"Sherman took with him rations for many days, but expected to find ample provisions on the route. Corn and sweet potatoes he will find in abundance and probably hogs.
"Such is our information from several sources; but at the same time it should be recollected that a general, at the head of a movable army in the field, must act according to circumstances, and he may have turned from the course we suppose him to have taken by contingent events, of which we have now no knowledge. We understand him to be on his march through Georgia, to make the South Atlantic Squadron, at Beaufort, his new base of supplies, if he needs one, but if the country, as we suppose, is sufficient to maintain his army, there is no absolute need of any new base.
"Here it will be inquired, What opposition will he encounter, and what is his object? There will be no army in front of him and the Georgia militia will be utterly inefficient in obstructing his progress. Hood is powerless; Lee has no men to spare, and if he had, it would take a large army to encounter Sherman. The field is, therefore, open before him, and the main question is, what can he accomplish? In our opinion, he can accomplish the most important results reached in the war. When a column reaches Macon, it can destroy, effectually, the only remaining railroad communication between the eastern and western parts of the Confederacy. When a column shall reach Augusta, it destroys the largest manufactories and depot of military munitions in the South. The greatest and almost only powder manufactory is there. When the railroad to Augusta, and from Savannah to Charleston are destroyed, there is no further practicable military communication between the country east of the Savannah and west of it. We shall have severed the Confederacy by another impassable line.
"But this is only the beginning. If Sherman can reach Beaufort, after a week's rest, he can move right on through North Carolina to Danville, thus making Eastern Virginia a prison and a grave for Lee's army and the Rebel Government. This, we say, is perfectly practicable with an average share of luck. We do not know that General Sherman has all this in his plan; but why not? Why should he not aim at the greatest results? What is to prevent these results? He has a large, well equipped disciplined army. What is there from the Roanoke to the Tennessee to oppose him? Nothing that can oppose any serious resistance to a disciplined army.