February 1, 1863, The New York Herald
With the report of a neat little victory achieved by General Corcoran on Friday last, near the Blackwater river, in Southeastern Virginia, our attention is naturally called to the movements and objects of the campaign in that quarter, on both sides.
From Suffolk (which is some twenty miles southwest of Norfolk, on a navigable creek of the James river) there is an air line railroad due northwest to Petersburg, some fifty or sixty miles. From Suffolk another railroad of about the same length runs due southwest to Weldon N.C.; and at Petersburg, or Weldon, we strike the great southern seaboard railroad which runs from Virginia to Georgia. The rebel forces in Virginia on the south side of the James are there to protect this road between Petersburg and Weldon, and especially at the former place, which is of some importance to them as an outpost of Richmond. They will lose not only their main railroad artery southward in losing Petersburg, but a considerable city, and a point from which, only twenty miles distant, a deliberate advance might be made upon Richmond by land and water on the south side. Whether the object of General Peck, in his demonstrations from Suffolk, is to feel his way to Petersburg or to some other point, we do not pretend to know; but he has undoubtedly succeeded in drawing down a considerable rebel force to guard the south side approaches to Richmond.
The late affair on the eastern side of the Blackwater would, however, seem to indicate a design on the part of the rebels to take the offensive and to push into Suffolk; and the prospect of capturing there a large amount of army supplies is to them a strong temptation to undertake the expedition. It is probable, on the other hand, that the crossing of the river by that redoubtable rebel Bobadil Pryor was for the purpose of a reconnoissance, and that his repulse will be followed by another trial with a larger force. In any event, we count upon a good report from General Peck and the Corcoran Legion.
In the James river peninsula, since the late successful Union raid up the York and Pamunkey rivers, the rebels appear to have adopted the idea that another advance is threatened against them by way of Yorktown. General Wise; for a long time in eclipse, has turned up again, and at our last accounts of his designs he had resolved upon clearing Yankees out of the peninsula down to Fortress Monroe. But it seems that after setting out on this enterprise he reconsidered the matter, and marched back again. From such military charlatans as Wise and Pryor there is not much danger; but there may be larger game behind them. Whatever may be the real strength of the rebel forces in the peninsula and below the James, and whatever may be their designs, we expect that they will be unsettled very soon by the operations of General Foster in North Carolina, and by General Hooker on the Rappahannock with the first available frost.
The government has apparently no desire for the immediate occupation of Richmond, or the line of the James river, which is open, and which offers a safe and convenient base of operations all the way, would have been adopted for a formidable movement upon the rebel capital from the east, in conjunction with the Army of the Potomac from the north. It is evident that our forces in the peninsula and at Suffolk are employed more for defensive than offensive purposes for the present, and some of our abolition organs are earnestly pleading that even General Hooker’s splendid army should be reduced to the miserable service of a stationary force of reserves between Richmond and Washington, and that our land and naval forces in the West and in North Carolina shall do all the active work of fighting till the return of spring. We trust that before the lapse of another week this foolish programme will be upset by the advance of General Hooker, and that the necessity of maintaining an immense army in idleness to protect Washington will be done away with in the expulsion of the rebel army and government from Virginia. And we would commend this important consideration to the especial attention of President Lincoln, that the expulsion of Jeff. Davis from Richmond, in relieving Washington, will add to our effective forces in the field reinforcements to the extent of at least fifty thousand men.