Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-07-21
Tas sdssss OF THE INVADING FORCE.

gent Washington correspondent of the New York
Tribune, has prepared and published statement de-
signed to show that the insurgent forces engaged in
the recent invasion of Maryland reached the probable
number of :" fifty thousand veteran troops" In
support of this statement Mr., Wilkeson adduces
the following data: e
l. An intercepted letter written by cavalry
colonel in Hampton's division, dated Ten miles
northwest of Richmond, Va, j une %" in which
he stated, in the confidence of writing, to friend:
"EwelPs Corps, with Hampton's cavalry, over
fifty thousand of us in all, have received orders to
march to Harper's Ferry, and the rations for the
men necessary to 60 there have been issued"
2. A statement made in Alexandria by one
Rowe, a Fredericksburg secessionist (recenty in
this city negotiating with our military authorities
for the return of certain hostages,) to the effect
that " he had been too guarded to tell at the Union
Club rooms, where he was Toasted here, lin WASH
pgton, that Gen. Early, with twenty thousand
men, would soon leave Richmond for an attack on
Washington" A very guarded man was Mr..
Rowe, to tell in alexandria what he was too pru-
dent to tell in Washington And the inference of
Mr.. Wilkeson is very significant when he says
Sufficient heed was not given to this tattling,
but to- day it is fresh in the remembrance of eff
cial persons"l
g. The statement of " A. Fl. Woolford, Assist
ant Surgeon Second Maryland Battalion Cavalry"
that he supposes" the recent expedition contained
10, 900 cavalry, and thinks" the infantry num-
bered 10000 or $4,000 The truthfulness Of
VIZ 10 ;rTa
the following specimen of his evidence
at was reported yesterday that Gen. Lee crossing
at Dranesville with I000 900 Nearly the whole rebel
army is in Virginia hnsons force is the mo that was
operating Baltimore We came ycserday from Balti-
more Washington and struck the railroad at Laurel
| Station, burning a train OF cars
| AS the raiders never went to Laurel, and as the
petty force which made descent in that direction
came from Rockville, Gas the people who live at
Laurel report it will be seen that Dr. Woolford
is not very accurate story-teller.
A. Mr.. Wilkeson says that he knows "positively
that preparations were made to assault Washing
ton last Sunday night" but the idea was aban-
doned on Monday night, under the impression
that the "golden opportunity" was lost. This is
given as proof No. 4" to sustain the belief that
the insurgent army numbered $4,000 men. We
hope our readers appreciate its force, We
cannot
S, Under the head of filthy" Mr.. Wilkeson
enumerates a variety of particulars, such as
That there two Major Generals in the expedition;
that they ventured to within mile OF defences
that Major Fry eegraphed TO headquarters here from
Rockville that the enemys column mile long; that
July 10 despatch from Leesbug said five thousand
rebel cavalry entered this town between six aud
Nj" that the right of July IL trains moved without
cessation beyond Fort De Russey to the northwest and
reported here by elegrsph; that at daylight
July 10, the oil Rockville city road rebels commenc
ed passing Virginia wards and continued to pass in
interrupted stream till ~ 35 In the aitenoon that Brock
hdges and Earys divisions of infantry passed Rockville
the light of the 18th that the guard under Jack
entire brgade passed through Rockville AT two
o'clock in the afternoon Of the 18th; that the 18th
three regiments rebel cavalry from Fort Reno
to pass on the rosd Great Falls that two hundred
wagons pnd thousand head of cattle passed Leesburg
July IL, food for the columns coming up behind
Now, in simple reply to all this array of /" sta
tistics," we beg simply to suggest to our readers
that the presence of $4,000 men in any quarter,
even in the vicinity Of Washington, where there
appears to be SO little military enterprise Gu
riosity, would not require to be substantiated by
differences. 1t is Byron who sings:
" How odd, a single bobgobln's nouentity,
Should fear than whole hostss IDENTIFY,
and yet, "odd as the thing may be- it is none the
less true, as witness the alarm created by such
shadowy "nonentities" as Mr.. Wilkeson projects
on paper, making them more terrible, to his eyes,
than fifty thousand rebel "identities"
Fifty thousand men would be likely to make
their presence felt in way which would leave no
necessity for resort to speculation and conjecture.
In the face of such a sef-evident proposition,
all elaborated paper estimates like those of Mr..
Wikeson are really the strongest confirmation of
the truth that the alleged magnitude Of the recent
expedition had no foundation in fact but is purely
hyment Of the Imagination. And, in corrobora-
ton OF this opinion, we insert below, copied from
the Washington Chronicle Of yesterday, some in
teresting information furnished by one of its edi-
tors or reporters, who made trip to Rockville on
Thursday last for the purpose of ascertainng the
whereabouts of the rebel forces and of cleaning
some tidings Of their doings by inquiring of the
people of Rockville" If there are exaggerations
or miscaculations in his statement they doubt
less unntentional, resulting mainly from the fact
that the writer's informants may have COMPOUNDED
matters a little by supposing that every detach-
ment Of the enemy, moving in different directions,
represented different body of men, tending to
swell the aggregate force engaged in The invasion.
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