The Express.
London, England, 1864-08-30 00:00:00

MTr re

LONDON, TUESDAY EVXNING, AUGUST 80, 1884.

AMERICA.

(fox ova 111.30L161.

NEW YOBS, Almon 14.

The news from Mobile continues to occupy
publics attention almost to the exclusion of every-
thing else. Nothing has as yet been received from
Admiral Farragut, but the despatches which are
published in the Richmond papers, and which are
regularly forwarded to the War-office by General
Butler, are as full and explicit as could be desired.
The main facts are that Farragut has forced the
entrance to the harbour, has destroyed the whole
Confederate flotilla (except one gunboat), including
the famous iron-clad rani the Tennessee, of which
the Confederacy entertained great expectations, and
this has been followed by the evacuation of Fort
Powell and the surrender of Fort Gaines, a very
strong work, provisioned, according to the Rich-
mond Enquirer, for six months, and garrisoned by
600 men. The Tennessee was the most formidable
ironclad yet constructed by the Confederates, and
her loss is doubtless a great mortification. The
Richmond despatch says she was destroyed after
a "desperate engagement." Admiral Buchanan, in
command of the flotilla, bar been captured,
with the loss of a leg. He is the anise
who commanded the Merrimac in her
famous onslaught on the frigates Cumberland
and Congress, in Hampton Roads, in the spring of
1862, and afterwards in the conflict with the Moni-
tor. He was badly wounded on that occasion also.
The surrender of the town of Mobile does not
follow as a matter of course upon these successes.
The whole line of the harbour up to the town is
lined with batteries, and at the upper end the
larger vessels of Farragut's fleet cannot take part in
the attack, owing to the shallowness of the water.
But it is most likely that the Monitors, of which
Farragut has now three—one having, according to
the Confederate account, been sunk—will, with
the gunboats, suffice for the remainder of the work,
particularly as the capture of Forts Powell and
Gaines will enable the land forces to co-operate by
continuing their advance along the shore. This
force is not large, but, on the other hand, neither
is that of the enemy, and it is not likely that
Hood, from whom only reinforcements can be
drawn, will venture to weaken himself at present
in order to reinforce the garrison of the town.
Report says that the place is held mainly
by militia, nearly all the regular troops
having been sent to Atlanta some time
ago, and there is every probability that
such is the case. The account. agree in describing
the fortifications of Mobile as very strong, and of
immense extent. The shores of the bay bristle
with them, and in fact every approach that the
Federala are likely to take has been covered with
earthworks. But to hold them all would require a
very large army, instead of a few brigades, com-
posed mainly of militia; and a large army is some-
thing which the Confederates cannot spare just now,
either for the defence of Mobile or any other points
besides Richmond and Atlanta. Thia is the third
time that Farragut has carried a fleet past forts
which the Confederates believed impassable. By
the first he captured New Orleans ; by running
past the batteries at Port Hudson he assisted ma-
terially in the reduction of Vicksburg ; and if his
"running past" at Mobile should lead to the
fall of the place be will unquestionably be
entitled to some share of the credit of the
capture of Atlanta, should it be captured. His
successes are a striking illustration of the value of
strong faith in war as well as in other things. He
has unbounded faith in wooden ships and big guns,
and cannot be persuaded that any fort can bar
their progress. Ile has never had ironclads under
his orders before, and has not had a very high
opinion of their capabilities ; but an officer who
saw him a day or two before the attack on Mobile
tells me that he was in great glee over the prospect
of using them in this affair, and was determined to
test their attacking as well as resisting capacity to
the uttermost.

The importance of these operations is due much
less to the destruction of the Confederate flotilla
than to the probable effect of the capture of Mobile
upon the operations at Atlanta. Mobile once
taken, it would become a " water-base" for Sher-
man, the thing of all others which be moat
needs, in ceder to secure his position in Georgia.
Gunboats could then ascend the Alabama River
as far as Montgomery, the capital of the
State, which could be fortified and made
a aecopdary base like Chattanooga, from
which movements might be made against the
remaining points of importance in the south-east,
which are not already assailable from the sea. I
am assured that the plan of attack on Mobile is
Sherman's, and that he has always considered the
capture of that place as the complement of his
movement on Atlanta, and essential to its perma-
nent success. Accordingly, ever since General
Canby took Banks's place in command of the
army in Louisiana, be has been busily engaged
in organising the bind fore, which has accompanied
the fleet, and I believe be is himself in command
of it. This bas, of course, led to the withdrawal
of a large part of the troops previously stationed
along the Mississippi, and that of Arkansas River,
and the guerillas are consequently more active
in those regions than they have been for some time
past. The negroes on the leased plantations are
often murdered, and also persons suspected of
Union opinions, or who have taken the
oath of allegiance under the Banks' regime ;
and steamers on the Mississippi are frequently fired
on. It is curious to see, however, with what
frantic eagerness the Times and its correspondents
rush to the conclusion, based on these facts, that
" the Federal conquests in the south-west are
rapidly passing from their grasp." As I have
often said before, outrages by guerillas will only
cease when the war is over, or, in other words,
when the South ceases to have any large organised
force in the field. The guerillas, in all taws in 1
which they are not mere brigands, plundering and
murdering persona of all shades of opinion alike,
are simlpy acting as auxiliaries to the armies of
Hood and Lee. It is in order that the Federals
may have greater difficulty in operating against
there gentlemen that such worthies as McNeely and
Qusntrell continue to rob and assassinate. If
the armies at Richmond were not in existence,
however, two-thirds of them would undoubtedly go
home, for most of them have sense enough to know
that the Southern Confederacy cannot be eata-
bliahed by isolated attacks on farms and houses.
Those who kept the field longer would be the mere
robbers, deserters from both armies, and scamps
of all climes and creeds, whom the civil war has
enabled to gratify their instincts with comparative
impunity. ♦ residuum of this sort is 'at by every

war in every country which happens to be the
theatre of it ; but its existence proves little for the
progression of a country in a military sense. The
South has abandoned all pretence to hold the south-
west on this aide of the Mississippi by regular
armies, and as long as this is the aims it is puerile
to pretend that because it is haunted by robbers
whom the Northern armies cannot control,
that therefore the North has lost its hold of it.

I can see by the tone of the newspapers that you
are labouring in England under a reaction from the
deep impression produced by the vigour of Grant's
onslaught at the opening of the campaign, and that
there is now a general disposition to behove that
because Richmond has not been captured the cense
of the North is once more hopeless. I can only say
that here there is not the shadow of a tendency to
take a gloomy view of the situation amongst those
who ever took a hopeful one. Ido not think that
the Northern public was ever one jot less confident
of final success, or less determined to persevere, than
it is at this moment, and the events of the campaign,
though they have not been such as many people
I hoped for at the outset, have certainly not been
such, so far, as to cause any despondency. There
has been but one disaster—that of Banks in Loui-
siana ; but it had no result beyond the ices of men
and material: Thi 7•611141 bare nowhere der'
recoiled one step, while ate at leant of the two
great armies has been making a triumphal pro-
gress into the very heart of the enemy's territory.
Grant has not taken Richmond, but he threatens
it more closely than it has ever been threatened
before. The great " invasion " of Pennsylvania
turns out to be a mere " raid," or else a very feeble
Attempt to cause a diversion. M'Causland's
cavalry, which occupied Chambenburg, has been
overtaken and defeated in Virginia by Averill with
the loss of four guns and all their baggage. And
if Mobile and Atlanta fall, as seems likely, it would
be bard to say what more brilliant or fruitful
result, for the summer's work, the North could
have wished for. In short, it is worse than raah—
it is foolish—in a war like this, ever to attempt to
pass judgment on a campaign until its close. Next
November will be the time to sum up the gains and
losses of both aides, and pronounce positively
whether or not the Federals have been justified in
persevering through another season, but not sooner-
If at that time it can be fairly said that the Fede-
ral' have gained no ground, and the Confederates
lost none, the doubters will be indeed justified in
doubting, or something stronger ; but I still think
that not only will this not be the case, but that, as
I have more than onoesaid, this campaign, if it does
not close the war, will make the end perfectly plain.