林肯任命一位将军来保卫华盛顿

在1861年7月，从北方来的联邦军和从南方来的邦联军在美国内战期间发生了一次重大的战役，双方军队涌向维吉尼亚州马纳萨斯（或布尔朗），此处距华盛顿只有不足五十公里的路程。联邦军打得很猛烈，但两支强大的邦联军阻击了联邦军的进攻。本周，我们继续向你讲述美国内战初期的其他一些重大战役。

北方人本来期望联邦军会在马纳萨斯战役中获胜，他们认为如果联邦军在美国内战初期能够取得一次重大胜利，那么南方的邦联军就会因此而失败。然而，现在由于南方军在马纳萨斯战役中获胜，北方人感到了恐惧。联邦军需要尽快重建部队并训练士兵。林肯总统提名乔治.麦克莱伦将军来负责此事。麦克莱伦此时年仅34岁。

这位年轻的将军有两项重要使命，一是他必须保卫华盛顿免受进攻，二是他必须组建军队并击败在维吉尼亚的南方军队。麦克莱伦没有浪费时间，他将数以千计的军队安置在华盛顿城的周围，另外他还兴建了48座军事堡垒。在经过这次战役后，在很长一段时间里没有发生更多的战斗。麦克莱伦对他的妻子说：“我将自己掌控时间，使我的军队能够确保胜利。只有当我的军队组织良好，训练到位，足够强大时，我才会迫使南方的叛军投入战斗。”

麦克莱伦为他不向南方的敌军发动进攻寻找借口，他的借口不断给林肯总统带来麻烦。在北方，民众、媒体和政治家们都要求麦克莱伦采取军事行动，他们想要赢得这场战争的胜利，而且还想马上就赢得胜利。

麦克莱伦指挥着北方联邦军的最大一支军团，这就是波托马可河军团，但北方军队并不只是这一支军团，其他军队在西部与南方军激战。南方军队通过田纳西州进入肯塔基州，他们在南方各州的对面建军事堡垒和其他防御工事，他们还尽一切所能封锁多条铁路和河运。

他们的所做的一切就是为了防止北方军从肯塔基进攻南方。在这一地区有一位北方军将领，他叫尤利塞斯.格兰特（Ulysses Grant），格兰特在部队了服役了20年，他曾经参加了美国与墨西哥的战争，并凭借其勇敢而获得荣誉，当美墨战争结束后，他被派往到一个远离妻儿的军事基地，为此他很不情愿，同时，在和平期间他也不愿意当一名军官。

格兰特开始酗酒，他开始制造麻烦。在1844年，军方要求他离开部队。当美国内战暴发时，格兰特在伊利诺斯州组织了支自愿军，在一些国会议员的帮助下，他被提名为将军。北方军队中所有的将军都知道格兰特这个人，没有几个人相信他的军事能力，他们确信他肯定会失败。

然而，格兰特相信自己和他的军队，他认为他有能力迫使南方军撤离肯塔基和田纳西，然后他将长驱直入进入到南方的腹地密西西比州。

有两座军事堡垒挡住了格兰特的去路，这两座军事堡垒位于田纳西州，靠近肯塔基州的边界。北方海军的炮艇首先占领了位于田纳西河的亨利军事堡垒（Fort Henry），这座堡垒很容易受到攻击却不易防守。此次战斗由格兰特和他的自愿军完成。第二座堡垒是道尔逊军事堡垒（Fort Donelson），该军事堡垒位于坎伯兰河附近。这座军事堡垒非常坚固，而且有二万人在防守。格兰特包围了这座军事堡垒，并让海军炮艇炮击这座堡垒，这次战斗持续了好几天。

在此次战斗中，南方军队试图摆脱军事堡垒然后逃跑，他们打开了北方军队防线的一个缺口，并开始撤退。然而，他们的指挥官突然认为撤退是错误的，他命令已经撤退的部队回到堡垒中。至此以后，南方军别无选择，他们不得不投降。南方军指挥官给格兰特将军写了一封信，问：“投降的条件是什么？”格兰特回答得非常简单：“除了无条件立即投降外，没有任何条件。”南方军队放弃了道尔逊军事堡垒，格兰特俘获了一万四千名俘虏。这是北方军自内战暴发以来最大的一次胜利。尤利塞斯.格兰特成为了英雄，报纸称他是“无条件投降的”格兰特。

北方军在道尔逊军事堡垒取得胜利后，南方军队从田纳西州撤退了，他们进一步向南撤，并开始在密西西比州的科林斯（Corinth）重新组建他们的军队。南方的将军们希望能够组建一支强大的军队以阻止格兰特的进攻，他们将不得不加快速度，因为格兰特率领他的四万军队正向科林斯而来。另外还有一支三万五千人的军队，由堂.布尔（Don Buell）率领正准备与格兰特汇合。

格兰特先到了，他驻扎一外叫夏伊洛教堂（Shiloh Church）附近，此地距科林斯30公里处，他在此等待布尔的部队。而与时同时，南方的艾伯特.悉尼.约翰斯顿（Albert Sydney Johnston）所率领的部队也驻扎在此，他所率领的部队与格兰特差不多，也有四万多人，他也正在等待另一支二万人的军队与他汇合。但当约翰斯顿得知格兰特就在附近时，他决定不再等待，他要立即向格兰特发起进攻。

约翰斯顿并不知道他的进攻令北方军感到惊讶，北方军的指挥官们并不相信约翰斯顿准备向他们发起进攻，他们说约翰斯顿的部队并没有能力进攻他们。因此，北方军队没有做好防御的准备。当战斗打响时，他们没有任何的保护。

夏伊洛战役是美国内战中最残酷的一次。这不是一次战斗，而是很多次战斗。双方在广阔的战场上捕杀，在远处他们用枪相互射杀，而在近距离，他们就用刀来相互刺杀。大地都被鲜血染成了红色。很快，伤者和死者遍地都是。刚开始，南方军进攻格兰特军的后面，他们突破了格兰特的几条防线，胜利眼看就要到来了。但就在战斗最激烈的时候，约翰斯顿将军腿部受伤，大腿动脉被子弹击中，他在援军到来之前流血而死，他想在夏伊洛为南方赢得一场胜利的希望破灭了。到第二天战斗再次打响时，布尔将军赶到了，格兰特的援军来了。南方军撤退了，北方军没有追击。

夏伊洛，这个名字本身就是来自于死亡和毁灭。夏伊洛战役让美国人民，无论是南方人还是北方人都体会到战争的可怕，这是西方世界第一次投入如此庞大的作战人员――十万人――进行相互撕杀，这是美国人第一次真正品味到现代战争的血腥味道。正如一位参加过这次战斗的士兵说：“这场战役太令人震惊，太可怕了，我希望上帝能够让我不再看到这样的场面。”

北方在夏伊洛战役中获胜，但却为此胜利付出了高昂的代价，有三万多北方士兵阵亡、受伤或失踪。而在南方这一方，有一万人阵亡或受伤。北方宣布了夏伊洛战役获胜的消息，但当民众了解到北方在此次战役中遭受如此重大的损失时，这个胜利的喜悦很快就变成了气愤，人们都在指责格兰特，他们要求总统解除他的职务。林肯考虑他目前的两位最高军事指挥官：麦克莱伦和格兰特，这两个人有很大的不同，麦克莱伦组建了一支军队，但没有采取任何军事行动，而格兰特也组建了一支军队，并带领的这支军队一直向前。林肯这样评价格兰特：“没有这个人，我将一事无成，他是斗士。”

欲知后事如何，请看下周分解。

简评：

从这里，我们可以看到，民众、媒体和政治家们对军事而言，可以说都是外行：如果应他们要求投入战斗，失败了，他们指责，他们害怕。胜利了，他们欢呼，但当他们得知胜利所付出的惨重代价时，他们又变得愤怒，甚至要求解除胜利者的指挥职务。如果不应他们要求开战，却又在指责指挥官们，说他们无所事事，说他们胆小如鼠。

因此，如何打战，只能是军人的事，别人就不应该干预。

Lincoln Names a General to Defend Washington　　

In July of eighteen sixty-one, Union soldiers from the North and Confederate soldiers from the South fought the first major battle in the American Civil War. They clashed at Manassas, or Bull Run, Virginia, less than fifty kilometers from Washington. The Union soldiers fought fiercely. But two large Confederate forces broke the Union attack. This week in our series, we tell about some of the other early battles of the Civil War. 　

General George McClellan

Northerners had expected to win the battle of Bull Run. They believed the Confederacy would fall if the Union won a big military victory early in the war. Now, however, there was great fear that southern soldiers would seize Washington. The Union needed to build and train an army quickly. President Abraham Lincoln named General George McClellan to do this. McClellan was thirty-four years old.

The young general had two important tasks. He must defend Washington from attack. And he must build an army to strike at enemy forces in Virginia. McClellan wasted no time. He put thousands of troops into position around the city. And he built forty-eight forts. After this rush of activity, however, little more happened for a long time. McClellan told his wife: "I shall take my own time to make an army that will be sure of success. As soon as I feel my army is well-organized and well-trained and strong enough, I will force the rebels to a battle." 　

McClellan kept making excuses for why he would not move against the enemy. His excuses became a continuing source of trouble for President Lincoln. The public, the press, and politicians all demanded that McClellan do something. They wanted to win the war, and win it right away.

McClellan commanded the biggest army in the Union, the Army of the Potomac. But it was not the only army. Others were battling Confederate forces in the West. The Confederates had moved up through Tennessee into the border state of Kentucky. They built forts and other defensive positions across the southern part of the state. They also blocked as many railroads and rivers as they could.

Their job was to keep Union forces from invading the South through Kentucky. One of the Union generals in the area was Ulysses Grant. Grant had served in the army for twenty years. He had fought in America's war against Mexico and had won honors for his bravery. When that war ended, he was sent to an army base far from his wife and children. He did not like being without them. And he did not like being an officer in peace time. 　

Grant began to drink too much alcohol. He began to be a problem. In eighteen fifty-four, he was asked to leave the army. When the Civil War started, Grant organized a group of unpaid soldiers in Illinois. With the help of a member of Congress, he was named a general. All of the other Union Generals knew Ulysses Grant. Few had any faith in his abilities. They were sure he would always fail. 　

Grant, however, had faith in himself and his men. He believed he could force Confederate soldiers to withdraw from both Kentucky and Tennessee. Then he would be free to march directly into the Deep South -- Mississippi.

Battle of Fort Donelson

Two Confederate forts stood in Grant's way. They were in Tennessee, close to the Kentucky border. United States Navy gunboats captured the first, Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River. That fort was easy to attack and not well-defended. The fighting was over by the time Grant and his men got there. The second, Fort Donelson, was nearby on the Cumberland River. It was stronger and defended by twenty thousand soldiers. Grant surrounded the fort and let the navy gunboats shell it. The fighting there lasted several days.

At one point, the Confederates tried to break out of the fort and escape. They opened a hole in the Union line and began to retreat. Suddenly, however, their commanding officer decided it would be wrong to retreat. He ordered them back to the fort. After that, there was no choice. The Confederates would have to surrender. The commanding officer sent a message to General Grant. "What were the terms of surrender?" Grant's answer was simple. "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender."  The Confederates gave up Fort Donelson. Grant took fourteen thousand prisoners.  It was the greatest Union victory since the start of the war. Ulysses Grant was a hero. Newspapers called him "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. 　

After the Union victory at Fort Donelson, Confederate forces withdrew from Tennessee. They moved farther south and began to re-group at Corinth, Mississippi. Confederate Generals hoped to build one big army to stop Ulysses Grant. They would have to move fast. Grant was marching toward Corinth with forty thousand men. Another thirty-five thousand, under the command of Don Buell, were to meet him on the way. 　

Grant arrived in the area first. He waited for Buell thirty kilometers from Corinth, near a small country meeting hall called Shiloh Church. Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston was waiting, too. He had more than forty thousand men, about the same as Grant. And he was expecting another twenty thousand. But when he learned that Grant was nearby, he decided not to wait. He would attack immediately.

Johnston did not know it, but his attack came as a surprise to the Union army. Union officers had refused to believe reports that Johnston was on the move. They said his army was not strong enough to attack. Union troops did not prepare defensive positions. They had no protection when the battle began.

Battle of Shiloh

The fighting at Shiloh was the bitterest of the war. It was not one battle, but many. Groups of men fought each other all across the wide battlefield. From a distance, they shot at each other. Close up, they cut each other with knives. The earth became red with blood. The dead and wounded soon lay everywhere. At first, the Confederates pushed Grant's army back. They had only to break through one more line and victory would be theirs. But in the thick of the struggle, General Johnston was shot in the leg. The bullet cut through an artery. Johnston bled to death before help arrived. Any hope for a southern victory at Shiloh died with him. By the time the fighting began again the next day, General Buell had arrived to help Grant. The Confederate army retreated. The Union army let it go.

Shiloh. The word itself came to mean death and destruction. The battle of Shiloh had brought home to the American people -- both of the North and South -- the horror of war. It was the first time so many men -- one hundred thousand -- had fought against each other in the western world. It was the American people's first real taste of the bloodiness of modern warfare. As one soldier who fought there said: "It was too shocking, too horrible. I hope to God that I may never see such things again." 　

The North won the battle of Shiloh. But it paid a very high price for victory. More than thirteen thousand union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. On the Confederate side, more than ten thousand soldiers were killed or wounded. The North celebrated the news of its victory. But joy quickly turned to anger when the public learned of the heavy losses. People blamed General Grant. They demanded that President Lincoln dismiss him. Lincoln thought of the two men who were now his top military commanders: McClellan and Grant. They were so different. McClellan organized an army, and then did nothing. Grant organized an army, and moved. Lincoln said of Grant: "I cannot do without this man. He fights."  We will continue our story of the Civil War next week. 　

关于博主

文章列表

文章分类

最近发布