| From the Savannah Morning News |
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| January 23, 1862 |
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| The Burnside Expedition |
| We have, at last, important
news from the Burnside Expedition. One hundred and twenty-five of the
enemy's vessels have congregated at Hatteras, and the soil of the Old
North State, it seems, is again to be invaded. The speculations of the
Northern papers concerning the destination of the Expedition and their
"calculations" with regard to its results, are very interesting. |
| The Providence (R. I.)
Journal, of Monday week, says: |
| "Now that General Burnside's
great expedition has taken its departure from Annapolis, and no one,
fortunately, knows where it is gone, there can be no harm in guessing
its probable point of attack, particularly as our guesses can not reach
the Confederates before the General will be among them. In other words,
he will himself carry the news to them of his coming. |
| The nature of the flotilla is
such, as we all know, that it would not be safe to send it around Cape
Hatteras, exposed, as it would be, to the heavy gales which prevail
there during the winter months. The inference, therefore, is, that it is
not destined for the Potomac, it is intended to enter Pamlico or
Albemarle Sounds, through which so large a portion of the coast of North
Carolina can be reached. By Albemarle Sound and Chowan river, which
empties into it, a point quite near to Norfolk may be reached with the
small craft of the expedition, so as to invest that place in the rear.
At the same time our forces could push for Weldon, where the railroads
for Norfolk, Richmond, Raleigh and Wilmington to Charleston form a
junction. The junction is scarcely fifty miles from the navigable waters
of Albemarle Sound. |
| "Another plan may be to pass
up Pamlico Sound and the Neuse river to Newbern. Here a railroad
connects with Goldsborough, about fifty miles distant, on the Wilmington
road. In either case the expedition will completely occupy the inland
waters of North Carolina, and have a chance for a brush with the enemy's
vessels, numbers of which it is known are there. Most of Gen. Burnside's
vessels could enter Currituck Sound, some fifty miles south of Cape
Henry. A few days will solve the mystery, if we are correct in our
suppositions, as a day's sail from Hampton Roads will, if no accident
happens, carry the expedition to its place of destination, unless its
destination is Newbern, in which event two days will be required." |
| The New York Evening Post, in
an editorial on "the campaign," gives the following theory in regard to
the movements of the armies and fleets now in active service. |
| "It is evident that a
commander of genius, adequate to the end, would not waste men and means
by scattering blows, which, singly, can effect but little. Rather, he
would endeavor to work out slowly a carefully studied plan by which he
could bring all the means at his command to bear upon some decisive
point, where he could hope to overwhelm the enemy and destroy not only
his army, but his cause itself. Richmond and Manassas have two great
lines of communication, and two only. The Virginia & East Tennessee
Railroad connects Richmond with the great Southwest, from which
Beauregard draws nearly all his supplies. The railroad system which is
concentrated at Weldon, or at Raleigh, North Carolina, connects Richmond
with the Atlantic slave States, from which Beauregard has drawn most of
his men. If these two lines are cut off, the grand army of the
Confederates is effectually isolated, the decisive point of action is at
once declared, and this point may be threatened from front and rear at
the same time. But to make such a blow tell more decisively, it would be
necessary to operate as well in those States which are cut off from
succor, as against the great army, to capture which would crush
rebellion. |
| "Let us see how our forces are
situated to fulfill these conditions. Buell is in Kentucky with one
hundred thousand men. His advance upon Nashville will isolate
Zollicoffer and Marshall, who must retreat before Schoepf into
Tennessee, and give us command of the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, the
South-western communication. If, now, we can imagine Burnside striking
at the seaboard railroad line -- say at Weldon -- we shall at once have
Beauregard's forces imprisoned in Virginia, for they have never been
able to get means of transportation together for their great army, and
cannot move off the railroads. Meantime, Buell may turn his forces
eastward, through the loyal districts of East Tennessee and Western
Virginia, until he threatens Richmond from the South-west; Burnside may
secure himself in the loyal parts of North Carolina, and threaten
Beauregard from the South; McClellan and Banks lie upon the rebel front,
ready to assail the moment Beauregard turns to defend himself against
Buell or Burnside. And while the grand army of Davis is thus imprisoned
on all sides, Sherman has opportunities to strike in South Carolina;
Dupont may join in the attack on Charleston or Savannah, or both; Butler
and Phelps threaten Jackson, the capital of Mississippi; and Halieck
carry his hundred thousand men to New Orleans. |
| "Napoleon defeated his
opponents by piercing their centre, and, by the movements we have
supposed above, McClellan would pierce the centre of rebellion. He would
mass an overwhelming force upon the decisive point in Virginia, and
meantime would prevent succor by engaging the weaker portions of the
enemy at various points. And, lastly, he ought to be able to capture, in
this way, an army which might make a fresh stand, were if merely driven
out of Virginia. Thus, too, the expedition to Port Royal will assume its
proper importance, and cease to be regarded as a mere raid upon cotton
fields; and the forces at Ship Island, too small for independent
conquest, will do the work in threatening the enemy's rear and
embarrassing his movements for defence." |
| We get the following from the
Richmond Examiner of Monday: |
| There appears to be a strong
disposition, even in official quarters, to believe that an attack is
meditated in the rear of Norfolk. To carry out this plan of
attack, the enemy will have to take Roanoke Island, which lies in
Albemarle Sound, and would then have water communication within some
thirty or forty miles of Norfolk. The idea, however, appears to be
extravagant that such an attack would be meditated, unless with an army
complete in all its appointments, and not in the situation in which the
invaders would be, of having their supplies cut off at any moment. |
| Another supposition is
entertained in well informed quarters, that Newbern is to be the object
of the attack. The town of Newbern is situated at the head of the Neuse
River or estuary, emptying into Pamlico Sound, and is an important
station on the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad. There is a
considerable body of State troops there to meet the invaders, but we do
not deem it prudent to mention the amount of our force. |
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