Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-03
THE RICHMOND CAMPAIGN.
REBEL VIEW of the SITUATION.
Lees Army Nearly One Hun
dred Thousand Strong.
No Battle to be Fought on
the RaPidan.

Correspondence of the New York World.l
BALTIMORE, April %.
SOUTHERN VIEW OF THE MILITARY sITUA-
TION IN VIRGINIA.
The following is the Southern view of
the present military situation in Virginia.
| mean it is the view that comes here from
southern authority; and l state this with
particularly, because not single item of
the following information comes from Union
sources. What is said about the strength
and movements of the Union forces may or
may not be true, but it is what is believed
to be true at Richmond, and the rebel
movements are based upon it.
LOngstreet's whole corps has Joined Gen.
Lee on the Rapidan, and Gen. Lees army
is now nearer one hundred thousand than
eighty thousand strong. His main body is
Oh the Rapidan, near Mine run, with Long
street on the extreme left, and Ewell's corps
on the right. The old corps of A. p. Hill
holds the center.
THE REBEL CAVALRY.
General Stuart's cavalry, fully eighteen
thousand strong, are now massed altogeth-
er, both men and horses being in the best
possible condition for making campaign.
The horses have been feeding partly on
grass for more than week, and for this pur-
pose the cavalry have been kept a little dis
tance in the rear, and to the south and west
of the main army. All along the eastern
slope of the Blue ridge, and in the country
around Gordonsville and Charlottesville,
and down to the james river, the pasturage
has been abundant for ten days past. Even
on the Rapidan, where the rebel cavalry
now are assembled, the grass is high enough
to afford the horses a part of their food
Among the men, the general impression
is that they are to move Immediately, and
that their route will be up the Shenandoah
valley.
GEN. LEES ESTIMATE OF GEN. GRANT.
General Lee is playing very deep STRAIT
egic game. Whatever may be the estima-
tion in which General Grant is held by the
magnates at Richmond, General Lee is too
good soldier to despise him. He is aware
of the exact number of troops under Cen
eral Grants orders, and he knows he will
have to fight with much larger Union ar
my than he ever before encountered. All
of his movements, for a week past, have
been made with view of deceiving Cen
eral Grant in regard to his real intentions,
and of leading the latter to believe that his
object is the very reverse of what it really
is. All of his maneuvers during the last six
or seven days give color to the impression
that he is massing the whole OF his ayalla-
BILE strength on the south side of the Rapi-
dan; that he has selected that spot as the
battle ground, and that he intends the bat
tie to be fought there which is to decide the
fate of Richmond.
GENERAL EEE's STRATEGIC GAME.
But such is not General Lees intention.
He is ready to make a certain movement
and has been ready for two weeks past. He
only waits to make it until General Grants
plan of operations is fully developed; until
his line of march has been made plainly
manifest; until General Grant shall have
committed himself to a certain line of ope-
rations from which he cannot readily with
draw. Then General Lee will make his real
movement.
ADVANTAGES OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE TO
THE REBELS.
Lee is satisfied, by this time, that General
Grant has been compelled to adopt the over
land route as the line of his advance on
Richmond, and that any movements on
Richmond made by way of the peninsula or
the James river, or from the South, will be
mere feints, and that they will be made, too,
with such inconsiderable bodies of troops
that they need give him no concern. He is
surprised that General Grant should have
taken this overland route, and the fact that
he has done so is piece of good fortune
that General Lee did not expect. If Cen
eral Grant had made peninsula campaign
against Richmond in earnest, it would have
necessitated the retention of General Lees
whole army there, or near there, for the de-
tense of the rebel capital. The adoption of
the overland route, however, leaves General
Lee free to carry out the plan which he
has formed for operations in another direc-
tiOn.
General Lee estimates the Union troops
toward the Rapidan under Cen
eral Grant, at $1,000 strong, including
Burnside's corps. The ultimate destination
of Burnsides corps gave General Lee con-
uneasiness until recently, but he
kept himself advised of its movements from
day to day. Whatever might have been
thought or feared at Richmond, General
Lee never believed that it was Burnside's
corps, or any part of it. that was sailing up
the Rappahannock. 1t is relief to him to
know, however, that Burnside's corps has
Joined Meade's army, and that it will take
part in the overland movement.
WILL THERE BE BATTLE ON THE RAPIDAN?
There will be battle on the Rapidan,
but it viii not be great battle. General
Lees position there is so strong, and he is so
well intrenched, that with one-third of his
army he expects to hold it for some time
against the advance of the Union troops
It is probable, however, that if this advance
is made in great force, the position on the
Rapidan will not be maintained, but the
rebel forces will fall back either to Mine
run or to position on the right bank of the
North Anna river, and between this stream
and the Virginia Central Railroad, between
Gordonsville and Hanover Junction. Both
of these positions are stongly fortified, the
intrenchments being very extensive.
THE BATTLE MUST BE ON GROUND OF LEES
l- CHOOSING.
And to which ever of these positions the
enemy retires there General Grant will have
to follow. 1t must not be forgotten that in
this overland campaign, as in all that have
preceded it, the battle, when it takes place,
will have to be fought at the time that Cen
eral Lee chooses and on ground that he has
selected for that purpose. 1t may be in
General Grants power to defeat the rebel
army after the battle has been Joined. But
it is not in his power to compel General
Lee to fight until he wishes to, or in any
other position than that which he himself
has chosen. This is disagreeable fact. But
1t is fact nevertheless, and it may be well
to remember it.
FoRTRIcATIoNs AT GoRDoNsvILLE.
Gordonsville Junction is another point
that has been strongly fortified by the reb-
els. This point resembles Manassas juno
finn In its defensive features and IL would