June 23, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
Events have not yet declared the object of General LEE in advancing into Pennsylvania. At first we supposed that it was to carry into Pennsylvania the kind of war the Yankees have carried into the Confederate States – to lay waste this State as they have laid waste the Confederate States, and to burn down Harrisburg as they have burned up the cities of Jackson, Darien, and Bluffton. By this policy, carrying the horrors of the barbarous war they have waged against us to their own homes and firesides, we would not only produce irritation, but terror and a sense of loss and suffering, which might be no inconsiderable coadjutor to the Peace Party now arising in the United States. As long as the people of the United States can have immunity from the horrors of war they are waging against us, and can import thousands of Irishmen and Germans to fill up their armies and carry it on, they may be content that the war shall continue. It was to break up these easy conditions, by which the war is supported, that we supposed Pennsylvania was invaded; but one inference must be erroneous, for we see it stated that our troops at Chambersburg not only did not burn down the town, but they did not even take from our enemies the necessities they required. They paid for them in Confederate money. What effect can such a method of carrying on the war have upon the United States? At this time LINCOLN dares not enforce the Conscription Laws to recruit his army. What he wants above all things now is, that we, by a harmless and terrorless invasion, should irritate the people of the United States, without intimidating them. This would enable him speedily to raise a new army to carry on the war and relieve opposition to its being carried on. It appears to us the sort of war which has thus far been carried on in Pennsylvania is the very thing LINCOLN wants. It is the very worst for the Confederate States.
Still we do not intend to blame General LEE, because he may not have the control of his own army in conducting the war. Moreover, the precise objects of his strategy are not yet developed. We trust it will quickly appear, for no time is to be lost. It is possible that the whole movement on Pennsylvania looks only to a contest with HOOKER’S army. HOOKER, it seems to us, ought to be whipped as soon as possible, not from any necessity on the Virginia frontier, but on account of the condition of things in the West. In the West, at present, turns the destinies of the Confederacy. The primary object now ought to be, to save Vicksburg and the Mississippi Valley. Do this and you do more for peace and the Peace Party in the United States than a half dozen victories in Maryland, or raids in Pennsylvania, however fantastical in their absurd chivalry. If Gen. LEE would whip HOOKER , and then immediately send thirty thousand men to General BRAGG, the game would be sure. BRAGG, with this reinforcement, would drive before him, or capture, ROSECRANS’ army, and then striking at the Upper Mississippi, seize Memphis and other points on the Mississippi River – cut off reinforcements and supplies to GRANT, and render even the taking of Vicksburg useless to the Yankees, and nothing to us. We would still have the control of the Mississippi River, whether Vicksburg stands or falls. The West would thus be saved, and peace, in all probability, ensue.