Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-26


now Rscribed to Grant by that same press
That plan Is simple-to keep large army
close TO Petersburgh aud Lee, while caval-
ry raids cut the railroads leading into
Richmond as fast as we can mend them.
This plan will be successfully executed
If the Confederate authorities do not devise
a method of defending the roads. tits use
less to repair, if the cavalry can RIDE IN
about the time the work is completed ana
undo it in couple OF hours. They must
defend the roads by other means than the
single method hitherto attempted because
that method has proven utterly and lnVaT'
iably ineffectual-there has not been SOL
itary exception in the course OF the war:
The single methodiyet imagined or trled IS,
to send our Confederate cavalry in pursuit
of the Yankee cavalry. But, as one body
of horses will go as fast as another, those
who have six hours start are not overtaken
before the goal is reached. After the des-
truction is done and the Yankee raiders
have to return, they are sometimes met ana
sometimes not When collision occurs,
our cavalry sometimes beats them, as they
did the other day. Butthe railroad is bro
ken, and the beating does not mend it.
The object being the salvation of the
roads, it is clear that another means should
be employed. 1t would seem TO an eb-
server that of all kinds of communication,
q railroad should be the easiest to pre-
serve and defend. Steam is stronger than
horse flesh; locomotives move faster than
cavalry; and single train can transport
large body of troops to any point on the
lime in few hours. But large body OF
troops is not necessary to obstruct the ad-
vance of cavalry. A few hundred picked
and we'll mounted men can obstrnct roads
and bushwhack roads till the pursuing cav
airy oVertakes and destroys it. Only these
| few hundred must be before and not be-
l.hind it-and the railroad can put both
lthem and their horses where they will get
before it, if they aud the train to convey
them are kept in perpetual readiness at
depot. Hitherto the militia has been relied
on for that work. Is it not time to dis
cover that this expectation is stupidity
The militia is composed OF stiff limbed old
men and little boys, both equally unaccus-
toned to arms. Yet they ire expected to
perform the most dangerous as we'll AS the
most laborious service that can be de.
manded of the hardest and most skillful
soldier To bushwhack is a military du-
ty, requiring more confidence in ones
weapon, greater strength of body and
cooler courage than any other whatever.
The man who does it hos to close alone
with the enemy, and if caught is killed.
required, and this or some other plan must
be resorted to, If we would save our roads.
THE MARYLAND RAID. ...
From the Richmond Enquirer July 49,
From three to five hundred prisoners
have passed through Rockingham from
Maryland, captured principally during the
6tst of the invasion by our forces. They
are principally Ohians, and nearly all were
one hundred day men.
FROM THE INVASION.
Passengers from Staunton last night re-
port that the ''invaders" of Maryland were
safely south of the Potomac, with a whole
country crammed full of all sorts of live
and vegetable plumber.
FOREIGN GOODS AT wILMINGTOE.
NJ. Orouly, Auctioneer, advertises that he
will sell at auction, July 20, vast quanti-
ty of foreign goods, the cargoes of steam
ships Badger and Lucy and several other
vessels, under the heads of dry goods, shoes,
leather, &c., cotton, cards, clothing, SC,
stationery, baggiug and rope, groceries,
hardware, &C., liquors, &C., drugs, sc.
THERE is certain similarity between the
course which the tories in England and
the copperheads in this country, pursue
towards the government of the two respec-
tive nations. Both growl and use hard
names, and expatiate on the imbecility and
ineficiency of the men charged with the
administration of affairs, but neitherShave
much that is definite to say concerning the
steps they would take, if they were in power,
and the few they do suggest are offensive
to the great body of the people. The tories
find it very easy to complain that Earl Rus
sell bullies japan and Brazil, and cringes
to Germany and to the United States But
when asked whether they are ready to
plunge the nation into war with Germany
and the United States, they have never been
quite ready with straightforward answer.
They have themselves believed that they
| would oe unable to maintain ministry for
any length of time. Hence, although it
has probably been within their power at
almost any time during the last few months
to break down the ministry, they have not
dared to assume the responsibility. So
they have confined themselves to grumb-
ling, to finding fault with every thing that
was done, and growing that many other
things were not done, although precisely
what things they were not prepared to say.
The Copperheads of this country, who,
ike the Tories of England, are the allies OF
the rebels, also abound in destructive criti-
cism and in factious opposition, but either
abstain altogether from definite statement
of what in their opinion ought to be done,
or else offer suggestions SO obviously I'M
wise and uupatriOtic that the nation re-
jeots them with adherence. Their policy
is in the main to complain of every act of
the government. If the government mod