Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-18

that army was an attempt at the capture
of Washington by q surprise. The Virgins
Central Railroad is repaired, and running
from Richmond to Staunton."
The theory of column of rebel rein
forcements moving up from GOrdonsvillt
seemed, moreover, to acquire the weight o
fact by the testimony of a Union scout who
yesterday averred to Secretary Stanton
that he had the previous night slept ia
Longstreet's camp, and that his forces were
encsmped near Manassas junction.
Now if these estimates could be taken
as reliable, they would seem to indicate,
on the part of Lee. the most serious de-
signs. 1t was reckoned that there were
already in Maryland the command OF
Breckenridge two divisions,l the whole OF
Ewell's old corps, under command of Gen.
Early, while at least two brigades of Hills
corps were understood to have been with
drawn from Grants front more than a
fortnight before. These, with the super
addition of Longstreet's command, would
constitute a force much too formidable for
a mere rdiding party, while it would be
fair to infer that the detachment Of so large
a portion of Lees army from in front of
the Union force would indicate purpose
on the part of the rebel General of giving
up Petersburg and even Richmond. l am
one of those who have always held the
opinion that when the worst came to the
worst with Lee-when he should feel it
impossible much longer to hold on to Rich
moud-he would play the last remaining
card-attempt to exchange the rebel cap
itsl for the capital of the United States.
And although it has generally been accep-
ted that a movement on Washington by
the rebels, with the Union army observing
them so closely as it now does, would be
nothing short of madness, and must result
in their utter destruction, yet the success
that has attended the present invading
column, the secresy with which the move
meut was conducted, and their nearuess to
cIutchiug even the highest prize itself,
suggest the prudence OF modifying some
what the certainty of the dietum that the
rebels never could move on Washington
with the Union army watching them.
".
But the movments of the rebels, and the
nature of their operations, are against the
presumption that any such ambitious pro-
ject fred them in the present Invasion
And fret of all, there is no evidence what
ever that this force reached anything like
the strength attributed to it by the alright
ed souls of terror stricken fugitives, who
have been the authors of most of the
swelling numbers that have been given out.
1t has, in fact, been one of the greatest
misfortunes arising out of the iuetiiciency
of the Generals who, up to the time the
rebels arrived before Washington, were
intrusted with the duties of checking their
advance, that we have had no estimate
81 ralfu k1a Of tho ufa
Sigel, who held the door of the
valley through which the rebels, as on the
occasion Of both their previous invasious,
entered the dominion OF the loyal States,
had his troops so faulty disposed that he
was not even aware of the approach of the
enemy, and he was never afterward willing
to get near enough to them to learn their
numbers. General Wallace, who met the
enemy in the chief engagement they have
delivered on the soil of Maryland, put them
at twenty thousand men; but this, again,
is simple conjecture. 1t is true that the
reports of the rebel prisoners themselves
have all assigned great figure to the
column of invasion, putting it invariably
at forty thousand at least, and claiming
reinforcements as coming. But there is
the very best reason to believe that these
fellows lie either Willingly or unwittingly
either because they are told to do so, or
because they know no better. One Of these
statements, confess, for a moment stag
gered me. A rebel Lieutenant, mortslly
wounded, called, in his faintness, for some
water or brandy. Some of the latter was
given him, and he then, with great solem-
nifty and conscious of his moribund state,
aVerred that the Confederate force which
had fought Wallace at Monocacy number.
ed twenty thousand msn-that this was
but one half their force, the remaining half
having diverged on another road, and that
an additional column of forty thousand
men under Lee was on its way up to join
the force then in Maryland. Whether or
not he believed what he said know not; If
be was guilty of perjury in his dying hour,
his soul has already answered for it.
Another fact which initiates against the
hypothesis that the rebels aimed at the
capture of Washington, is the e1traordi-
nary degree to which their forces have
been scattered. A force distributing itself
from Harper's Ferry to Bladensburg and
Baltimore, may be well calculated for
raking into its drag-net all the spoils of
the country, and for inhicting the most
extensive possible damage, but for effective
military blows concentration of course, is
absolutely essential. IL does not appear
that the rebels,were ever really concentra-
ted, although it is net improbable that
they had the major portion OF their forces
mass at Monocacy, and perhaps, also, they
had a good part of it before Washington.
In the latter case, we are again conducted
to the belief that their force was iueonsid.
erable. They yesterday made a respecta-
BILE show in front of Fort Stevens and Fort
Lincoln; but certainly nothing more than
a moderately heavy skirmish Iine-no line
of battle, no such masses of men as we're
coujured up by lively imaginations at the
front, out of "columns of dust" l should
think that twelve or fifteen thousand must
have included the whole rebel force in
Maryland.
Fiually in evidence that the enemy was
not prepared for any serious attack on
Washington, the weightiest circumstance
of all is, that they made none whatever
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