Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-02
MONDAY MORNING, - MAY 2.
FROM THE SOUTH.
Rebel View of the Spring Campaign
Rebel General Magruder to the People Of Texas
VIEW OF THE APPROACHING CAMPAIGN.

GFrom the Richmond Enquirer, April l9l
With what will the President electrify
the country before the meeting of the next
Congress, which assemblies now in less than
thirty days? VIII it be Maximilan's rec
ognitiOn? viii it be France IN England
combining to raise the blockaue? Will it
be victoryp Of all the good news that the
President could communicate, victory
would most electrify his fellow citizens and
most depress the public enemy.
Grant Is said to be planning another "On
to Richmond" with Smith and Burnside
upon our flanks or rear. The vast prepa-
rations for the campaign are duly notified
to our authorities, indeed, so publicly Is the
concentration being made, so ostentatious
are the enemy of all their arrangements,
that one cannot but doubt If these indica-
tions are not designed to deceive. The press
of the United States have duly advised us
of the reorganization of the Army of the
Potomac, and so circumstantially and fully,
that it was no difficult matter to correctly
estimate its effective strength. Gen. Burn
side writes letters, which are published in
the New York papers, that he Is preparing
command for early active operations, that
Annapolis is his rendezvous, and we are
further informed that North Carolina is his
destination.
Gen. Smith has been carried to Fortress
Monroe in the most public manner, accom-
panying Gen. Grant, and the two corps that
he is to command in an expedition up the
Peninsula are pu blished In the principal
journals of the country, and these most
obligingly broughtto our authorities by the
enemy's fiag-of-truce boat. If no efforts
have been made to conceal these prepara-
tions, certainly none have been taken to
prevent our learning them, for the flag of
truce boat has regularly delivered full files
of the papers that were known to contain
them. Why, then, has this publicity been
given to preparations that all military eX-
perience teaches should be most sedulously
Kept secret.
Can it be supposed that Gen. Grant is so
confident of success that, like the Cartha-
genian general, he would prefer to fight
two armies to falling upon one? Is 1t to be
supposed that he has been so intoxicated by
success that he despises the usual precau-
ticns which the rudiments of mi it Try
science demand? We can hardly think so,
nor will the authorities of the Confederate
States be deceived by this shallow device.
We see no evidence of concentration on otlr
part-no passage of troops from one depart
ment to another. Beaurega d still watches
the enemy from the Notifications of Charles
ton, or seeks fight in the swamps of Flor
ida.
From Southwestern Virginia we hear rii-
mors of movements into Kentucky and
Tennessee. Pickett and Whiting still hold
their positions In North Carolina, and the
'al Is uuietn on the Rapidan Is unbroken
by even rumor. What efforts, then, are
being made to meet the threatened ad-
vance?
We can only conclude that newspaper
strategy and editorial campaigns have failed
to make that impression which takes action,
and that our authorities, in possession of
better information, are blding their time
and holding positions which, like that of
Southwestern Virginia, is point from
which an advance can be made right
through the enemy's lines, and into the very
heart of his territory, putting In jeopardy
the State of Kentucky, turning all posi-
tions in East Tennessee, and, like General
Bragg's campaign, throwing the enemy
back upon the Ohio, by threatening Cincin-
natl and Louisville.
Gen. Grants presence with the Army of
the Potomac furnishes no criterion by which
one should decide that he Is there for the
purpose of commanding another advance
upon Richmond. Having Commanded in
Tennessee and the west but very recently,
and having placed Sherman in Immediate
command, all necessary preparations for an
advance against Johnston may be made
there, Just as secretly as they have been
openly conducted In the east, and within
few hours the railroads transport Grant and
his headquarters from the "feld'r in the
eastto the "tield'' in the west, and he sweeps
down upon Johnston while the public in
Virginia are straining their eyes to see his
advance, or their ears to hear the distant
thunders of his approach.
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