Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1865-02-17


We alluded yesterday to the information
professed by the Baltimore secession cor
respondent of the N. Y. World, as to
nerthward movement, on the part of Gen.
Lee, during the coming campaign. We
presume he gives the talk and the hopes
INDUCED in by the chief Maryland seces-
siOnists, whether there lie anything in it or
not as regards actual designs entertained
at Richmond. We quote from the letter,
as follows: l.. u 3a
WHEN GEN. LIE EXPECTS TO AssUMe THE
1ElTIATIvE.
II Gen. Lees plans for the campaign of
1865 are carried out, there wilfcome time
in the history of the siege of Richmond
and Petersburg, when he will venture upon,
the bold stroke merely alluded TO in my
last letter. Concentrating, by the evscu-
alton of Wilmington and Charleston, an
army OF 100000 men at Richmond and
Lynohburg, he will be ready, when the ia
vorsble moment shall arrive, to make a
rapid march northward into Pennsylvania,
by bic faVorite route through the Shensn-
doah valley, That memeut may be, when
Gen. Grant, reaching at last with bis left
wing the line of works defending the
Lynchburg railroad, shall attack these
works and meet there with g repulse; or it
may be when the attempt shall be made
by the iron clad navy to pass Fort Darling,
an attempt which may not succeed; or it
may be when the main body of our army
shall be transferred to the north side of the
James river, and an attempt be made to
reach Richmond by the New Market and
Charles City roads, an attempt which, if
made with the whole strength of the army,
would have succeeded last summer, but
which may fail now.
The commander in. chief, who deter
mines to conduct q campaign on the active
defensive system, as General Lee has re.
solved to do, must, at any rate, seize that
moment for assuming the Initiative when
bis AdversRry's troops, dispiEted by a re-
verse or q disastrous repulse, will be least
able to prevent or to oppose the movement
that he has in contemplation. OF course,
the capture Of Richmond, early in Ihe
spring, is looked upon as certainty by
many sanguine people OF the North. Yet
the capture of Richmond by the vast com
binAtion of troops under General Grant
last spring, was as confidently looked for;
and these sanguine people entirely ignore
the fact that the defeuses of the rebel cap.
ital are twice ss strong now as they were
then. Aud it becomes US, therefore, as
wise men, to contemplate the possibility
that General Lee, with all the vast military |
resources Of the South at his command |
may do that which any other great com.
mRnder, in his place, might do.
And what is that1 1t is to compel Gen. |
Grant, if possible, TO raise the siege of
Richmond. Aud this can best be done, |
. hA La
Lee among them, by threatening the safety |
Of Washington. Depend upon it, there.
fore, this is the direction which Gen. Lees
aggressive movement wiki take, when it
shall develop itself. Probably it will be |
demonstrated before next May that, with
SO, 900 troops, the lines OF Richmond and |
Petersburg can be successfully held against |
Grants whole army. They certainly have !
been 80 held during the last eight months; |
and the Republican press has uniformly |
secuted the idea that General Lee has had |
over $4,000 troops during this time. In |
May ii is pretty certain that he will have
lao. 900 troops; aud if so, it is more than
probable that with 60, 900 of the best of
these, he viii assume the offensive in the
direction that We are least able to bar his
progress.
Is this improbabIe1 Are these appre-
tensions coniued to myself If so, what
means the recent appropriation of $500. 900
for the construction of additional forts
around Washington Is it any more inn
probable than it would have been last
winter, 70 suppose that our capital could
BY any possibility have been actually held
in q state of siege in the next July, for As
hours ItsRch thing is at all possible
this year, is it not wiser, to contemplate
that possibility, and to provide tor it, rather
than TO ridicUle it AT all events, il is
certain that an Invasion Of the North, as q
part of Gen Lees plan of the campaign of
1865, is confidently expected at Richmond;
and that, too, ou.a scale much larger than
that executed by Gen. Early last July. That
may be regarded as . Reconnaissance,