| From the Richmond Dispatch |
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| September 1, 1864 |
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| The occupation of the
Montgomery & West Point railroad by
the Yankees is no doubt felt as a serious inconvenience by General
Hood. Yet we are disposed to think the importance of the blow greatly
over-estimated both by our own people and the Yankees themselves. So
far from starving Hood out, and leading to the capture of Atlanta, it
will not even interrupt his communication with Montgomery, if the railroad
presidents in that country be as active and energetic as they
have proved themselves to be in this. |
| From
East Point
— about three miles beyond which the Yankees now are — to
West Point
is eighty-one miles. From West Point to Opelika, where the Muskogee railroad
strikes the Montgomery & West Point railroad
-- the latter being continuous with the Atlanta & West Point
railroad -- the distance, we should
judge, is about fifteen miles. At any rate, it is hard upon one
hundred miles from the junction of the
Muskogee
to Fairburn or East Point. Sherman's army must be very long indeed if they can reach thus far,
and unless they can, he cannot prevent the trains which have hitherto
run from Montgomery to Atlanta from communicating through the Muskogee
railroad with the Macon railroad,
and thus with Atlanta. The way is round-about, but it is perfectly
practicable. Even if the Macon railroad be
taken, fortified and held by the Yankees, there is still communication
through the Muskogee, Southwestern, Central Georgia, Savannah &
Augusta, and the Great Georgia and South Carolina railroad,
which ends at Charleston, with Montgomery and all the country with
which Montgomery is in any way connected. General Hood, in a word, is
still in communication with all the country he was in communication
with before this last movement of Sherman; and if it was intended to cut him off from his supplies, it is a
failure. We rather think, however, it was designed to shut him up in
Atlanta
, or to open communication with Mobile. He has completely exposed his flank to Hood by this movement, and
thereby, we suspect, rendered his own position a very dangerous one.
Hood, we feel satisfied, will not allow him to retain it many days
undisturbed. |
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