The Virginian campaign has begun. General Meade has crossed the
Rapidan, and his head-quarters on Thursday, the 5th May, were at the Wilderness, a town about six miles west by north from Chancellorsville (the scene of General Hooker's defeat), his left resting on Chancellorsville and his right on Germania Ford, where he had crossed the Rapidan. General Lee's army appears to have been west of the Northern army, and in the direction of Orange Court House. In the meantime Generals Butler and Smith are ad- vancing towards Richmond by the James River, having landed their force at City Point, and are opposed by General Beauregard with, it is said, 30,000 men. The Federal General Sigel with a large force is also marching up the Shenandoah Valley, and had, it is said, reached Stanton, so that the approach to Richmond is being made from three quarters simultaneously. Unimportant fighting of a. mere preliminary kind had taken place. General Sherman's troops at Chattanooga are also, it is said, on the march against General Johnstone's force at Dalton, Georgia, so we may look for important news, one way or the other, soon.
