munications to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do
but to follow and ruin him; if he does so with less than full
force, fall upon and beat what is left behind all the easier.
Exclusive of the water line, you are now nearer Richmond than the
enemy is, by the route that you _can_ and he _must_ take. Why can
you not reach there before him, unless you admit that he is more
than your equal on the march? His route is the _arc_ of a circle,
while yours is the _chord_. The roads are as good on yours as on
his.

You know I desired, but did not order, you to cross the Potomac
below instead of above the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. My idea was,
that this would at once menace the enemy's communications, which I
would seize if he would permit. If he should move northward, I
would follow him closely, holding his communications. If he should
prevent our seizing his communications, and move toward Richmond, I
would press closely to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity
should present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on the
inside track. I say "try," for if we never try, we shall never
succeed. If he make a stand at Winchester, moving neither north nor
south, I would fight him there, on the idea that if we cannot beat
him when he bears the wastage of coming to us, we never can when we
bear the wastage of going to him. This proposition is a simple
truth, and is too important to be lost sight of for a moment. In
coming to us, he tenders us an advantage which we should not waive.
We should not so operate as to merely drive him away. As we must
beat him somewhere, or fail finally, we can do it, if at all,
easier near to us than far away. If we cannot beat the enemy where
he now is, we never can, he again being within the intrenchments of
Richmond. Recurring to the idea of going to Richmond on the inside
track, the facility of supplying from the side away from the enemy
is remarkable, as it were, by the different spokes of a wheel,
extending from the hub toward the rim, and this whether you move
directly by the chord, or on the inside arc, hugging the Blue Ridge
more closely. The chord-line, as you see, carries you by Aldie,
Haymarket, and Fredericksburg, and you see how turnpikes,
railroads, and finally the Potomac by Aquia Creek, meet you at all