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The Siege of Saint Josephus Principality (1868)
The Siege of Saint Josephus Principality was a 6-month siege of the capital city of the Palpattarrian States by the Dormutian Army from February 12th, 1868, to August 27th, 1868. Although supply lines had attempted to be cut, minimal success had met the Dormutian army, so they decided to attack the city from the Northern-most point and have it "bleed slowly into submission". The young and aggressive Dormutian general Nathanial Brawn and his army numbered at 545,320 men (although this number includes the combined forces that were interchanged in the trenches and rear duty) would attempt to starve and kill as many Palpattarrians as a means to bring a quick surrender. Although the Palpattarrians would make heroic stands against the Dormutian juggernaut, the disparity in numbers and the inconvenience of the capital's location in relation to trade routes would serve to hand to the Palpattarrians a crushing defeat. This led, in no small part, to the capitulation of the Palpattarrian Army, and the ending of most formal hostilities. Even so, a gritty guerilla war would continue as the Dormutians placed a military government in the reconquered territories.

Opposing Forces
Dormutia: Dormutia would continue to funnel more and more troops from its seemingly endless supply into the army. When Nathaniel Brawn first came into sight of Saint Josephus, he had about 92,223 men, he, promptly, would request more assistance from the main Dormutian territory instead of the armies further east or south. In limited numbers, he would enlist the services of 2,045 Dormutian-supportive Palpattarrians, the bulk of his forces remained mainly ethnic Dormutians, prominently from the constituencies of Swacern and Undesville. This force of 545,320 men would use limited support from supply lines, often sending foraging parties (Sherkerns) into the forest and surrounding villages in order to gather supplies like food, timber, and water. These "Sherkerns" would become infamous among the general Palpattarrian public, for their destruction of property, looting, pillaging, arson, and general assault. They often acted out of the sight and authority of the Dormutian army, despite still owing loyalty. One party of significance was the "Gercern Party", which would be distinguished for its incredible success and brutal methods (reports usually describe the amount of people killed by Sherkerns to be about 4,400). The Dormutian army could not rely on the Navy or Marine force to assist, as the rivers that ran through St. Josephus were numerous in number but low on water content. Brawn and his officials often used Pioneering brigades to help clear fortifications, dig trenches, and mine underground, these brigades would often be filled with men in the mining, lumbering, or laboring industry, but with little military experience. They proved to be useful in limited operations and larger fronts, but not in main infantry assaults on elevated trenches or earthworks. The common outcome for the units put into these situations was to be outrun by the infantry as the infantry soldiers would try to squeeze themselves through the abatis or crawl through small gaps in the line. Still, the units would often suffer heavier casualties to non-pioneer units because of their lack of training and mismanagement. There was even a small company of "Firemen" who were tasked with setting fire to buildings and crops that grew around the city, this company did not see any action nor were its services used in any capacity. Soldiers were encouraged to loot the bodies of dead enemies (in some cases dead comrades) in order to weaken the dependency on the supply lines that were going through the logistical Hell that was the Dormut-Palpatarri Forest. Brawn encouraged a system of interchanging units in the front, however, some units were so inexperienced that they did not even learn to keep their heads down when entering the trenches, this lead to numerous casualties among the new recruits and frustration on the part of the NCOs. Morale remained High to Moderate among the soldiers, they were usually better fed, better equipped, and better rested than their Palpattarri counterparts.

Palpattarria: The Palpattarrian Army had miraculously maintained their moral despite the casualties and losses. They repeatedly held their ground against Dormutian infantry attacks, in some cases outnumbered 6:1 and handing losses to the Dormutian armies. However, the regular army that had been assembled in 1865 had been almost completely dissolved. 45% of the original army numbering 260,000 was either killed, wounded, or captured by the start of the siege. Veterans were put into training roles to train the new recruits (who were mainly citizens of the city itself). This led to a better informed yet poorly equipped force put into the front-line trenches against newer Dormutian troops. The army would also make use of sharpshooters and snipers along the front to try and lower the gargantuan Dormutian forces assembled, inflicting many casualties. Every thing that could be of use to the army was put into use, woman would comprise 2% of the fighting force in the front line and would attack once urban warfare set in after the initial breakthroughs were made. On the physical front-line trenches, great amounts of abatis, wood planks/stakes, spikes, and iron jacks were used to slow the advance of the enemy and gain time for the soldiers to pick off the enemy one-by-one. The soldiers were equipped with muskets, spears, swords, pistols, fighting knives, some rifles, homemade guns, matchlock guns, axes, and clubs. This would lead to frantic and bloody hand-to-hand combat as fighting became an individual matter. Hieronymous Premyschel, the veteran commander of Palpattarria made sure to keep moral high among his tough soldiers, using their religion (Tessarianism) to add more meaning to the fight and emphasize the religious struggle that came with the war. Chaplains were put in every sector and redoubt to give sermons and testimonies, sometimes joining in on the fight themselves. This made the battle, for the Palpattarrians, a more visceral experience. Guerrillas, although not in the numbers that would be seen later on, would harass and do hit-and-run raids on enemy wagons, foraging parties, and trenches with mostly positive results. After a successful defense, these guerrillas would often go into No Man's Land and pick up the clothes, guns, and ammunitions from the corpses that littered the dirt-covered flats. The Palpattarrian Navy was completely dissolved and soon the front comprised of infantry, dismounted cavalry, sailors, cooks, smiths, women, and some elderly. 5,000 Akdaanians would also be brought in to help bolster the force, often noted for their incredible bravery but poor discipline and lack of military understanding.

Battle
First Battle: The Dormutian Army was aggressive in its advance towards St. Josephus, wanting to go as far as they could before resistance could be met. Brawn sent a detachment of 500 men to make a demonstration against what was thought to be occupied Palpattarrian defenses outside the western gate of St. Josephus. Firing intermittently, the soldiers soon realizing that the fortification had been abandoned, yet in normal condition. A dense patch of forest stood in front of the detachment, and bullets soon came at the surprised Dormutes. A couple of Dormutes fell, and the detachment hid on the reverse end of the trench and fired shots blindly into the forest. Across from them were 1,000 men from the 38th Farnagian Infantry Regiment. Neither side dared advance into the dirt patch between the forest and the defenses. Because of this, few casualties were suffered in the initial fighting. More patrols heard the shots being fired, and advanced promptly but few actually reached the 500 men or the Palpattarrians themselves. The same remained true for the Farnagians, although in a lower capacity. The fighting remained ever more inconclusive for both sides, and ammo was beginning to run low. The Dormutian detachment was ordered to fix bayonets and advance forward in a dense formation about 4 men wide and 20 men long. They were ordered to offer as much resistance as was prudent and fall back to the Dormutian rear if possible. The detachment continued to receive small arms fired intermittently from the forest, still thinking they were battling skirmishers and not an entire infantry regiment. One volley was fired into the forest and the detachment soon fell back, with soldiers loading and firing into the forest while running back with nothing to aim at. The patrols on the opposing ends of the forest began to see more Palpattarrian units form up through the bush, with small engagements occurring throughout the night, Brawn took the combined reports from the patrols and estimated that the force ahead of him and his army numbered 8,000 men (in reality it was probably closer to 6,000). He decided that tomorrow he would engage the main force in a traditional manner, hopefully beat them back, and advance near the front of the gate where he could dig in and lay siege to the city.

The next day, Brawn did exactly that. He gathered a force of 11,000 men and prepared to advance past the defenses (called Defense 13) and engage the force that was supposedly in the defenses that the detachment had left to take. The force then saw that the defenses were again abandoned, and the Palpattarrians, who had camped the night in the forest despite receiving no more reinforcements. They engaged the Dormutes the same way as before, yet the numbers of Dormutes inflicted more casualties than the day before as well as took more. The fighting, again proved to be shorter yet more inconclusive, and both sides retreated without either side noticing or taking advantage. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Palpattarrians were able to use the cover of the forest to temporarily fend off the Dormutian advance for as long as they could until ammo had run out. The Dormutians had been able to gauge the defenses at hand, yet not be able to breakthrough to the main gate as they had wished. The casualties for the Dormutians (of the 11,760 men involved) were 19 dead, 89 wounded, and 0 captured (108 total casualties). The Palpattarrians suffered 6 dead, 57 wounded, and 2 captured (65 casualties). The outcome was basically a tie in terms of objectives, but the Palpattarrians were able to inflict more casualties and not fully surrender the skirmishing force.

Second Battle: Hieronymous Premyschel was in no hurry to keep the defenses, which were basically dirt mounts with wooden planks for support, and moved all the soldiers from the previous day's action into the main city defenses. They, along with the 1,000 other city defenders, were ordered to shoot at anything that came through the bush. Brawn, again, ordered the advancement of skirmishers as close to the end of the bush as possible. Unsurprisingly, the skirmishers met resistance from the well-covered defenders. Seeing no use in attacking with a force of 50 against what could be thousands of defenders, the skirmishers retired. Brawn got news of the skirmish, and prepared a force of 39,000 men to make their first attack against the defenders. Although the orders sent out were relatively unclear, they were mostly interpretated as to go as far as possible and inflict as many casualties as possible on the defenders. Premyschel started a preliminary barrage, which was of little to moderate success, few of the front line soldiers were hit but the supply wagons, hospitals, and reserves were hit with great rapidity until they moved to more cover. Not wanting to withstand casualties without a fight, Brawn ordered the first lines forward. Leading the attack would be Aaron Porter, division commander and former colonel of the 102nd Swacern Regiment. At 12 pm, the attack began, the Dormutian would be hopefully be covered by the "Creeping Barrage" from Dormutian gunners. As the attack began, and the infantry advanced, they immediately saw that the barrage was hitting the buildings behind the fortifications, almost completely missing the defenders. At a walking pace, the Dormutians began to receive fire from the defenders, in intermittant blasts. Also, 3 Palpattarrian cannons had been brought up and began spewing canister (despite starting a bit early) onto the massed line of infantry. Men began falling rapidly, and commanders ordered a double-timed march to the crest of the trench, still receiving fire without a chance to fire back. Pioneers and some infantry reached the abatis, making it through while under fire and sustaining casualties. They were alarmed to see a 7ft ditch filled with water from last night's brief rain shower. With a bit of hesitation, the first regiments and pioneers plunged into the ditch, the ditch being so steep that some men tumbled into the water, soaking them, their ammunition, and their gun. The ditch became a choke point, as the defenders poured musket fire into the ditch, some even through rocks, cannon balls, and bottles as the attackers as they tried to scale the incline. The attackers soon retired, with heavy losses in both men and weapons. The defenders raised a cheer in celebration as the attackers retreated, citing the power from above as one of the main reasons for the misfortune of the attackers. Later in the night, guerillas went into No Man's Land and picked up clothes and weapons from the dead and wounded Dormutians, they did not bother the bodies in the ditch, as the water had made their clothes soaked and weapons/ammunition useless. Brawn reportedly went into a fit of rage against the local commanders, citing their incompetance and the lack of initiative taken by the commanders in helping their troops scale the walls. He also questioned why the artillery barrage was so short in time, considering they had the firepower to inflict a 4-hour barrage on the defenses. All-in-all, the Dormutian lost about 600 dead, 5,000 wounded, and 1,000 captured (6,500 total) while the defenders lost about 30 dead, 120 wounded, and 0 captured (150 total). Brawn maintained his stance that he would not forfeit the objective no matter how many men were needed and the casualties suffered.

Intermission: Brawn knew that another attack the day after would be impossible, so he ordered his troops to dig trenches and fieldworks just a couple feet out of range of snipers/cannon shot as a way of fortification. Every couple of days, Brawn would order the veteran units to the rear to be used in manual labor and the reserve regiments to the front. All but 30 of the 450 regiments at Brawn's disposal were not cycled into the front. Although this led to inexperiencein assaulting units, it kept the units fresh as Brawn knew that prolonged time at the front would deteriorate his army worse than disease or shot could. Every day, both armies would send sentries either north or south to patrol the non-occupied territories. This job proved particularly dangerous as the sentries had to either fight and alert the opposing armies or stand their ground silently. Numerous soldiers on the Dormutian side would join foraging parties (Skerkens) and raid the countryside for materials, the Palpattarrians also did this, but with much less resistance than the Dormutians. Although most of the foraged goods would be kept to the individual or his party, both sides saw the foraged food come into camp, which helped sustain both sides for a short period of time. The Palpattarrians had their supply routes cut/harassed by Dormutian troops, so citizens would sneak food into the city, although this food was never in high enough quantities to sustain the army. The Palpattarians would constantly suffer through bouts of hunger throughout the siege, both army and citizen being affected. At one point, the citizens became so desperate that they ate animals like pigeons and dogs so survive, food cost so much that a small riot broke out in the city over the cost of bread. As the Palpattarrians suffered through the summer and spring, Dormutians would constantly be receiving coats, socks, scarves, and food.

Third Battle: Premyschel, despite not having the amount of soldiers he wanted for a counterattack, was desperate to do so and free up space for the transport of goods and men. He formulated a plan that would involve taking the Akdaanian unit (5,000 soldiers) and raiding the first line of trenches as to gain supplies and throw the army into chaos. Premyschel did not expect to cut a big breakthrough in the line or win the battle on that day, he wanted to speed up the rate of attrition for the Dormutians. The cycle for the Dormutian soldiers was almost near, and Premyschel wanted to take advantage of this before the fresh recruits could be brought in.