150-years-ago -- GRANT'S 'OVERLAND CAMPAIGN' GETTING READY

The Richmond Daily Dispatch
April 15, 1864

The enemy's Plans for the Spring campaign--"on to Richmond" again.

Confederate soldier ready for the
Yankee Spring offensive. 
(Photo by M. Jones, Statue at
Chickamauga NMP)

The Washington correspondent of the New York World, under date of the 10th instant, says:

Preparations for the grand movement on Richmond, which will now be delayed by the storm in Virginia, are going forward with quiet but vehement energy. The reorganization of the Army of the Potomac has been generally perfected. Gen. Baldy Smith will command two army corps, which are organizing at Fortress Monroe. The troops under his [commrnd] will be pushed up the Peninsula, whilst the Army of the Potomac keeps Lee's forces vigorously occupied. Gen Burnside will attempt his old route via Goldsboro', cutting the railroad at that point.

The World's correspondent expresses the opinion that this grand combination will compel the rebels to fall back from the line of the Rapidan to the defences of Richmond, and that the greatest battle of the war will be fought in the vicinity of the Confederate capital. He also states that these defences have been strengthened, and that mines have been prepared at "several vital parts."