1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 687 Water Battle

The city of Omaha is located north of the confluence of the Platte and Missouri Rivers.

The city of Omaha prospered because of the Pacific Railroad, and it is also the most important telegraph line hub in the Great Plains region.

Benefiting from the sudden rise of the West Coast, by 1861, Omaha had rapidly developed into a large frontier city with a population of nearly 20,000.

After reaching the outskirts of Omaha, the Western Army did not rush to launch a fierce attack on the city, but instead took a steady approach and first dug trenches in the western suburbs of Omaha.

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Seeing the Western Army digging trenches and building fortifications right under their noses while the Northern Army did nothing, the congressmen who came all the way to Omaha to watch the battle were furious.

Astor, Livingston and others personally came to McClellan's headquarters to put pressure on McClellan, asking him to take the initiative to attack and strike back at the arrogance of the Western Army.

McClellan, as always, maintained his strategic composure and did not adopt these amateur suggestions.

During the attack on the Pacific Railway, the Western Cavalry suffered heavy casualties. Although the Western Cavalry still maintains its organization, a large number of veterans have been killed.

McClellan was well aware that his two cavalry regiments had lost the ability to carry out high-intensity missions.

He would not be so foolish as to let his only two remaining cavalry regiments attack the fortifications of the Western Army's infantry head-on before the formal battle began.

McClellan acted like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water. No matter how Astor, Livingston and others pressured him, urged him, or even threatened him, he remained unmoved.

He had decided to stay in Omaha and fight a good defensive battle.

McClellan did not just defend Omaha. In order to maintain smooth traffic with the Union Army's detachment in northern Kansas and ensure the safety of Omaha's rear, McClellan sent his newly formed inland fleet, the Missouri Fleet, into the Platte River to compete with the Western Army for control of the Platte River waterway.

On the Western Army side, Krueger, the commander-in-chief in charge of this battle, also hoped to transport troops to the east of the Missouri River through the waterway of the Platte River to destroy the Union Army's logistical transportation lines and to outflank the flanks and rear of the Union Army's main force in Omaha to reduce the pressure on the main attacking force in the front.

The two coaches had the same idea. Kruger sent the inland fleet he had formed, the Platte Fleet, eastward down the Platte River, trying to control the Platte River and even part of the Missouri River.

On a misty morning, the two inland fleets first encountered each other in the river near Linoma Beach.

Interestingly, the crews of these two inland fleets have no naval background and their personnel composition is relatively amateur.

The Western Army's Pratt Fleet was formed with California's anti-smuggling water police as its core and crew members from shipping companies as its members.

The personnel of the Northern Army's Missouri Fleet seemed more amateur than those of the Western Army's Pratt Fleet. In addition to the crew members of the Missouri River and Great Lakes shipping companies, the crew of the Missouri Fleet were fishermen from frontier areas.

As for the combat ships deployed by both sides, the ships of the Western Army's Pratt Fleet were much more regular than those of the Northern Army's Missouri Fleet.

Although the Platte Fleet also used many civilian ships from the North Platte and converted them into inland warships, its main force was still inland warships converted based on loach boats.

In contrast, the ships of the Northern Army's Missouri Fleet were basically hastily converted civilian ships.

The morning fog formed a milky white curtain over the Linoma River Bay, making visibility on the Platte River channel very low.

Because the Platte River is relatively narrow, it is difficult for both sides' ships to fully deploy.

The commander of the Pratt Fleet was Zhang Jingxiu, a native of Xiangshan who came from the Jinshan City Water Police.

Zhang Jingxiu led the way with three Loach-class battleships, forming a wedge-shaped formation to cut through the muddy current of the Platte River and rushing towards the Northern Army's Missouri Fleet with great momentum.

"Target the enemy flagship! Fire!"

Zhang Jingxiu fixed his eyes on the enemy's flagship and ordered the three loach boats in the lead to concentrate their firepower on attacking the enemy's flagship.

The enemy's flagship, Crescent, was called a flagship, but in fact it was just a Confederate cotton ship seized by the Northern Army, with a displacement of only 150 tons.

The 12-pound Sacramento guns on the bows of the three loach boats fired one after another. The Sacramento guns had an extremely fast firing rate. After several rounds of shooting, although the morning mist on the river made visibility poor, three or five guns still hit the opponent's flagship.

However, the Crescent, which was hit by the artillery, seemed to be unharmed, which puzzled Zhang Jingxiu and the crew members who were leading the charge.

Logically speaking, a 12-pound cannon should have made a hole in a small inland boat with a displacement of over 100 tons. How come there was no damage at all?

"Cotton! Their boats are covered with soaked cotton!"

The gunner next to Zhang Jingxiu had better eyesight and was the first to notice the clues.

"These Yankees are pretty clever, using cotton bales as improvised armor."

Zhang Jingxiu praised the Northerners' move. It seemed that there were still many capable people in the Northern Army who could think of such a good way to strengthen the defense capabilities of the ships.

On the Crescent, Lieutenant Colonel Lambert, the commander of the Missouri Fleet, stood on the teak deck, holding a monocular telescope and staring at the Western warships coming towards them. Seeing that the three leading enemy warships were only five or six hundred meters away from them, he said in a deep voice: "It's our turn! Let them taste the wrath of Omaha!"

The four leading ships of the Missouri Fleet launched a counterattack. The small Napoleon cannons on the bow spewed out flames, and spherical shells trailed long white smoke through the air and slammed into the Western ships.

However, the accuracy of the smoothbore cannons they were equipped with was not high, and the gunners who were hastily deployed had little artillery skills.

The Northern Army's counterattack was loud thunder but little action. The sound of their artillery was very intimidating, but their hit rate was very touching. Only one shell hit the pig iron sheet wrapped around the bow of a loach boat.

The rest of the shells fell into the nearby waters, creating columns of water.

The two sides fired back and forth on the Platte River, but after only a dozen minutes of firing, the gun barrels were smoking and neither side achieved much success.

On Zhang Jingxiu's ship, the Chaoyang, the loader of the main gun at the bow was wrapping the scalding gun barrel with a wet wool blanket to cool it down.

"Sir, the enemy ships are all wrapped in soaked cotton bales. Our shells can't do much damage to them if they hit the cotton. At this rate, we may not be able to sink many of their ships even if we use up all our shells."

Wang Huoxiu, the first mate on the Chaoyang, reported to Zhang Jingxiu with great concern.

"Sir, this is our first battle. We can't defeat the Yankee civilian ships with our real warships. Even if we didn't lose, we would be too embarrassed to report to our superiors when we return."

The main gunner on the Chaoyang also agreed with the first mate Wang Huoxiu's opinion, believing that they could not continue to engage the Yankees in artillery fire and that they had to change their tactics.

Although they did not suffer any loss after more than ten minutes of artillery fire, as the first mate Wang Huoxiu said, the 12-pound main gun was originally weak, and the Yankees had wrapped the hulls with wet cotton. At this rate, even if all the shells on the ship were used up, it was not certain how many Yankee ships could be sunk.