| From the Richmond Dispatch |
| |
| December 11, 1861 |
| |
| Western Virginia |
| ***** |
| The importance of taking and holding
Northwestern Virginia
cannot be overestimated. As it is needless to stop to inquire now how
it has been lost, it is only practical to inquire how we are to redeem
the State authority in that part of Virginia. |
| Energetic, shrewd, and experienced
Generals are indispensable to the achievement. They must be sustained
by sufficient and well-disciplined troops, and they must have every
possible facility of transportation and proper supplies. There is no
way so well calculated to ensure these as the extension of the
rail-roads of the James and Kanawha Vallies, and the improvement of
the roads which will be used by our troops. Measures ought to be taken
at once to extend the
{Virginia Central Road
to Covington. The embankment is ready — the rails
only are wanted. They are now in possession of the company, and only
want the transportation to the point where they are to be used. But
the Government has so monopolized the trains that the road has not the
means to convey them to that point. |
| The Covington & Ohio Railroad is ready
to receive its superstructure nearly the entire distance from Covington
to the White Sulphur Springs. If the Confederate Government would
combine with the State, the road could, in a few months, be finished
to the Springs. |
| If these two roads were finished to the
Springs, the Western army would derive in calculable advantages
therefrom. It could move quicker; its supplies could be placed with
greater ease and in large abundance at a proper depot near the
principal field of operations. The Alleghanies would be passed by
railroad and the most serious difficulties in the movement of an army
and its supplies avoided. |
| This subject is one that deserves the most
serious attention of Congress and our State Legislature. We hope they
will take it up promptly and act decidedly and harmoniously. Western
Virginia is indispensable to
Eastern Virginia
and the Confederacy. Apart from political considerations, upon the
score of the mineral wealth of that part of the State, it is of the
vastest importance to the South. The coal and iron deposits are of
illimitable extent, and if we had not lost the salt mines — most
ridiculously lost them — we would not feel the want of this article
of prime necessity now. |
| If the Western campaign is to be pressed
earnestly, these roads ought to be attended to at once. There is no
time for delay. |