| abstract | - U.S. troops under Brigadier General Irving Morrell defended their ground, forcing the Confederates to pay a steep price for each piece of ground they took. In the urban warfare fought in Pittsburgh, the Confederate Army's superiority in automatic weaponry and barrels were negated: U.S. troops used Featherston Fizzes to destroy new-model Confederate barrels, and Springfields were as good as automatic rifles in this fight. In addition to conventional weapons, poison gas was used frequently by both sides. Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest III, the Chief of the Confederate States General Staff, warned President Jake Featherston of the folly of holding Pittsburgh, but Featherston ignored the heavy losses suffered by his troops, and ordered that Pittsburgh would be held at all costs. With more and more Confederate soldiers tied down in Pittsburgh, C.S. lines stretched thin elsewhere including Ohio, requiring the C.S. Army to rely on underarmed and undertrained Mexican troops to defend their flanks. The Confederates paid for this blunder when U.S. barrels under General Morrell, swept around the Confederate's weak flanks and surrounded the city, trapping thousands of troops inside. General Forrest tried to convince Featherston to order the trapped C.S. forces to attempt escape, but Featherston would hear none of it, believing that the troops could be supplied by air. After Operation Rosebud it became apparent to the C.S. troops that they would not escape the city, but many men, such as Tom Colleton still took up arms against the U.S. for some time. Despite his wishes, General Patton was evacuated by light plane in late January at Jake Featherston's direct order. Despite their efforts all remaining C.S. troops in the city, most of them trapped in the pockets in the North Side, surrendered on February 2, 1943.
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