The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-01-23
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XAOHSUAx Ru6NAN0.....sJA -, 1e11.
Darnsids Completes the Programme--
=. = Ready at Last.
Tie enemy has woven HE tolls. He has
carefully spread them out for the envslop-
meus Of his victim. Batter and Sherman and
Barnsidc are atsheir allotted positions. Cairo
10 oil alive with preparation for descent, and
Baell with hundred thousand men is in the
immediate front of Bowling Green. The
Army Of The Potomac stretches along that
river from Harper's Ferry to Alexandria,
and from Washington city 10 Sickles's camp
opposite kvsnsport. The preparations OF six
months are completed, and, now or never,
achievements commensurate with the scale Of
preparation are TO DO sonsummated.
The scheme Of the enemy Is now fully dis
played. Secrecy Is no longer possible; un
certainty a. TO the manner and point of his
striking Is al length dispsllsd. His plans are
iisc.ossd they can now undergo no altera.
lions except such al mere increase of his
forces here and there may occasion. We are
70 DO assaulted on the coast between Mobile
and Now Orleans, by the rsdoubtable Butler !;
BY him who displayed SO much energy for
months at time, in etfeo.ipg nothing at
Fortress Monroe and Hatterss; by him who
planned the advance upon Big Bethel, and
sourt martialed Pierce for the stampede,
which took place on that historical ground
Advices from New Orleans assure us that our
situation there is secure even against 4 more
formidable command and commander, than
Butler. The enemy could accomplish little
thsre, with the best generalship and military
ability; they can do nothing with the weakest
man they have ia commission.
We are TO be assaiied between Savannah
and Charleston, with all the power and on.
ergy Of Sherman. Our railroad line il to be
sul, and our interior cotton districts in that
quarter penetrated by large invading army.
Many hundred thousands OF slaves are to be
captured, by the time that Congress shall
ma,are "a law for their disposal. But Sherman
has already been a, his post for two months.
Every aospIce Of the weather has heamed
upon his enterprise. The Government has
supplied without stint every appliance he
could desire. Blu, ho has not advanced into
the interior Oae single teint only has he
made. ana has beeis<iri,en back by handful
of our men. Had he pushed Immediately
into the interior on Landing, he might
have accomplished some important ;.d-
vantage; but lac has remained still and ill.,
active so long that tie way is now blocked.
Our officers speak with entire confidence OF
their ability to Withstand him. He has let
tae golden opportunity slip, and now he must
fikht bard for every foot of ground that he
advances over. He has solaced himself with
the belief that by waiting aud striking in
concert with lis colleagues in South Missis-
sippi, Kentucky, and Virginia, he could still
take Lee and his army at disadvantage. But
that entire army will be there in his path
whatever may happen i'll other quarters, and
the .inse asAcn it is attacked can hardly make
the difference between victory and defeat.
Next in the grand round We find the sxpe-
ditiou of Burnside, which, it seems, is to
strike at the seaboard towns Of North Caro-
lima, and cut eff our railroad line between
Norfolk and Petersburg and Charleston. This
seems to be the pet naval expedition of the
Yankees, from which they are expecting
greater results than from all others. SO large
An armament and so numerous a body of
troops may indeed embarrass our cause in
Eastern North Carolina; but it is quite certain
that, il the Southern people had been allowed
70 choose the destination of this expedition
for the enemy, they would have designated
the very one which the enemy himself has
selected. The coast Of North Carolina, from
Norfolk to Wilmington, with its sand islands,
shifting inlets and shallow sounds, its dismal
swalnps and everglades, its canebrakes and
cypress boys, stretching out for miles to the
right and left Of river channels, constitute the
most delightful Cretan labarynth for the con-
fusion and development of an enemy to be
found tho world over.
by means of his vessels of shallow draft
he may penetrate through the Jungle and
reach the firm and moro elevated inland but
his safety in that case would be put in very
great peril. If he masses his troops, we
can mass ours likewise, and fight him success
fully inland, or confue him ingIoriously to
the narrow channels of the rivers. If he
scatters his forces, he puts it in our power to
attack and beat them in detail. If he cut our
railroad connexion with Charleston, that does
not ruin us; for we shall soon have better
line under way far in the interior beyond his
reach. His scheme it seems is to get into the
rear Of Norfolk by shallow boats through the
Dismal Swamp Canal, and to destroy the rail-
road bridge At Weldon. The natural defeuces
Of Norfolk, from the Albemarle Sound, are
almost perfect, requiring but the slightest
assistance of art; and, as to Weldon, he will
End it rather more difficult to reach it than to
burn the bridge when there.
On the whole it may be predicted in safety,
in advance, that the damage to result to us
from this expedition, is not likely to reach
enc fourth the cost of the expedition itself
10 4 y enemy. The chances are, that for evo-
~ llion of expenditure in its outfit, it will
not fnfict hundred thousand dollars of dam.
age to ourselves. If the enemy can afford to
keep up the war by operations of this sort, it
IL automatically certain that we can afford to
suffer our part Of the programme without trou-
bic. This Burnside expedition completes the
grand designs of Mcclellan. He is now en-.
tirely ready 'to crush ont the rebellion and to
restore the Union" The chances of success
are against him.
We have scotched the snake on the Poto-
mae; We did the same thing before winter set
in in Western Virginia. We did it in the most
summary manner ON the Peninsula in june.
ltdoss not yet appear that we have not done it
in Kentucky. The movements of the serpent
are too feeble on the coast Of Mississippi to
require az yet any decisive steps against him
there as yet We have scotched the snake at
Beaufort. Burnside is the last coil Of the rep.
tile; and If we can cripple and destroy him
here our trOub,ss NAV be set down @ q oysr.