February 18, 1863, The New York Herald
Never, since the bombardment of Fort Sumter, has there been such a general and remarkable suspension of active hostilities as that which now prevails, by land and water, around the entire circle of the rebellion. Under an armistice, authoritatively proclaimed, this suspension of battles and skirmishes, raids and surprises, could hardly be more complete. We hear no more of daring and successful rebel forays in the rear of the Army of the Potomac; no more of dashing guerilla enterprises in Kentucky and Missouri; no more of damaging rebel depredations upon the trains and transports of General Rosecrans, since the late disastrous repulse of Forrest, Wheeler, Morgan & Company from Fort Donelson. Nor, from our widely distributed land and naval forces, from the Rappahannock westward to the Mississippi, and thence down that great river to the sea, and thence around the coast to Chesapeake Bay, have we heard for several days of any assault upon the enemy beyond that of the chance collision of a scouting party.
What is the meaning of this extraordinary state of things? Are the hostile forces in this war wearied of their work of slaughter, and are they falling to pieces from sheer exhaustion? Or are they voluntarily pausing in expectation of some interposing agencies of a peaceable accommodation? Or are the Unionists and the rebels here and there quietly concentrating their available forces for a deadly and decisive struggle? Let the enormous Union fleets and armies in South Carolina and in front of Vicksburg, and the Army of the Potomac, and our Army of Tennessee, and let the fortifications and forces opposed to them, be the answer. The leaders of the rebellion have concentrated their strength at four points: 1st, on the heights of the Rappahannock in front of General Hooker; 2d, at Charleston; 3d, at Vicksburg; 4th, in Tennessee, in front of the army General Rosecrans; and upon the repulse or the successful defence of the enemy at these four points depends the important question whether this war will be ended by the present or be transmitted as the legacy of Abraham Lincoln to our next administration.
The rebel army of Virginia is charged with the defence of the capital of the so called “Confederate States.” General Lee remains behind his intrenchments, watching and waiting, to resist any attempt on the part of General Hooker to move to Richmond. But General Hooker has found his most serious impediment to an advance in the soil of Virginia, which for two months has been, and still continues, almost as boggy and impassable as the Dismal Swamp. We must have a few successive days of dry winds on the Rappahannock before even “Fighting Joe Hooker” can move in any direction. In the meantime, as the inland railroad line from Washington to Richmond was abandoned by General Burnside to avoid the danger of having his transportation cut off by rebel forays, why is it that the sixty miles of railroad between General Lee’s army and Richmond should remain unbroken and undisturbed? Have we no cavalry connected with the Army of the Potomac equal to some such undertaking as that so handsomely carried out by General Carter and his troop of horsemen in East Tennessee? The capture of Richmond would be a blow to the heart of the rebellion. The readiest way to reach it is to dislodge the intrenched army of Lee, and the readiest way to dislodge him is to cut him off from the base of his scanty supplies.
The forces of the Port Royal expedition of November, 1861, might have taken Richmond by way of Norfolk while the rebel army was at Manassas; or, had the whole strength of that expedition been directed against Charleston immediately after the capture of Port Royal, we have no doubt that it would have been completely successful. But the Charleston of February, 1863, is not the Charleston of November, 1861. The intervening time has been appropriated by the rebels in the erection of a system of defensive works around the city which is will probably require a protracted siege, by land and water, to reduce. Two months hence the pestilence of the surrounding swamps begins to poison the air, so that General Hunter must proceed to business against Charleston or Savannah without further delay, or he may be compelled to leave his work half finished, to be commenced again at the beginning, with the return of cold weather.
We may, however, hear of the opening of the ball at Vicksburg or Port Hudson before we shall have any news of the bombardment of Charleston; and we confidently expect that, between General Grant and Admiral Porter from above, and General Banks and Admiral Farragut from below, the Mississippi river will soon be entirely reclaimed. But with the dispersion of the rebels from that […..] sea” in advance of any decisive operations elsewhere, it is to be hoped that the enemy will not again be permitted, as at Corinth, to abandon one position in order to strengthen another, but that Rosecrans, Hooker and Hunter will each anticipate any strategy of this sort by prompt and decisive action.
We believe that our forces in Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee are fully equal in every case to the work assigned them; and we believe, too, that the golden moment for action is at hand. The despondency of Wall street, the revolutionary tendencies of the spoils democracy and abolition fanatics of the North, and the fears and distrust pervading the public mind, imperiously demand success. The government has the men and means and the opportunity to secure success, and the country has the right to demand it. We are gratified to hear that encouraging accounts from our military officers in the field, East and West, have created a more hopeful feeling in Washington, and we trust that this feeling will be soon extended to New York, with the news of some decisive Union victory as the opening of the impending campaign.
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