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

write :

" I went yesterday evening (the 15th) to Fort Sumter.
It was a most interesting expedition• The Federals use a
powerful calcium light at Battery Gregg, with which they
illuminate Sumter to such a degree that it is impossible for
steamers to go up to the wharf at night as they used to go,
and we had to land in row boats. They were shelling very
rapidly, and it became most exciting when we neared the
fort, especially when we came into the glare of the calcium
light, and they could see us. No accident befel us, how-

ever, as went we in, and once inside the place, and in the
bombproofs, we were perfectly safe. The bombprooofs are
lofty and spacious, and well ventilated. The last bombard-

meat has not injured them in the slightest degree; indeed,
they are, if anything, really stronger than before, from the
amount of the dgris knocked down upon them. Major
Elliot, the commandant, was kind enough to take me out
into the area and on to the parapet, to show me the effects
of the bombardment—a courtesy, by-the-by, which con-
sidering the lively way in which shells were flying about
us, was indicative of very genuine politeness. We had not

been half a minute in the area when one of the lookouts
got his jaw broken with a bit of shell, and we had hardly
gut back when another poor fellow was brought in with
two-thirds of his head knocked off, Tinder the circum-
stances, we did not stay long ; still, I had time enough to
take a good look round and see all I wished. The place is
undoubtedly very much injured ; indeed, it is hardly pos-
sible to do the walls any further damage. The sea front is
almost entirely knocked into the area, and you can now
walk up from the area to the top of the walls which once
faced the sea. The wall which they battered so in August

is now the best one left; it retains pretty well its original
height. It is the part of the building which originally
contained the officers' quarters, and was made pretty solid
between April and August by filling up every vacuum with
sand. The side towards the city has also, comparatively,
suffered little. The casualties in the fort are seldom heavy,
and arise from the men exposing themselves carelessly. The
sentinels, most of whom have to be posted at night, have
mostly a shelter into which they can dodge when they see
a shell coming. The men are very anxious that the Federals
should try another assault. On our return from the fort
we were again pelted with all kinds of missiles, even with
grape this time ; and one of our boatmen got hit in the
hand, and another in the back, though very slightly. You
must not suppose that the Federals are always so attentive
to visitors calling at Fort Sumter ; it was only my particular
luck that they should be so on the night in question."

Nov. 28.
In my recent letters regarding the battle of
Chicamauga, it will have been observed that I have
not been able to refrain from severe censure of Gen.
Bragg for his failure to improve the great opportu-
nity of the war, and for once to realise a crowning
victory. I have no disposition to expect impossi-
bilities from Generals, to clamour lightly for their
removal, to overlook the amazing difficulties which
surround them, and which are such as to make this
war and its incidents impossible of comprehension
to an European observer ; nor do I count upon all

but unchecked success for the party with which,

after 14 months' residence in Secessia, it cannot but
be that my sympathies are enlisted. Furthermore
it is nothing more than justice to President Davis
to acknowledge his judicious disinclination to emu-
late the example of his antagonists, and his wise
dislike to frequent changes of his Generals. There
are, moreover, special reasons which commend
General Bragg to the favourable consideration of
all thoughtful men—such as his personal purity of
character, his lofty indifference to popularity, his
disrespect of persons, his indomitable self-reliance
in bringing every man in his command, whether
general officer or private to book, if guilty of any
military delinquincy, Nor can any one be blind to
the fact that it is a matter of no slight perplexity
and difficulty to find a successor to Gen. Bragg. At
no moment since the commencement of the war has
there been such pressing and urgent need for that
strange and earnest enthusiast who alone among
their Generals has ever stirred to its lowest depths
the whole heart of the Confederate people, and
whose grave I lately saw " larded with sweet
flowers" at Lexington, in the bosom of the beautiful
valley of Virginia. But if at this moment no Stone-
wall Jackson be found to answer to his country's
call, there are left to us, in addition to Gen. Lee, at
least two or three Generals whose influence at the
tread of Gen. Bragg's army would at this moment
be stirring and electric. With Gen. Bragg in com-
mand there will never, I fear, be enthusiasm in his
troops, and without enthusiasm battles cannot be
fought and won against largely superior numbers
and in the teeth of the immense advantages in abun-
dance of supply, facility of transportation, and
quality of war material possessed by the Fsderals.
These criticisms upon Gen. Bragg gather force and
point from the condition of affairs as they now stand
nesr Chattanooga, compared with their condition on
the night of Sept. 20 and for several days afterwards.
It is urged by the defenders and advocates of Gen.
Bragg that no battle since the commencement of
the war has produced greater results than the
battle of Chicamaug t. It has compelled the Fedee
rals to scrape together troops from every wind
under Heaven, to abandon other enterprises, and
to relax their grip upon many material guarantees
which they had secured. It has relieved the ribs of
the States of Mississippi and Louisiana from the
pressure and molestation to which their length
of boundary, stretching for hundreds of
miles along the Father of Waters, exposed
them. It has protected Mobile and the State of
Alabama, Atlanta, and the State of Georgia. It has
given a new aspect to Confederate affairs in Europe,
which was incredulous as to the possibility of fur
ther Confederate resistance, and blinded and gulled
by the ceaseless and unchecked inpouring of Yankee
mendacity. It has paralysed Federal activity in
the trans-Mississippi Department, and forces the
Washington Cabinet to turn a deaf ear to General
13 Inks's earnest solicitations for reinforcements to
enable him to retain his grasp upon the Rio Grande,
in opposition to the whole State of Texas, which
seems about to turn on him in earnest. It has
weakened General Meade, and depleted his force ;
it has decapitated General Rosen cranz, whom many
persons north and south (and among them General
Bragg) regard a 3 the greatest captain whom the
Federals have ever followed. All this it has done ;
but the consciousness how much more, if rightly
fructified, it might have done saddens many a heart
when to the long list of " lost opportunities" which
have signalised this war is added, in spite of all
hat it has done, the name of the Battle of Chica-

mauga.

From east, from west, from north Federal rein-
farcements have poured into Chattanooga—Hooker
from the army of Virginia ; Sherman from tne
army which took Vicksburg ; Grant, in possess-
sion of the supreme command, with rakings from
Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and from across the
Mississippi ; and yet I have the best reasons for
stating that Grant's entire army when it commenced
its recent operations against Bragg did not number
85,000 men. Before I leave finally and for ever the
subject of the battle of Chickamauga and its com-
parative fruitlessness, let me ask the reader to con-
sider what would have been this day the condition
of the Federals if, on the night of the 20th of Sep-
tember, the Federal army which fought the battle
of Chickamauga had lost out of its entire force
of 60,000 03211 not one-third (which was the actual
loss), but three-fourths ? This, I fearlessly assert,
might have been the result attained, without risk
or the possibi ity of discomfiture. I again repeat
that nothing like the Federal disorganisation and
panio has been seen since Bull Run. For the failure
to attain this result I cannot see that any other per-
son is censurable than General Bragg ; nor can I
see that his plans since the end of September up to
the present week have been marked by sagacity.
There can be very little question that Longstreet's
operations against Knoxville would have been es-
sayed ue.der vastly better auspices if they had been
commenced immediately after Chicamauga. Again,
it seems to me to have been useless for Bragg, when
he had lost Racoon Mountain and Lookout Valley,
to strive to retain possession of Lookout Mountain,
which was of little use when the possession by the
Federals of Racoon Mountain enabled Grant to
transport supplies from Bridgeport to a point within