Western Virginia Geography.
The Northern papers, and many of our own, have very much confounded the movements of our troops in Northwestern Virginia. We have two columns operating in that section of the State at considerable distances apart, over a most mountainous and impassable country.--One column, under Generals Lee and Loring are operating against Rosencranz, in the county of Randolph and on the Cheat Mountain, in the direction of Grafton. The other column, under Generals Floyd and Wisz, is operating against Cox, in the direction of the Kanawha Valley, in the county of Fayette, on the New river, which becomes the Kanawha below the mouth of the Gauley river. At the mouth of Gauley the enemy are posted in fores. The Hawk's Nest is on the right bank of New river, above the confluence of the Gauley.When, therefore, the enemy's dispatches from Cincinnati mix up General Wise in the movements of Generals Lee and Loring that very fact proves that their authors are ignorant of the real locality of General Wise. The column with which he is operating is in the central West of the State, whereas that of General Lee is in the Northwest proper. You cross Sewell's Mountain and pass the Hawh's Nest, where Generals Floyd and Wise are, on the road from Lewisburg to the Kanawha Salines and to Guyandotte; you cross Cheat Mountain, where Generals Lee and Loring are, on the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike road. Braddock's army crossed Cheat Mountain and Cheat river, on its march to Pittsburg, then Fort Duquesue. But you cross Sawell's Mountain in going from the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs to Cincinnati and to Kentucky, on the route pursued by Lewis and his army in 1774, on their way to fight the Indians at Point Pleasant, where Logan was killed. In short, your course from Staunton to the mouth of Gauley, near which Generals Floyd and Wise are operating, is due West; whereas the course from Staunton to Beverly and Cheat Mountain, where Gens. Lee and Loring are operating, is almost due North. From the mouth of Gauley to Beverly, from the Hawk's Nest to Rich Mountain, is a very long distance, more than a hundred miles, the way obstructed by the most stupendous mountains in the State, and marked by no direct road. If Professor Lowe could take the Yankee news-writers up in his balloon, and show them the distance and the character of country intervening between the counties of Randolph and of Fayette, those writers never would again confound the movements of our armies on the Sewell and the Cheat Mountains.
The importance of the movements of Gen. Lee consists, besides driving the enemy out of our State, in getting possession of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and thus cutting off the most direct communication between Cincinnati and St. Louis, with Washington city.
The importance of the movements of Generals Floyd and Wise, besides the same object of driving the enemy beyond our borders, consists in reclaiming the Kanawha Salines, and
the rich and wealthy Kanawha Valley, and at the same time affording a support to the Southern sentiment in Eastern Kentucky; an object now become doubly important from the crisis which affairs are reaching in that State.
We have said enough to show that we have two columns operating in two widely separated folds, for two widely distinct objects. The one column looks to bringing back Northwestern Virginia to its allegiance, and commanding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The other looks to holding middle Western Virginia to its true and natural fealty, securing the control of the Salines and supporting the Confederates in Eastern Kentucky. We confidently expect the success of both expeditions; but not without a good deal of hard fighting.
