From the Raleigh Register |
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November 8, 1862 |
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The Roanoke Region |
The news from this important
region of the State is well calculated to produce great anxiety in the
public mind. From the commencement of this war we have been very
apprehensive for the safety of the Railroads running from Petersburg
to Wilmington {the Petersburg RR and the
Wilmington & Weldon RR}, and it has been a matter of surprise to us that they
have been so long unassailed by the enemy. Now we have no longer room
to doubt that the movement we have apprehended is about to be made,
and that Weldon is the point to be attacked. This movement was
shadowed forth in an article in a late number of the New York Tribune,
which very significantly stated that there were other ways to move on
Richmond than from the North. We do not know what other troops besides
Gen. Pettigrew's Brigade we have in readiness to meet the enemy at or
in the vicinity of Weldon. It is devoutly to be hoped we have enough
to meet him and drive him back, for it is worse than idle to disguise
the fact that if the enemy gets Weldon and destroys the Railroad and
the Bridge at that point, the South will receive the heaviest blow
which has fallen upon it since the commencement of the war, for the
next movement of the enemy would be upon Gaston, 12 miles distant, and
the railroad bridge at that point would share the fate of the one at
Weldon, and the track of the Greenville and Roanoke Railroad {?}
be
destroyed. |
Since the above was written,
we have received the Petersburg Express of Thursday, which states that
Gen. Longstreet's Division is expected at that City in a day or two.
When it reaches Petersburg it will probably be sent on to aid in the
defence of Weldon. |
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