The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-20 00:00:00

THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

(From the Social Correspondent of the Times.)
RICHMOND, Dec. 14.
It is not too early to pass in brief review the
military history of the Federal and Confederate
States during the current year, and to strike the
balance of substantial success gained during its con-
tinuance by either side. lam far from saying that
military operations daring the present winter are
finally suspended, but in my belief no immediate
importance will attach to any campaigns attempted
between the present time and the month of April
next, unless they happen to include a large ship-
ment of Federal troops to Charleston, to Norfolk, or
some other Southern port. It is evident that the
Confederate authorities, represented substantially
by President Davis and General Lee, are at this
moment awaiting the developments of Federal stra-
tegy before their own plans for the winter are ulti-
mately fixed ; but, at the same time, the indications
of the hour lead me to anticipate that the great
campaign of next spring will not be in Eastern
Virginia, but along the line stretching from Western
Virginia to the Mississippi River. It is more and
more evident that if ever again the Confederates are
strong enough to make an aggressive movement
upon the North, the route heretofore selected,
through Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg into
Maryland and Pennsylvania, will be attempted no
more. It is seen and felt that another of the old
cries which have been on both sides freely yen.
tilated, and still more freely discarded during
this war, is " played out" in the glare of the
stern experience taught by facts. " Peace must be
dictated on Pennsylvanian soil" has been a strophe
of the South ; in answer to which have been sung
no less fallacious Northern antistrephes, affirmative
of a vast amount of imprisoned Union sentiment
in North Carolina, Arkansas, and elsewhere, and
boastful of the advantages of free navigation of the
3.lississippi, which has hitherto involved the destruc-
tion of 20 fine steamers by the hand of the incen-
diary and the suspension of all insurance upon boats
navigating the great river, Both sides have hugged
and cherished delusions, and to a consciousness that
they were delusions both sides are, I believe, awak-
ing. It seems to be recognised as a fact that if
peace be ever conquered by the Southerners it must
be, not in Pennsylvania or Maryland, but on the
banks of the Ohio river. It seems to be beginning
to be understood by the North that even if Rich-
mond, Atlanta, and Charleston are taken, the great
political problem of dealing with 8 or 10 La Vendees
is but commencing, and is regarded everywhere
except in Washington as defying solution.
The opening year found Gen. Lee's army, number-
ing about 70,000 bayonets and 8,000 cavalry lying in
its old and proud position above Fredericksburg.
It was seen that there would be difficulty in provi-
sioning so large an army in bare and devastated
Northern Virginia, and Gen. Longetrect with 25,000
men was detailed to occupy the neighbourhood cf
Suffolk, to scour the counties of Virginia and North
Carolina, which adjoin the Blackwater and Chowan
Rivers, and to gather np corn and pork. High as
is my estimate of Gen. Longstreet's value as a sol-
dier, I cannot but admit that disappointment was
experienced in Richmond by reason of his failure to
effect more at Suffolk, when trusted for the first
time with an independent command. It is asserted
that he exhibited inactivity in investing instead of
pouncing upon Suffolk, and that he was still slower
in taking up stales when recalled by Gen. Lee to
assist at the battle of Chancelloraville. The year,
as will be thus seen, opened with what is re-
garded in high quarters here as a failure of Gen,
Longstreet's at Suffolk, and it has closed with
another imputed miscarriage of his at Knoxville,
It seems to me, however, to be forgotten by most of
General Longstreet's countrymen, exasperated by
their galling sense of the bitter burden of war, that
even if he fhiled at Suffuik and Knoxville, they
have to thank him and his noble troops alone for
the great victory at Chicamauga and for unsur-
passed gallantry en the bloody field of Gettysburg.
When the fact is remembered that from the first
day when he joined the Confederate army before
131111 Run up to the present date General Lon gst reet
has never been off duty for an hour, but hes faced
death in every form upon the perilous edge of a
thousand battles and skirmishes, it may well be that
empirics who fight arm-chair campaigns in Rich-
mond, Washington, or London may feel themselves
abashed into momentary silence.
The first blow delivered by the Federats in 1803
fell at Charleston. Mr. Se svard's despatches through-
out the latter winter had mitigated the influence of
the battle of Fredericksburg by loud promises to
Eerope of crushing damage to the rebellion in the
spring, and the fanfares of General Hooker about
his army as " the finest oa the planet" were but
echoes of Northern pans over the irresistible
armada which was to pulverise resistance at Charles-
ton. On the 7th of April the Ironsides and her
eight mailed sisters shot their bolt, and in less than
two hours retired, leaving the bones of the Keokuk

at the bottom of Charleston harbour. And here I
may take leave of Charleston by stating that the
siege, commencing with the attack of the 7th of
April, has not been intermitted until the present
hour. An onslaught, far in 're formidable than
that of the 7th of April, though less noticed by
chronicles, was made against Sumter in August,

after the Confederate evacuation of Morris

Island. It and all similar onslaughts have
been unsuccessful, and although the 200th day
of the siege is now approaching, and although
Fort Sumter is dismantled as an artillery fortress,
General Giimore and Admiral Dahlgren are, it may
confidently be affirmed, further this day from taking
Charleston than they were on the 7th of April. It
is true that Fort Sumter has long ceased to be mate-
rial as a point to be occupied or retained ; the Fecle-
rats want it for the name of the thing, and in their
efforts to take it have lavished nearly as much
money as England and France spent in reducing
Sebastopol. The Confederates hold it with grim
obstinacy, and with all the sullen pride of the Game-
cock State; but, as a moral spectacle, history has
few sublimer scenes to exhibit than a fortress
crumbling into ruin, rent by 1,000 tons of shot, with
guns dismounted and buried, with casemates shat-
tered, yet clung to and occupied to the last by its
indomitable little garrison. It has been well re-
marked that the illustrious defence of Jellalabad
and of the Residency at Lucknow are the only
modern parallels to the retention of Fort Sumter;
but it must be remembEred that in the two former
cases the garrisons had no loophole for escape,
whereas in the latter the value of Fort Sumter has
long been merely moral, and it has been held against
prodigious odds and with desperate tenacity " for
the name of the thing."
The interest of the operations against Charleston
had scarcely died away in April when the storm-
cloud, ridden and guided by General Hooker, burst
with terrific fury upon the head of General Lee.
Few who witnessed from the interior of the Confe-
deracy the tumultuous gathering of the elements
during the last few days of April will forget their
fearful menace and the anxiety of that perilous
crisis. There were but two men of mark in the
little "Rebel" army of North Virginia, who, when
the tempest smote them, were dauntless and un-
ruffled, and to them was happily committed the
guidance of the Confederate bark through the
eye of the storm. It is now matter of history how
Gen. Lee breasted its waves, and how " Stonewall"
Jackson gave limb and life to execute his beloved
chief's instructions, tat for the death-wound of
General Jackson and the /fiches of one Confederate
General, a victory as erowninv as Worcester, as
crushing as Marengo, would have rewarded Gen.
Lee's heroic little army ; and though hereafter the
tale of battles may be indefinitely swelled, it is my
beiief that Chaneellorsville, conspicuous
among,
all
his other battles, will confer upon Gen. Lee such
foino as Leuthen gave to the great Frederick, or
Saler" anca secured for our own immortaiwellin ;ton.
Then arose one of those embarrase.ments which are
inseparable from carrying on war from hand to
mouth, and with the restricted resources at the cern.
rnand of the Confederate States. It was inmedi.
ately determined " to carry the war into Africa," the
more so when at the commencement of June the peril
of Vicksburg became patent to President Davis. For
three weeks General Lee's advance into Pennsyl-
vania was hindered by the irapossibiiity of get,
Ling together sufficient supplies to enable him to