Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje, who had led his troops to endure several volleys on the front line, had clearly observed the equipment and, of course, already knew that the people in the fort were using double-barreled rifles. However, as soon as he led his team back to the camp, General Howe's scolding never stopped, leaving him no chance to report.
Just as General Howe finally paused for a moment, another general, General Clinton, immediately interjected:
"This cannot be blamed on Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje. No one would have expected these rebels to station a thousand men to guard such a small fort. If we had siege cannons, one shot would kill hundreds of them."
"Indeed! What a pity we didn't bring large-caliber artillery this time, otherwise how could we be stumped by these few small forts?" General Howe said with a look of annoyance.
The two generals observed from behind with Dianaoculars, unable to see the specific situation inside the fort, only judging by the gunshots. They didn't even ask Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje, the commander who had retreated without achieving his objective, and instead unanimously concluded that the Continental army had only achieved such great casualties by relying on their numerical advantage.
"How about we try a different direction? Philadelphia is so big; it's impossible for the rebels to station a thousand men in every fort. There must be stronger and weaker points. With our combat power, if we find a weaker fort, concentrating all our field artillery and then launching a charge should be enough to take it. Then, we can bypass the other forts and directly attack Philadelphia itself, and these forts will fall without a fight!" General Clinton suggested with a smile.
"Hmm..." General Howe began to consider General Clinton's suggestion.
Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje could no longer hold back. If this continued, perhaps the General might indeed rashly try again. He quickly seized the opportunity to report to General Howe:
"Your Excellency, General. From my observation on the front line, the soldiers inside that fort are a group of Continental army soldiers leading a large number of ordinary militiamen. However, their weapons are very strange. You may have noticed that they are all using slow-loading rifled muskets, but their rifled muskets seem to use a double-barreled structure. One firing can unleash two shots consecutively. In fact, we were not shot at for three rounds, but six. Moreover, according to my observations on the front line, there are at most only five hundred men in the fort, definitely not a thousand defenders. So, there's no need to test the forts in other areas. Five hundred men per fort is something these rebels can achieve, and perhaps there are also large numbers of reserve troops within Philadelphia who can come to support them at any time during our assault." Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje reported calmly.
"Double-barreled? How is that possible? Are you sure?" General Clinton's face was awkward.
"Yes, General. I saw it very clearly; they are using a double-barreled weapon. Double-barreled weapons have appeared before, but this kind of incredibly lethal double-barreled rifle should be new. If they hadn't used this new type of weapon, I wouldn't have suffered such a heavy loss," Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje assured him.
He didn't forget to defend himself at the end.
"Double-barreled rifled muskets?" General Howe was stunned.
He stroked his chin and mused:
"In that case, your heavy casualties are not surprising. The accuracy of rifled muskets is indeed higher than smoothbore muskets, and even those farmers wouldn't be too bad using them."
He could imagine that firing two projectiles at once and loading two projectiles at once would indeed greatly reduce the drawbacks of rifled muskets. Most armies could not withstand such a gun once it entered range. Although his army was excellent, facing this new weapon, it was clearly not something that could be compensated for by excellence alone.
"Very good. Immediately send this news back to Britain, and let the weapons experts there conduct feasibility studies. It would be best if they could also research possible countermeasures for us. There is absolutely no perfect firearm in the world; every gun has its flaws, and I believe this double-barreled rifled musket is no exception." General Howe frowned.
Then he cursed loudly:
"Damn these rifled muskets! Are you telling me I have to use regular siege tactics against these American farmers?! Damn it, who sold them these weapons? We should declare war on them!"
Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje was unmoved by General Howe's cursing, merely stating with a stern face:
"For the safety of the soldiers, I think we should indeed adopt normal siege and fort-attacking methods."
The era of smoothbore muskets had lasted for several hundred years, and for various forms of combat, established patterns had already formed. Field battles had their patterns, and at this time, fort-assault battles also had their fixed patterns.
"Hmm! Forget it, you go and make the arrangements. Alas, this will only prolong the war..." General Howe was deep in thought.
A guard suddenly came over and handed several letters to the adjutant.
General Howe took them in turn, and after carefully reading one of the letters, he burst out laughing:
"Excellent! I just received news from Cornwallis that the homeland wants us to draw as many of those American farmers as possible to the foot of Philadelphia, then encircle and annihilate them, solving them once and for all. Now that the war will be prolonged, it will also allow us to attract more targets. Hehe, then I can slowly transfer a few siege cannons from New York, and we'll see how many days they can last then."
"Drawing the rebels to Philadelphia for encirclement and annihilation? That's a truly good idea!" General Clinton and Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje also smiled in agreement.
General Howe continued to flip through the other letters with a smile, but then the smile on his face changed slightly.
"Damn Cornwallis! I told him to stay in New York, but he, good for him, used the orders from home to directly lead three thousand soldiers south! That damned fellow! Luckily, I've already had Washington, that old fox, driven away, otherwise New York might have been recaptured by the rebels!"
"Cornwallis' actions are truly reckless. Although your Excellency, General, has made arrangements, what if Washington evades pursuit and attacks New York again? Then our logistics and supplies will be completely ruined!" General Clinton fanned the flames from the side.
General Howe pondered for a while, and in the end, he was still uneasy about New York. He decided to let the "Hmmthusiastic" General Clinton lead the injured personnel from this battle back to New York to oversee the defenses of New York.
Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje listened from the side, not daring to speak. The conflict between the two generals was not something a lieutenant colonel like him could interject in. He only needed to figure out how to fight the next battle.
He thought that using regular siege methods, the British army would basically be guaranteed to win.
In the era of rifled muskets, regular siege methods involved digging trenches one by one in front of a city or fort. Digging one trench meant advancing a certain distance. This prevented soldiers from becoming live targets, essentially putting them on the same level as the defenders in the fort. The biggest drawback of this 'mole' tactic was that it took too long. Not only did digging trenches require a lot of time, but the usual exchange of fire between the fort and the trenches would also prolong the fighting due to the greatly increased hit rate.
General Howe didn't care about this. "Well, a longer time," he thought, "means I'll have to bring over all my personal belongings from New York City, my two dogs, a few boxes of evening gowns, a cabinet full of fine wine, and so on. General Clinton will have to bring them all over."
Charles was unaware of General Howe's plans. He was currently busy dealing with the morale of the militiamen.
When the militiamen arrived, they were full of passion and enthusiasm, but as soon as the fighting began and a few people died, many became afraid. Especially those in the combat fort, even if they didn't demand to go home immediately, they were eager to request a change of location.
Charles, while personally comforting these militiamen with Hancock and others, also had to discuss with Sullivan how to proceed with the upcoming battle.
Fortunately, General Howe's 'mole' tactic was recognized by Charles and his men as soon as it was deployed. They breathed a sigh of relief, but then worried whether Washington could cooperate by harassing General Howe's rear. At the same time, Charles also urgently notified Pittsburgh to transport as many cannons as possible.
Pittsburgh's weapon and equipment supply was actually very abundant; the key constraint on Philadelphia's equipment was transportation capacity.
Once the canal was open, there would naturally be no major problems, but currently, the canal was only partially navigable. With both water and land routes, plus a large number of Philadelphia refugees passing through along the way, the transportation of military supplies was greatly restricted. In addition to artillery and firearms, the restriction on gunpowder was also significant. Originally, only Adams' Virginia Company was responsible for gunpowder supply, but now Virginia was also embroiled in war, so gunpowder supply was naturally a bit tight.
Fortunately, General Howe had made plans to draw as many Continental army forces as possible, and he had not blockaded the roads leading to Philadelphia, making Charles' arms supply much easier.
As General Howe sent troops to dig trenches one after another on the front line, Charles found that the fort militia tactic was becoming somewhat ineffective. The howitzers fired several times, but because the soldiers were hiding in the trenches, aside from collapsing a few sections of trenches, there was basically no killing effect. Instead, it was a waste of a large amount of cannonballs and gunpowder. Even sending sharpshooters to fire with rifles had little effect because the British army was mostly hiding in the trenches while digging.
After discussing with General Sullivan, they both couldn't find an effective solution in the short term. However, to prevent being completely surrounded, they did start preparing food and arms reserves within Philadelphia to avoid potential material shortages caused by a long-term siege.
Since the objective of delaying time had been achieved, they decided to slowly come up with solutions. They were also afraid that disrupting the British digging would make them furious and choose to launch a direct assault. So, the two only requested the Continental army and militia to strengthen vigilance, firing a few shots and cannons every now and then to prevent the British from digging too boldly and confidently, and took no other special measures.
Fortunately, the noble nature of the British army was fully exposed at this time. While firing in field battles, they could bravely charge, displaying great demeanor, but now that they were asked to dig, they only wanted to work during the day, and their work was slow, often requiring breaks. General Howe intended to catch some American farmers to help with the digging, but found that the people from nearby villages had all evacuated. In the end, he could only tolerate a digging speed that only advanced a few meters a day.
At this rate, it would take at least a month to even think about reaching the fort.
In Philadelphia, after the public morale had stabilized, Charles handed over the combat matters to General Sullivan and leisurely began to read the messages coming from Pittsburgh.
The Continental Congress had successfully relocated to Pittsburgh and had begun formal operations. As the chairman of the Military and Ordnance Committee, he constantly had various documents to deal with, especially many documents from Pittsburgh, which Charles would review one by one and then have people quickly send back.
Charles was currently reading a report sent by Hamilton.
This report was specifically about Charles' Pittsburgh. Hamilton had previously written several tax reports, wanting the Continental Congress to strengthen tax collection, but all his proposals were rejected by the Continental Congress, and he even incurred the strong displeasure of representatives who opposed the tax system. A special resolution was even passed, prohibiting Hamilton from submitting any further tax-related proposals to the Continental Congress.
This made the brilliant economist somewhat disheartened. In the end, with nothing else to research, he surprisingly began to investigate Charles' Pittsburgh. This letter was his research report on Pittsburgh's current economic situation and future development direction.
In this letter, Hamilton, as always, directly pointed out that Pittsburgh had huge hidden dangers in its development.
The most important and obvious one was the unreasonable industrial and agricultural structure. However, this economist was very much in favor of the idea of industrial nation-building and had a very high overall evaluation of Pittsburgh, so he only lightly touched upon the issue of the industrial and agricultural structure without heavily criticizing it. But regarding Pittsburgh's current industrial structure, he criticized it very severely.
He believed that Pittsburgh's heavy industries, such as steel, were currently too dominant, affecting the survival of other industries, especially the development of basic textile industries. Pittsburgh already had a shortage of manpower, and now a large amount of labor resources were concentrated in the steel industry, causing the textile industry, as an industrial foundation, to shrink too much, which would inevitably constrain the development of other industries in the future.
Charles found his argument very easy to understand.
Even if Hamilton was a brilliant economist, he was still limited by his era and knowledge. In this era, whenever industrial nation-building was mentioned, Britain inevitably came to mind, and what was the symbol of British industry at this time? Wasn't it the textile industry that developed from the enclosure movement?
Steel and coal only showed their importance after the nineteenth century. The industry of the eighteenth century actually mainly referred to the textile industry.