June 18, 1863, The New York Herald
According to our latest advices from Washington, the main body of the rebel army is moving down the Shenandoah valley towards Maryland, while the army of General Hooker is gathered around the old battle field of Bull run. It is conjectured that Lee’s programme is substantially that of last September, and that it will probably culminate in another great battle on the field of Antietam. Such a contingency may possibly occur; but we can hardly imagine that it enters into the plans or calculations of General Lee, or General Hooker, or the War Office. It is evident that the whole rebel army is in motion towards Maryland and Pennsylvania; but it remains to be seen whether, on crossing the borders, it will move southward for the rear of Washington or Baltimore, northward for Harrisburg and Philadelphia or westward for Pittsburg, and a grand raid into Ohio.
We cannot imagine that Lee will hazard the experiment of moving down upon Baltimore or Washington while Gen. Hooker is in a position either to confront him or get in his rear and cut him off from his lines of retreat; nor do we suppose that if Lee had designed to march upon Harrisburg and Philadelphia he would have sent forward a detachment of his forces in advance sufficiently strong only to give the alarm to Pennsylvania, and sufficient time to Gen. Couch to muster a force on the banks of the Susquehanna competent to protect the whole line of the river against even a hundred thousand men; nor can we believe that he has any design of leading his army on a wild goose chase over the Alleghany Mountains for Pittsburg.
What then is the grand object of this Northern movement of the rebel army of Virginia? We answer, Washington. There is a prize worth all the costs and hazards of the adventure. Lee’s army, from North and South Carolina and from Tennessee, has been heavily reinforced. Hooker’s force has been considerably diminished, though still a powerful army. Lee may exaggerate the depletions of his enemy, and be too confident of his own strength. At all events, we suspect that he is manoeuvreing to draw out from Washington and to divide the forces of Hooker in movements for the defence of the border States, and that then, watching its opportunity, the main body of the rebel army will descend upon the rear of the national capital. In this view of the matter we think the War Office will act wisely in holding the Army of the Potomac together, and between Washington and the main rebel army, however alarming may appear the menaces of this or that rebel column against Harrisburg or Pittsburg.
The Northern States will soon have an auxiliary force in the field competent to meet all marauding detachments of the enemy, and competent besides to garrison the defences of Washington, and thus enable the government to add twenty-five or thirty thousand veteran troops to the army of the Potomac, or to the army of the James river peninsula, for a practical diversion against Richmond. In fact, this Northern advance of the rebel army of Virginia, in reviving the martial spirit of the loyal States, and in promptly bringing out their reserved militia and volunteers, affords the War Office a most favorable opportunity, not only for demolishing the rebel army of Virginia, but for stealing a march into Richmond while the enemy is attempting to draw away the army of the Potomac in order to steal a march upon Washington.