The New York herald., 1865-02-17
NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY IT, 1855

oea. was essabsAsl wAess ruled suist but very Arm
Oats and corn dSM and scarcely nrm rAs pork
market was less activo and lower Beef Was dull
ana heavy whe lard moderately actve previous
raies whskey was steady Freishts were quiet. but
hrm.
General sherman's Progress-south Caro-
Iins Cut ON ON Both sides.
According to the information we dsg!ys hom
the Richmond journals of General Sherrian's 3
progress in South Carolina, his advance into
the "bowels Of the land" of chivalry Is repe-
tition of his triumphal march through Georgia.
Swamps, declared to be impossible except to
the reptiles which inhabit Chem, rivers, supposed
to be unfordable. and batteries on their banks,
believed to be unapproachabie by athe Yam
KEGS" are but triflng distractions to Sherman's
veterans. Covering a swarth some forty or
fifty miles in extent, their greatest difficulty ap-
pears to be to find the enemy. The Richmond
Journals assure their uneasy readers that
Wheeler Is Furnishing the invader; that Wade
Hampton has gone to the rescue; that Beaure-
gard is biding his time, having around him the
"ubiquitous army Of General Hood" that
Hardee is also on hand with strong force, and
that general engagement may at any moment
be expected; but stili the progress Of Sherman,
right and left, Is onward, and q line Of skir-
mishers clears the track.
Thus, from the reluctant admissions Of the
enemy, Columbia is cut on from Augusta,
while Charleston Is cut OF from Columbia, and
also from the roads which lead TO Wilmington
and Richmond. In other words, Charleston is
completely isolated, in military sense, not
only from Georgia, on the one side, and North
Carolina on the other, but from the western
grain producing section Of South Carolina itself,
by Sherman's cavalry, which has tapped the
Wilmington Railway junction at Florence, and
by his infantry, in occupation Of the roads
around Branchville. At the same time Cen
eral Gilmore, with the army lately under Gen.
eral Foster, has approached near enough TO
Charleston to render the capture or evacuation
Of the city inevitable, unless speedily strength
ened by Beauregard; while the difacuky to
Toutant, in falling back to Charleston, is pre-
cisely the difficulty of Pemberton at vicksburg,
and Of Hardee at Savannah-the scarcity of
provisions and his isolation from any source of
supply.
Even where he is, as we understand the rebel
dispatches touching upon his movements, Beau
regard is detached from his sources of supply,
excepting rice and sweet potatoes. South Caro-
lima is divided into two broadly defined geo
graphical sections. The first is the diluvial
section, extending back hundred miles,
more or less, from the seaboard-a region
which is almost an unbroken dead level of
swamps and sandy pine barrens. The products
Of this section are mainly rice, Indian corn, sea
island cotton and sweet potatoes The other
section is an upland, primitive formation,
banked by range of immense hills of sand
and pebbles, which at one time marked the
shore line of the Atlantic Ocean. This upper
bread and meat producing section is under the
control of Sherman's army, and the correspond
ing country behind it, in Georgia on the one
side and North Carolina on the other.
It follows, therefore, that while Sherman
holds region which may feed his army, Beau
regard and Charleston are reduced to the
swamps and pine barrens Of the seaboard Sec
ton for their supplies. Doubtless those low
lands were made to produce last year immense
quantities of rice, Indian corn and sweet pota-
toes; but between our forces at Beaufort, and
The rebel army and citizens Of Charleston, and
Lees army at Richmond, it Is probable that
this section Of South Carolina has but little left
Of sweet potatoes, rice or Indian corn. It must
be so, when General Lee appeals to Georgia as
his last resource for provisions To the travel
Ter, the whole country from Petersburg, all the
way through to Savannah, by the lowfand rail-
road route, appears barren, hideous, starving
md almost uninhabited wilderness of swamps
md pine woods.
In cutting of the richer grain and meat
regions on the west and the south, General
Sherman, in the first place, secures the city Of
Charleston and the rebel forces intrenching,
unless they shall contrive to work their way
out Of the tolls Chat are closing around them;
and secondly, in conjunction with General
Terry in North Carolina, he reduces General
Lee to the alternative Of the evacuation Of
Richmond or the perils Of starvation. The fall
of Richmond will not be long behind the fall Of
Charleston.
INTERESTING FROM MExCo-FAnURE or DR.
Owns PRoJECrs-The news from Mexico,
contained In the letters of our cores
poudenta and publisbed this morning Is