The fall of Fredericksburg.
On September fourth General Moriana was finally ready to put his naval captain plan into action. Abruptly he called his forces back from the walls, leaving only a small picket force to watch the walls he concentrated his forces along the northern wall. The sudden Spanish withdraw came as a major shock to General Dorien who immediately suspected some kind of trap to be in play. Thinking the Spanish would charge the north en masse he moved whatever troops he could to counter such action, holding them back from the front to keep them from the prying eyes of Spanish scouts.
Preparations now complete Moriana gave the signal to begin and soon thirty thirty two pounder guns fresh from the Lyon were opening up on the walls of the city. The large heavy rounds tore through the fragile wood and mud structure and soon an opening was formed to large for the Alyskans to properly defend. Moriana held his men back though, not yet thinking he held enough of an advantage to send his men into the fray.
Instead he turned the guns into the city itself and began to fire into the buildings. He hoped to light some of the city on fire, giving his counterpart on the Alyskan side (General Dorien though Moriana did not know his name) one more thing to distract him from fighting.
After a whole day and nights bombardment Moriana finally called off the guns and ordered his men into the city. He sent his men in two waves of ten thousand apiece, holding an additional ten thousand in reserve in the event they became needed. Surprisingly the Spanish faced bitter opposition from the surviving Alyskan troops and the battle quickly degenerated into a vicious street to street and sometimes building to building brawl which soon absorbed the Spanish reserves. As soon as it seemed that a block had been cleared and was free of Alyskans a sniper would open up from a roof and quickly kill a few men before disappearing.
The sheer violence of the fighting was a major shock to the Spanish, who simply had no experience like this. In their mind when a cities walls had been breaches its citizens would either surrender, or panic and flee. They never stood and fought in the kind of slaughter which was currently happening. Indeed the carnage is well described by many and the images they describe are of horrors which would not be matched until the Second Great war of the mid twentieth century.
The fighting also came as a shock to General Dorien who had hoped that he would be able to push the Spanish out with the concentrated mass of his men to oppose any Spanish troops who broached the defenses. Instead the Spanish kept coming, taking very heavy loses but still marching on. What was more the battle of attrition which raged throughout the city heavily favored the Spanish who had access to a proper hospital and fresh troops. Dorien was steadily loosing men and buildings and on the ninth of November he sent an emergency request to Posadka asking for permission to surrender and spare what men he had left.
In Posadka the two heads of government debated endlessly about the proper course of action. Unable to come to an agreement they put Doriens request to a vote in the Duma. The vote was 27/78 in favor of surrender and General Gordon wrote a bitter letter to his colleague explaining that "It is through my failure that you must make the ultimate sacrifice for your countrymen. Men who do not deserve even your actions up to now. They will have you die just so they may enjoy a few additional days as freemen"
Dorien would fight on until December twenty eighth before he and three hundred men, the last survivors of his army, were overran by nearly two thousand Spaniards and cut down. Out of twenty two thousand men the Spanish only captured five hundred eighteen. Spanish losses were seven thousand eight hundred killed in action and eleven thousand killed by wounds and disease. In the end the battle was very much a Pyrrhic victory for the Spanish who were unable to field enough men to continue operations and it would be another winter before Moriana would have enough troops to continue the invasion.
On September fourth General Moriana was finally ready to put his naval captain plan into action. Abruptly he called his forces back from the walls, leaving only a small picket force to watch the walls he concentrated his forces along the northern wall. The sudden Spanish withdraw came as a major shock to General Dorien who immediately suspected some kind of trap to be in play. Thinking the Spanish would charge the north en masse he moved whatever troops he could to counter such action, holding them back from the front to keep them from the prying eyes of Spanish scouts.
Preparations now complete Moriana gave the signal to begin and soon thirty thirty two pounder guns fresh from the Lyon were opening up on the walls of the city. The large heavy rounds tore through the fragile wood and mud structure and soon an opening was formed to large for the Alyskans to properly defend. Moriana held his men back though, not yet thinking he held enough of an advantage to send his men into the fray.
Instead he turned the guns into the city itself and began to fire into the buildings. He hoped to light some of the city on fire, giving his counterpart on the Alyskan side (General Dorien though Moriana did not know his name) one more thing to distract him from fighting.
After a whole day and nights bombardment Moriana finally called off the guns and ordered his men into the city. He sent his men in two waves of ten thousand apiece, holding an additional ten thousand in reserve in the event they became needed. Surprisingly the Spanish faced bitter opposition from the surviving Alyskan troops and the battle quickly degenerated into a vicious street to street and sometimes building to building brawl which soon absorbed the Spanish reserves. As soon as it seemed that a block had been cleared and was free of Alyskans a sniper would open up from a roof and quickly kill a few men before disappearing.
The sheer violence of the fighting was a major shock to the Spanish, who simply had no experience like this. In their mind when a cities walls had been breaches its citizens would either surrender, or panic and flee. They never stood and fought in the kind of slaughter which was currently happening. Indeed the carnage is well described by many and the images they describe are of horrors which would not be matched until the Second Great war of the mid twentieth century.
The fighting also came as a shock to General Dorien who had hoped that he would be able to push the Spanish out with the concentrated mass of his men to oppose any Spanish troops who broached the defenses. Instead the Spanish kept coming, taking very heavy loses but still marching on. What was more the battle of attrition which raged throughout the city heavily favored the Spanish who had access to a proper hospital and fresh troops. Dorien was steadily loosing men and buildings and on the ninth of November he sent an emergency request to Posadka asking for permission to surrender and spare what men he had left.
In Posadka the two heads of government debated endlessly about the proper course of action. Unable to come to an agreement they put Doriens request to a vote in the Duma. The vote was 27/78 in favor of surrender and General Gordon wrote a bitter letter to his colleague explaining that "It is through my failure that you must make the ultimate sacrifice for your countrymen. Men who do not deserve even your actions up to now. They will have you die just so they may enjoy a few additional days as freemen"
Dorien would fight on until December twenty eighth before he and three hundred men, the last survivors of his army, were overran by nearly two thousand Spaniards and cut down. Out of twenty two thousand men the Spanish only captured five hundred eighteen. Spanish losses were seven thousand eight hundred killed in action and eleven thousand killed by wounds and disease. In the end the battle was very much a Pyrrhic victory for the Spanish who were unable to field enough men to continue operations and it would be another winter before Moriana would have enough troops to continue the invasion.