Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-08-03
Correspondence New York World.l
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opposite Williamsport, and to the close re
connoitering of all the fords below tina
point. down to the mouth of Seneca creek
twenty miles above Washington. and al
the fords above that point, up to Hancock
During this time General Early was gath
ering up and sending to Culpepper his 200,
600 bushels of wheat, and the reinforce
ments mentioned below were arriving a
Winchester and Strasburg. Yesterday
morning the outposts and accommodating
parties that had been on and near the She
nahdoah were called in, and our scouts a
Harper's Ferry reported no rebels east o
Martinsburg. Whereupon strong de-
tachment of our troops crossed the Poto'
mac at Harper's Ferry, and began to move
toward Winchester, and If they. have moi
heard the news from Pennsylvania they are
probably marching on yet.
OCCUPATION OF CHAMBERsBuRG.
| 1t would seem that sucha movement on
our part was all that Gen. Early was wait
ing for. For as soon as 1t was positively
known that our army had crossed the 70
tomac into Virginia and was moving south
ward. Gen. Early threw three strong col
umns across the Potomac above Williams
port. and advanced at once with them to
Chambersburg. This took place yesterday
| X
ed by the Confederate forces early this
morning. All day to-day, long columns OF
Confederate troops, consisting of infantry
and artillery, have been pouring along
the roads leading from the Potomac,
through Mercersburg Greencastle, and St
Thomas, to Chambersburg. 1t is reported
tonight, as close this letter, that the reb-
ell army is not making any halt at Cham
bersburg, but is pushing on at once toward
Harrisburg: and this report receives some
confirmation from what is known of the
action of the State authorities at Harris
burg, and of the disposition OF the State
militia at Carlisle. But my information
leads me to believe that the Confederate
force will not advance beyond Carlisle at
| present.
STRENGTH OF THE INVADING COLUMN.
| If these accounts are correct. 1t makes
the Confederate force now on the line of the
Potomac as follows:
Early's division of Ewell's corps. u 600 men.
Brecknridge's division. ;i2,OoO men.
Cavalry under Ransom, Imboden and oo
Two SOSiVy divisions from A. Hii,s corps 39OOO men
Two divisions from IIongstreets corps 2S,OOO men,
One hundred and fifty pieces OF artille- nm
ry.............. .'.'.''''''''''' "'oVV hiou'
Total al................,...- .ol,O0O men.
HAS THIS GREAT ARMY COME MERELY TO
FORAGE.
Atall events, think it is safe to estimate
the rebel force at seventy-tive thousand
strong. and all veteran troops. 1t is just
the same as SAYING that General Lee is a
stupid blunderer, to say that he has detach-
| ed this great force from his army at Peters
burg merely for the purpose OF plunder.
1t is true that In the midst Of wars alarms,
the farmers OF the Shenandoah valley, in
common with their brethren in the middle
and southern counties OF Virginia, have
Quietly pursued their peaceful calling. and
have raised their ordinary crop of wheat
This crop is not as has been said, an extra
ordinary, one. 1t is simply the usual and
ordinary crop. But tits anenormous onein
amount. There was in many sections con-
siderable difficulty experienced in harvest
ing, owing to the scarcity oflaborers; but not
any more, / imagine from theaccounts than
have been experienced from the same cause
i'm the Northern States, and certainly not
as much as has been felt in the State OF
MARYLAND. Here. the farms and plantations
have been literally stripped of all the effi-
cient laborers, and the crops In consequence
are rotting on the ground. But in those
parts of Virginia that have named the
farmers fortunately had help enough to Sc
cure their crop of wheat as usual. Hun
dreds of wagon loads of this newly y-harVest-
ed wheat, carried off to Culpepper by par
ties of Early's soldiers detailed for that pur-
pose at the time of the 10th of July raid,
and taken thence by railroad to Richmond.
But what was taken on that occasion forms
but drop in the bucket, compared with the
vast uncounted store that yet remains be-
hind, in the barns and storehonses of the
farmers OF Virginia. 1t is on this vast store
that General Early has been drawing during
the greater part of the week now closing.
Could the time that he has occupied, have
been spent in manner more profitable to
his government?
THE NORTH SUPPLYING THE SOUTH.
He may now pursue the same occupation
for few days In the southern part of Penn
syIyania. The people of the North may be
assured that this campaign on the part of
the rebels will furnish their armies with
food, with horses, with clothing, with ac-
coutrements, and with medicines, that will
last them for year; and that all these
things will be safely transported to their
beleaguered capital.
But this is but plumber; and plunder, al
though it is an incident, is by no means the
object of this campaign in the North.
THE CAMPAIGN DIRECTED BY GENERAL LEE.
This campaign is directed by General Lee,
and will, if my information is correct, be
led by him in person. Nay, It'll said that
he has already passed through Richmond,
and is now on his way to the front. The
object of the campaign have alluded to in
former letters. 1t is to effect an entire rev.
olution in the manner of carrying on the
war: to remove its terrors and desolating
effects from the South and bring them to
! the North; to bring to our own doors and
to our own smiling fields the horrors OF
contending armies, and all the nameless
evils that follow in the wake of large ar
mics, however well disciplined.
OBJECT OF THE CAMPAIGN.
The object of this campaign is to threat
en- Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and perhaps
Baltimore and Washington, in such strong
| force that the Government will be reduced
to the alternative either of abandoning the
siege Of Richmond, and bringing Grants
army home to defend our own cities, or else
Of seeing the cities that have named fall
successfully beneath the attacks of the dis
| ciplined soldiers of the South. That Is the
first great object Of the campaign.
DRUID.
From The New York Journal Of Commerce.l
Rev. Dr. NIcH,heeters.
The Princeton Reuiesc, which is so loya
as to have sometimes dangerous leaning
toward radicalism, notices the action of tn
Presbyterian General Assembly on the cas-
\ Of Or. McPheeters. That action was a dis