated it very much. The reason is not that they are against separatism, but that fighting this battle is only bad for them, and there is nothing good for them.

This war was fought to maintain slavery, so do we have half a slave? I can't even feed myself! In addition, as ordinary manual laborers, it is difficult for poor whites to compete with cheaper or even free slaves in the labor market, so poor whites do not have any good feelings about slavery, although this has nothing to do with who is "humane" or "just".

It is not surprising that there is such a group of people who do not like to go to war and are willing to lead the way instead of being able to gain any benefits from the war, but who have to pay the price of blood, sweat and serious property losses for the war.

The intelligence officers of the Northern Army found that valuable information could be bought for very little money.

The Confederate government was always willing to introduce policies that added fuel to the fire, such as requiring that people could be hired to serve on their behalf. That is, slave owners could pay poor white people to die on their behalf. Although there were many high-ranking officials and children of famous families who fought bloody battles with the Northern Army on the battlefield, there were also many wealthy people who took advantage of this to avoid military service. This kind of policy, in the eyes of the people at the bottom, is naturally more detached from morality.

Coupled with the devastation of the economy and the hardships of life, there were even poor whites who rose up and joined forces with the opponents of slavery in the South to form guerrillas to spy on the Northern Army and attack the Confederate government and army.

Therefore, the spies of the Southern Army pretending to be reporters did not get much valuable information about the Northern Army, but Guan Zhuofan already knew all the arrangements of the Southern Army, including the relevant mountains and rivers.

Although he had never been to Dalton, his grasp of the geography around the Confederate defense line in some respects even surpassed that of the Confederate army itself.

This secret route was provided by fugitive slaves, and then surveyed and determined by the intelligence officers of the Northern Army and the pro-Union guerrillas in the South.

Guan Zhuofan thought, hey, it's really a vast sea of people's war.

It's just that this "vast ocean" is still a little smaller than the whole South, and it is not enough to save their compatriots from the tragic fate that will suffer next.

As for how the Negro Regiment performed in this battle, in Forrestal's words, "It's a bunch of recruits who don't look like recruits I've ever seen." ”

During the battle, the black recruits were also excited, nervous, frightened, and trembling, but when the Spencer battalion tore through the Confederate defenses, Forrest gave the order to charge, and these black recruits, without exception, rushed out at once, as if they had springs under their feet.

They shouted wildly in their mouths, and in an instant they were mixed up with the southern army that had no time to retreat.

Forrest saw with his own eyes that a black soldier did not care about the bayonet stabbed by the Confederate soldier, but stabbed fiercely, the latter came first, the bayonet pierced the chest of the Confederate soldier, until it reached the muzzle of the gun, and the impact force hit the Confederate soldier's body and flew backwards, and the bayonet that stabbed him stopped.

The black regiment did not entangle with the Confederate soldiers for too long, and continued to rush forward, leaving behind the corpses of the Confederate soldiers.

Before Johnston retreated, he blew up two bridges without suspense.

A short section of the bridge was lifted, and at this time, Sherman's right army had just arrived.

Sherman: What? Yixuan, are you done fighting? Well, I'll take care of the rest.

This battle set such a record: not a single shot was fired on the frontal battlefield - only the cannon was fired, and the gun was not let go, and the so-called "impregnable" Dolton was taken at a very small price.

Of course, Johnston retreated in time, and Xuan's army did not inflict substantial losses on the Southern army.

Later, Guan Zhuofan crossed the bridge and entered the Southern Army fortifications, which felt a bit like Sima Yi entering Zhuge Liang's camp, and nodded secretly: Although defeated, Joseph? Johnston has the air of a general.

Oh, and before he crossed the bridge, he had to watch Sherman's sapper unit put on a show.

From a distance, Xie Bu's sappers were like two long worker ants, carrying all kinds of equipment and materials, stretching from the bridge deck to the water surface, and converged at the gap near the opposite bank of the bridge deck.

Looking at it, he, a liberal arts student, finally saw the doorway.

The bridge is to lay wooden piles at the bottom of the river first, then place caissons on the wooden piles, build piers on the caissons, build bridge bodies on the bridge piers, and only blow up a section of the bridge body when Johnst retreats, and the bridge piers are unharmed.

*(To be continued......)