Sunday, September 2, 2012

Where are the rebels in Virginia? Important Strategic Movements of the Rebel Generals


The grand army of the Potomac has at last set out in pursuit of the rebels, who have abandoned their fortifications at Centreville and Manassas, and fallen back on the line of the Rappahannock river.

The new position where it is believed the rebels intend to make a stand, is along the bank of the Rappahannock river, from Port Royal up to Fredericksburg, thence along the south bank of the river up as far as the junction of the Rapidan with the North Fork of the Rappahannock, thence along the Rapidan as far as the base of the Blue Ledge Mountain.  This line of defence is thus described:

The country is very hilly, and is cut into wild and deep ravines, particularly is this the case for some eight miles below Fredericksburg, all the way up to the base of the mountain ridge.  There is a wooden bridge at Fredericksburg leading over the Rappahannock and county of Stafford, and one at the Village of Falmouth, which is in the county of Spotsylvania.  Falmouth is a mile above Fredericksburg, and there are but three fords in the river between Fredericksburg and the mountain; one at the Wilderness, which is about a mile from the Rapidan; another where the railroad crosses; and a third about three miles northwest of Orange Court House.  At the breaking out of the rebellion it was a matter of serious discussion by Beauregard, Lee and Johnson [sic] whether this should not be the line of fortification instead of Bull Run and Manassas.  The Manassas railroad, bringing provisions from the valley, cause them to select Bull Run, the Rapidan and Rappahannock being made strong by extensive military engineering in the meantime.

The river is deep and narrow below Fredericksburg – 160 yards wide and fifteen feet deep.  Above Fredericksburg and at Falmouth the great falls of the Rappahannock begin, and extend all the way to the source.  The banks are ragged, broken, and precipitous, and covered with the original growth of the timber.  The river here is deep and rapid.  Upwards of twenty thousand slaves have been a Fredericksburg since the 10th of May, 1861, and the negro men have been at work on various fortifications all along the river bank for months past.  This line of defense was began anterior to the fortifications along Bull Run, and was destined as a sort of cover in case of defeat at Bull Run.

The swampy country of the Matapony, east of the Junction of the Mat, the Ta, the Po and the Ny, and indicated by a line reaching from Port Royal and Louisville, thence down the Matapony to the [Pamunkey] and the York rivers, from the extended line of fight from the mountain to the bay.  The abandonment of the whole Lower Potomac and the Rappahannock, below Port Royal is because they are untenable on account of the ready approach of boats and being easily outflanked by a force reaching them there.  The country is the best possible one for defense along the whole Atlantic slope, and the last and only stand the rebels can make is here along the Rappahannock river.  They have never mad the extensive ratifications at Richmond that have been erected at Fredericksburg.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 3

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