New-York daily tribune., 1861-06-11
THE CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA.

Gen. SCOTS plan for the current campaign has
for some time been understood to contemplate
slow and cautious advance movements in such
force as the rebels sAssot hope successfully to
resist Thus he asssd the traitors to haunt
their flag undistullA Or weeks at Alexandria,
in plain sight Of - Capitol; but, when be did
see fit to advanos on that city, they made no
resistance, but were possessed by q very sudden
and irresistible desire to get away. If, as would
seem, he is about TO invest and assail their
strong position at Harpers Ferry, he evidently
intends to threaten it from different directions in
such force as will compel its evacuation with
little or no fighting. That point gained, the
burned or broken bridges on the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad may b, replaced, and the Ohio
and Indiana division, now observing or operating
in Western Virginia, may unto with the Pennsyl-
vanians from Chamberslurg at or near the Ferry,
and the whole move down to operate against the
main rebel army at Manassas Gap, or wherever
it may be concentrated to dispute the advance OF
the Union army on Richmond Gen. Scott is
proyerbally frugal of lie, and his calculation
plainly is that the rebels will not venture to give
battle, but will thus be slowly and steadily pushed
back, until Virginia shall lave been recovered to
the Union with very little bloodshed. We think
he undertakes both the strength and the despera-
tion of the traitors; but his information with
regard to them ought to be better than ours;
and, if he estimates them rightly, his plan is Of
course an admirable one.
Gen. Beauregard, on the other hand, recently
intimated at Charleston hi, conviction that the
" Confederate forces are not calculated to abide
the brunt of battle in the open field with their
antagonists-that his policy will be to collect
some Fifty or Sixty Thousand men in deiensible
commanding position like Manassas Cap in a
strongly intrenched and fortified camp, and COM
pei Gen. Scott to assall him under every disad-
vantage, or waste the season in taking positions
of no material consequence. This is probably his
wisest course, but it exposes Norfolk and Rich
mond to capture by strong column from
Fortress Monroe, without weakening the main
1 Union army so seriously as to endanger the loss
of Washington. But we do not believe the rebels
| so well supplied with either ammunition or provls-
ions that they could keep within their trenches
|
troops, especially cavalry, to harass their COM
munications and intercept part of the supplies
they must be constantly drawing from the tide
water regions. To hold an ntrenched camp and
! decline fighting elsewhere requires not merely
good generalsbip, which we presume the
rebels have, but ample material, which we are
confident they have not. We trust, therefore,
that they must accept battle If they do
not offer one, aud that Gen. Scott will have
quite as much TO sly as JEFF. Davis and Beaure-
gard together as TO the ground on which i, /. TO
be fought and the advantages thence accrung to
the respective belligereuts. At oil events, when
the rebels shall have abandoned Ilarpef's Ferry,
and with il the line of the Baltimore and Ohio
road, full third of Virginia will have been re-
stored to the Union.