June 17, 1863, The New York Herald
The present aggressive campaign of the rebel army of Virginia is one of the most daring and desperate enterprises in the history of modern warfare. Leaving Richmond, the rebel capital, and his base of operations, to the chances of capture, and with our powerful Army of the Potomac in his rear, General Lee has pushed his advanced columns through Northern Maryland into Pennsylvania, while the main body of his army, around through the Shenandoah valley, is streaming along a line of one hundred miles in extent. To an opposing military leader possessed of any Napoleon ideas no finer opportunity than this would be desired for cutting this long line of the enemy forces and cutting them up in detail. Certainly the War Office has never had a more inviting opportunity for the capture of Richmond.
Let us first consider the movements and probable designs of the enemy. From our Washington correspondence we learn that the secessionists of that city have been giving out for some days past the following as General Lee’s programme, his whole army being estimated at 96,000 men: –
First – That one column started six days ago from Gordonsville for Parkersburg, on the Ohio river.
Second – That another column left Culpepper Court House to proceed by way of Grafton to Pittsburg and Wheeling, with instructions, after occupying Pittsburg to join the first column for a march through Ohio.
Third – That another column was to proceed by way of Winchester and Harper’s Ferry into Maryland and Pennsylvania, towards Harrisburg or Baltimore, in the way of a diversion to occupy the attention of the army of General Hooker. This last column, in view of rapid operations, is composed largely of cavalry and mounted artillery. Richmond, meantime, is to be abandoned, with the expectation that conscripts and new levies will be brought there in sufficient numbers to garrison the defences.
Another correspondent, over in Virginia, is informed that Bragg’s forces have joined Lee, thus increasing his army to one hundred and fifty thousand men. This is probably an exaggeration, although, from various other sources of information, we have no doubt that Lee has been considerably strengthened by Bragg. Thus Lee may have felt himself sufficiently strong to divide his forces in the manner indicated; and from the creation by the War Office, within a few days past, of the Department of the Susquehanna, under General Couch, and the Department of the Monongahela, under General Brooks, we conclude that the government has acted under positive information that Lee’s advance would embrace a movement towards Pittsburg as well as a movement towards Philadelphia.
The rebel column advancing by way of Chambersburg must be checked on the Susquehanna, or it may not be arrested short of Philadelphia. But it can be checked on the Susquehanna. Military man, for many years a resident of that river, informs us that from the junction of the Juniata and Susquehanna, fourteen miles above Harrisburg, down to the Chesapeake Bay, the river cannot be crossed even by cavalry without bridges or boats; that the stream, though shallow, is from a mile to a mile and a quarter in width; that it is full of ledges of rocks, boulders, deep holes and rapids; that the bridges along the whole line may be destroyed in a few moments and the ferryboats removed to this side, and that a squad of riflemen and a few pieces of artillery at any one of the crossing places will be sufficient to stop the construction of a pontoon bridge, the great width of the river preventing the enemy on the other side from covering their bridge builders. Above the mouth of the Juniata the mountainous and rugged character of the country renders the access to and passage of either river still more difficult. It is probable, therefore, that General Couch will arrest the advance of the enemy on the banks of the Susquehanna, and that Harrisburg – which is on this side of the stream – will escape capture and spoliation. The greatest danger to be feared is that the Pennsylvanians will delay too long the destruction of their bridges.
At all events it devolves chiefly upon the State of Pennsylvania and her local forces to drive the rebels from her borders, and upon the local forces of the free States, from Massachusetts to Ohio, to roll back the whole tide of this rebel invasion, in order that the Army of the Potomac may have free scope to head off the enemy from Washington and Baltimore, and to cut off their lines of retreat. Meantime we hope that our forces on the James river peninsula and thereabouts, and in North Carolina, will not be deprived of the opportunity of a reconnoissance to Richmond; for we believe that Lee, in this daring Northern campaign, has left the rebel capital to the chances of another lucky escape.