| From the Richmond Dispatch |
| |
| July 30, 1864 |
| |
| Petersburg and the Railroads |
| The army correspondent of the New York
Times says: |
| How absurd is the notion which has been
expressed in the Northern press that Petersburg
is in a state of siege. Such a phrase, as making a more of ideas,
might be allowed to pass unnoticed; but it is calculated to give
altogether erroneous impressions, both of the present position and of
the future prospects of the army. A siege, in any other than the
latest use of the term, can only be applied to an army investing a
city and planted on or interrupting its communications. Now, we
neither invest Petersburg, nor are we planted on, nor have we interrupted its communications. |
| With reference to the question of the
repair of the rebel roads I have recently learned a fact, the truth of
which is undoubted, and which accounts for the facility and rapidity
with which the enemy has lately been able to make good all the damage
we have done on their railroad
communications. Gen Lee has, in conjunction with several English railroad
engineers, organized a corps of railroad
construction, which has this matter in hand. Large supplies of new railroad
iron have been received from abroad and placed at convenient points,
and duplicates of all important bridges are also on hand. With this
agency and these means, the damage which can be done is rendered
merely temporary; and it is quite certain that the rebels were able
in a marvelous short space to put in perfect running order both the
Virginia
{Central} and the Lynchburg
{South Side} roads. It can hardly be claimed, therefore, that the enemy's
communications are to-day in any respect seriously embarrassed. |
|