Yankee plan of their Spring campaign.
[From the United States Army and Navy Gazette.] Our own plan of campaign should seem to be to penetrate the interior of the two Carolinas from the coast, thoroughly break up the network of their interior railroad communication, destroy the lines of supply which can convey forage and sustenance to the Virginia Confederate army, break down by an intimidating and irresistible sweep throughout the country, the morale of those two States, according to the method of the Georgia campaigns, and, finally, to draw northeasterly upon Lee's main army in its position around Richmond. For Grant, meanwhile, it will remain, by constant, vexatious, and dangerous demonstrations, to prevent the reinforcement of Beauregard and Bragg by Virginia forces, without fatally depleting the garrisons of Petersburg and Richmond. When the other two armies shall have broken all the important railroad lines in the interior, and shall have advanced far enough north to menace Lee on the flank, in case he falls back from Richmond, the Army of the Potomac will prepare to strike another series of those terrific blows which signalized the march to Petersburg.Probably General Sherman's course will be governed by the strict military reasons for passing or capturing Charleston, without regard to sentiment. The exigencies of the situation will determine his movements. What we can affirm is, that his present course in the occupation of Branchville directly cuts one of the two northerly lines of Charleston.--Even should he aim directly at Wilmington, his course would lead him upon the other railroad line, that from Charleston to Florence. With the severance of this, the isolation of the city is complete, and its voluntary evacuation not improbable, as the enemy himself confesses. By the introduction of a little judicious strategy, he handles the rebellion with vexatious adroitness. He cuts lines of supplies, he flanks on all sides, and compels evacuation. If Charleston should fall, as Atlanta and Savannah fell, like them it would be "fairly won"--Sherman clearing the city as a dexterous oysterman scoops out a bivalve.
We are not anxious to see Sherman hurrying "onward to Richmond." He is doing work in South Carolina, and a which will repay us fold, as campaign in Georgia ready repaid us. He will reach Richmond soon enough, but there is much do on the way. Richmond is, in its the last great point in the Confederacy to carry, though it may be the first to attack. It is the main point in the rebellion. And if we properly clear the approaches to it, we can make the last, which we need to carry. We often have failed in massing all our strength those positions of enormous strength in Virginia before we had roughly severed them from the support of the rest of the Confederacy. When the death-blow has been struck to the heart of the rebellion, the head will sink prone and lifeless to the trunk, falling by its own weight.
Meanwhile, what is the enemy's policy? It is clearly to mass all possible forces to the defeat of Sherman. Unless his army is defeated the Confederacy is doomed. His audacious occupation of Georgia and South Carolina, his roaming where he lists, entering State capitals and expelling Legislatures, and exhibiting his victorious legions to the people of the South in every quarter, fatally saps the moral strength of the Confederacy. His destruction of all its great railroad chains, his severance of the communications between its armies and cities, and his capture and burning of its forage and supplies, are accomplishing its physical downfall. To collect their forces and hurl them on Grant or on Sherman should be the aim of the Southern leaders. Against Grant, troops could be more easily accumulated; but he is behind impregnable entrenchments, which would shatter them as waves are broken into spray against a rock. Sherman's columns, smaller and divided, are far away from succor, deep in the interior, with no gunboats on their flanks, with no base of supplies, and daily marching, instead of lying in wait behind their pickets.
We can hardly doubt that this will be the policy of the enemy. If he evacuates these coastwise cities, as we constantly hear of his doing, it will not be from some indefinite plan of concentration; it will be for concentration against Sherman. Doubtless full two-thirds of Hood's army is already gathering in his front. Lee has had the temerity to send some of his best officers and troops to South Carolina, including, amongst them, Wade Hampton and Mahone, with a part, probably, of their respective divisions. As General-in Chief, and responsible for the Carolina campaign, Lee will doubtless send more men in the same direction. But, while we all look with breathless interest at the result of the shock, our hearts may be confident. Unless too great a force is allowed to collect in his front, and of that the Lieutenant General will take good care, Sherman will disperse it. And, in any event, we may trust our fortunes in his hands.
