A Federal Summary of the strength and Probable latentions of the rebels.
The
Nashville correspondent of the Philadelphia
Inquirer, under date of March 9th, writes:
‘
The armies of the Southern Confederacy are more numerous than they were a year ago; therefore, it is not unlikely that the next move upon the military chess board, upon the part of the rebels, will be made boldly and expeditiously, with due regard to caution, however.
In the first place the rebels are advantageously situated as regards the sending hither and thither of reinforcements, and doubly so in the safety of their lines of communication.
The army under
General Beauregard is the most serviceable corps in the
Confederacy.
Its numbers, counting in the conscripts and new recruits, may be estimated at twenty-five thousand men, four fifths of whom may be spared at any time, most especially at the present.
Twenty thousand men can be dispatched to
Richmond, and will arrive, with the paraphernalia of the force complete, at the capital in three days. In two days that same body of men may reach
Atlanta.
Therefore, whoever, fights
Lee in
Virginia, or
North Carolina, or
East Tennessee, or
Joe Johnston in
Georgia, may expect, at least, to have to fight
Beauregard's army at the same time.
As an instance of this, when General made his raid upon
Richmond last year.
Beauregard and portions of his forces turned up the next day. The late all in
Georgia gives painful evidence of the truth of my assertions; and yet, since that battle, we hear of
General Beauregard in
Mobile.
Joe Johnston, in his
Vicksburg campaign, received eight thousand reinforcements from
Beauregard.--I think the above instances strictly price that the army in
South Carolina is restly "an army of accommodation."
’
Gen. Lee, as we all know, in his force under
Longstreet, has an army watch may be swelled, should the programme call for what forces could be spared from
Gens. Winder,
Pickets, and
Beauregard, to one hundred and ten thousand men, most of whom are veterans and succeeded soldiers.
My private opinion is there will be no battle in
Virginia this summer, that both armies will rest on the defensive until strategy shall have compelled
Lee to relinquish the
State of Virginia, and quickly too, to escape destruction.
If this be not the case, the
Eastern battle ground may be transferred to
North Carolina.
If
Lee,
Virginia, he will do so reluctantly.
There simplicity of things which
Lee may or might attempt, but I think he will attempt nothing; but that he will leave his present position, through strategy on our part, or designs of his own, before the of July, is a fixed fact in my
The movements in
Tennessee since the raiding of the rebel siege of
Knoxville, although they puzzled us to some Year, especially when
Longstreet was being heavily, reinforced, have never excited alarm.
Yet the cavalry portion of
Longstreet's command, with the addition of . Its originated number of mounted infantry, only attempt a small raid into
Kentucky, under
Gen. Backner.
It may not be there at all, or it may be only a portion of a large force which had destined to invade the
North, and co-operate with another portion it or near . An intelligent prisoner, who was brought in the other day, said there would be — to pay in the
North before summer, and hinted that
Gen. Buckner, with a force of 10,000 gunboat men, would move into
Kentucky through Brand Gap, and that
Morgan, with similar force would move through
Northern Alabama and
West Tennessee, and into
Kentucky, the two chiefs effecting a meeting somewhere in the neighborhood midway between
Cincinnati and
Lexington.
If this is done,
Morgan, especially, will destroy a large amount of and private property, and will no doubt cross the
Louisiana and Nashville Railroad at Suldrough's Hill, make or faint as
Louisville, and quickly and quietly form a junction with
Buckner.
As to what the intentions of
Joe Johnston are, on all probability he does not know himself.
In any opinion, he will himself to the
Morgan of his sight.
He cannot move upon us, and an attempt to would
Joe Johnston's army have to meet the of
Lee and
Johnston and of the former in chief.
The trans- Mississippi army under Stuith, Magrader, and orders, may actually be computed to the man that won the elephant.
They can't do much hare where they are and it is not very likely they will themselves, will end in smoke.
