Letter to Alfred Landon Rives [manuscript], 1862 May 23.

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Rives, William C. (William Cabell), 1793-1868. Letter to Alfred Landon Rives [manuscript], 1862 May 23.

Letter to Alfred Landon Rives [manuscript], 1862 May 23.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/647988492

William Rives writes to his son, Alfred, that he has heard that Union General Shields, with about 15,000 men, has crossed the Blue Ridge at Chester's Gap and has likely already joined General McDowell at Fredericksburg. Rives wonders why Confederate General Ewell, at Luray, did not cross the mountains via Thornton's Gap and destroy Shields's force in Rappahannock County. He describes the "perfectly apparent" plan of the enemy to cut off Richmond and starve it into capitulation or destroy it by force. He notes that Bonaparte's last grand struggle for Paris, in which he attacked his enemies at a distance from the capital with plans to cut them off from their base line of operations, would have succeeded had it not been for the treachery of his own people. He advocates that the Confederacy adopt a similar strategy and notes that the "one of the most imposing movements against Richmond would be on the side of Fredericksburg." He is surprised that Joseph R. Anderson has the chief command of Confederate troops in that quarter and that one of the very ablest and most inspired generals ought to be assigned to that command instead. He notes that the spirit of Confederate troops, combined with timely and other measures, can gloriously avert the catastrophic occupation of Richmond.

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