The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-28 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

(From an Occasional Correspondent of the Times.)
RICHMOND, April 21.
Upon my return here I find that the clerks, male
and female, employed in the clipping and signing
of Confederate Treasury notes have been ordered to
report at Columbia, South Carolina, where the notes
are printed, and that the employes in the Second
Auditor's bureau have been transferred to Mont-
gomery, Alabama, the town in which the Provi-
sional Government was originally organised. This
step has been taken, as I learn from the most trust-
worthy sources, in consequence of the scarcity of
provisions in Richmond, which, since the beginning
of the war, hag at once been a besieged city and a
city of refuge and resort. The deficiency of trans-
portation arising from the deterioration of the rail-
way lines and the deficiency of food in Virginia
arising from the occupancy of important grain-
growing districts by the enemy, to say nothing of
the presence here at all times of a large number of
Government employes, refugees, visitors, and per-
sons belonging to the army, render it necessary for
Government to practise the utmost economy in the
consumption of food. It is not improbable, there-
fore, that other persons connected with its service at
the capital, whose duties can be performed as well
at one place as another, will be sent to points more
convenient to supplies.
As has already been intimated, this order was
not issued at the suggestion of the War Office.
On the contrary, reasonable confidence is felt,
both in official and unofficial circles, that General
Lee will he able to give a good account of him-
self in the pending conflict. A battle between
himself and General Grant is imminent, and may
take place any day if the present dry weather
continues. During the whole of February and
the early part of March the weather was favour-
able to military operations, bat since the 15th ult.
it has been unusually wet and cold ; otherwise, it
is not improbable that General Lee would have
given his antagonist battle before this time. It is
known that General Grant, in anticipation of such
an event, is now concentrating his army in front of
General Lee, and that General Sherman is concen-
trating his at Chattanooga in front of General
Johnston. Indeed, the United States may be said
to have now only three armies in the field—the
army now assembled in Richmond, the army
in tho vicinity of Chattanooga, and the
army under General Banks in the Red
River country. The coasts, rivers, and inland
towns have been stripped of their garrisons in a
great measure, and every available man sent for-
ward for the reinforcement of these three principal
armies.

Thus, at the beginning of the fourth year of the
war, the Federal Government finds it necessary to
abandon much of the territory which its armies
have overrun, in the vain hope that by massing
great bodies of men, and hurling them upon parti-
cular points, they may be able to reach a vital part
of the Confederacy. But the truth is, the Confe-
deracy, like Milton's archangel, has no vital part;
it is instinct with equal life and resistance through-
out all its parts and members. The possession of
Richmond, as of New Orleans and Chattanooga,
would certainly not be without its advantages to
General Grant ; but, aside from its moral effect here
and on the other side of tht Potomac, the evacua-
tion of the town by the Confederates, and the with-
drawal of their army further south, where it would
be more convenient to supplies, world be a positive
benefit to them. The necessity of defending Rich-
mond has always been asource of embarrassment to
General Lee, as well as a work of exceeding diffi-
culty, owing to the peculiar geographical configura-
tion of Eastern Virginia, and the want of a fleet of
gunboats. This will be apparent to the intelligent
reader upon an inspection of the map, without which
all military speculations are so much vain verbiage.
But it st oald not be inferred from what is here said
that the authorities have any thought of abandon-
ing the capital, or that the country is without
strategic points of great importance.
Intelligence received here within ahe last few
days has, it is believed, put the Confederate autho-
rities in full possession of General Grant's plan of
campaign in Virginia. It is now understood. that
he will move on Richmond with three columns—
at any rate with two, each one moving by a different
route and having a distinct base. The first under
General Grant hirns,lf will move from the line of
the Rappahannock; the second under General
Butler will move from Fortress Monroe by way of
the peninsula, following the route that M'Clellan
took, and the third, led by General Burnside, and'
consisting of the corps he is assembling at Anna- I
polis, will operate on the south side of James River,
and seek to cut the railway line leading southward
at Petersburg or Meldon. Shoald the movement
be made with two columns instead of three, then
Burnside will take the place of Butler, and advance
up the peninsula. Such, at least, is the information
received here from sources considered worthy of
confidence. But the question occurs, will General
Lee wait on his adversary, and give him tier
complete his combinations, or will he P ne to
.
offensive, and strike him in detail 9 .-sum© the
e A few days,
this interesting inqni-
acing us an answer to
the weather permitting, will "

Som© additio-
rcgird to '

gal intelligence has come to hand in

,ae late operations in the Trans-Missis•

sip"

_ ca, Department, alluded to in my letter of the
14th inst. A telegram dated at Mobile yesterday
says ;—" Western despatches report a battle at
Mansfield, in north-western Louisiana, April 8,
in which the Federals under General Banks were
defeated with a Joss of 8,000 men. General E.
Kirby Smith captured 35 guns, 200 waggons, and
2,000 prisoners. The Federals admit a defeat.
Generals Mouton and Polignae were severely
wounded. General Steele (Federal) is surrounded
on the Little Missouri river awaiting reinforce-
ments." Whether the particulars here given are
correct or not it is impossible to say; though there
are certain features of the report, such as the
wounding of Generals Mouton and Polignac, who
are known to have been with General Smith, and
the location of the battle at Mansfield, at which
place General Banks would probably have arrived
about the Bth of April, which induce the belief in
official circles here that Banks has met with a seri-
ous disaster, especially since some of the Northern
newspapers admit a defeat, and say the accounts
have been suppressed at New Orleans. As the
Federal army occupies much of the country lying
between Mansfield and the Mississippi, it may be
some days before a full and circumstantial account of
the battle can percolate through their lines, and the
wide network of rivers, bayous, swamps, and cane-
brakes by which that distant region is reticulated,
and in which General Banks, if he be not careful,
will became inextricably entangled. General Polig-
nac is the son of the late Prince Polignac, of France,
and has been in the service of the Confederates
since the first year of the war. He was present with
the French army at the siege of Sebastopol, and
took part in the operations which preceded the re-
duction of that stronghold.

General Forrest, after the fall of Fort Pillow on
the 12th inst., of which you ware advised by my
last letter, held the work for some days, and
then proceeded to demolish it. The heavy guns
by which it was defended, were thrown into
the Mississippi, or rendered unfit for service,
and the military stores removed, after which be
withdrew his command to Jackson, in Western
Tennessee, where he has established his head-
quarters. Lower down the great river Colonel
Powers, with 200 men, dashed into Port Hudson
on the 7th inst., capturing some guns and prisoners,
and inflicting considerable loss in killed and
wounded, considering the number of men in his
command. The European reader will kn3w what
estimate to place upon the extravagant stories with
which the papers of the United States abound in
regard to the treatment of the garrison at Fort
Pillow by General Forrest. They remind one of
the fables so extensively circulated just after the
first battle of Manassas.
To the foregoing instances of SUCCESS and activity
on the part of the Confederates I have now to add
an important advantage gained yesterday by Bri-
g idier-General Hoke, at Plymouth, on Albemarle
Sound, in Eastern North Carolin,t. Telegrams re-
ceived at the War-office last night and this morning
state that he had carried the place by storm, though
defended by strong permanent fortifications, and

had taken 2,500 prisoners and 400 negroes, in•
eluding one Brigadier-General, 30 pieces of artil-
lery, 100,000 lb. of bacon and beef, 1,000 barrels of
flour, and a fall garrison outfit. The Confederate
ironclad Albemarle, which was built on tho Roan-
oake River, and received the last plates of her
armour only a few hours before the expedition
started, co-operated in the attack, and per-
formed an important part in the redaction of the
place, having sunk two Federal gunboats, disabled
a third, and captured a small steamer. The entire
garrison, numbering about 3,000, was taken, killed,
or wounded, with an estimated loss on the part of the
Confederates of 300. The force with which General
Hoke performed this handsome feat did not exceed
5,000 men. After carrying the outer works he sent
in a demand for a surrender, bat the Federal officer
declined to comply. The demand was renewed after
the destruction of the gunboats, and again an answer
in the negative was returned. An assault was then
ordered, when the men rushed forward with a shout,
cleared the ramparts at a bound, and enforced a
compliance with the demand at the point of their
glittering bayonets. The negroes were the first, as
usual, to throw down their arms and run forward
with uplifted hands to surrender. It is now impro-
bable that Hake will push on to Washington and
Newbern, on the head waters of Pamlico Sound, the
two moat important towns after Wilmington, in
that part of North Carolina.

Thus you perceive with what zeal and energy
these resolute people enter upon the campaign of
1864. In no instance since January 1 have they
struck a blow in which they were not successful,
and in no case have the Federals advanced from
btrhoeky have not been checked
en series of successes has
tohr edi re
fwe
aatteedr. bases
This t haant
the morale of the army,
had
which,h
fromappy
all eifc
was never so good as it is
at this time. It may be added here that Gels. Beau
effect upon
poli
accounts,
regard has been ordered to North Carolina, and that
he will take command of the forces in that State
and Virginia, south of James River. So Gen. Burn-
side, if he should land on the south side of the
James, will find a lion in his path.
Turning from military affairs to other topics, the
English reader will pardon me for saying that the
publication in Great Britain of the forged report
Mallory, of the Confederate navy
od fe
plNalrrt.mS Secretary taatird,
especially, the readiness, if not
eagerness, with which it was accepted as genuine
by Earl Russell when Mr. Adams sent him a copy
of it, has produced a' painful impression in this
country. The
document contained internal
evidence of its spurious character ; but, if it had
not, the Confederates think Mr. Adams
said enough in the opening paragraph of his de-
spatch to the chief of the Foreign office to put the
latter upon his guard as to the origin and character
of the paper. the latter does not seem, however,
to have had his suspicious awakened k, on the con-
trary, he peruses the counterfeit report, accepts it
as genuine, and promises to remonstrate with the
Confederates for their naughty conduct. If Eirl
Russell was misled, were Mr. Adams and his
Government misled also ? If not, the Confederates
are curious to know how Englishmen will regard
such a wicked attempt to deceive their Government,
and prejudice themselves against a people who are
engaged in a death-struggle for their liVes and
liberties. And what eetimate they ask, is to be
placed upon the character of a Government and a
Minister who resort to such reprehensible means for
the accomplishment of their purposes ?

A person on this side of the A tlantio, who is
familiar with the tricks and subterfuges of the
Northern Government fled its agents, is emszed at
the credulity with which their representations of
the conduct and designs of the Conf•-tierate autho-
rities are received by intelligent Europeans ; but if
any one had said that the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs of the first Power in the world could have
been imposed upon by each a shallow device as that
of the clumsy forgery is question, not even the Con-
federates, who have not much faith in the professed
neutrality of the noble earl, would have believed it
for ono moment. 83 far from Mr. Mallory having
been the author of such a report as that falsely
ascribed to him, I have the highest authority for
saying that ho has never written, much leas sent
in, any report whatever to Congress. This re-
ticence on his part was the dictate of pruden-
tial conbiderrltions alone; for he could hardly
hope to commit to print the plans by which he
sought to provide his Government with a navy, or
the nurnber and description of the vessels he was
huild:ng, or the waters in which they were to cruise,
without the information at some time reaching the
0-let:ray against whom they were to be used. The
propriety of his conduct in this respect finds a happy
illustration iu the history of the ironclad Albemarle,
which rendered such important services a few days
ago at Plymouth, and ejl:
the previous existence of
which the enenl; had but little, if any, knowledge.
The di°74insal by the Rouse of Lords of the appeal
in the
rase of the Alexandra, a bare report of wbieh
^
.s just been received, has given much satisfaction
in Richmond. The people here say that your Go
vernment ought to allow them to have the remains
ing rams to meet the Irish recruits, whom they
allow Mr. Lincoln to have, and that if Government
will do this, they do not care whether they recoga
nise the Confederacy or not. They may be. want-
ing in the faculty of perception, but they say they
cannot see the justice of permitting Mr. Lincoln,
without let or hindrance, to replenish his wasted
and beaten armies on British soil, while the poor
Confederates are forced to run the gauntlet of all
the Courts in the kingdom before they are allowed
to bring out an unarmed ram. If the law
has been
evaded in the matter of the rams, has it not been
evaded in the matter of the recruits also not
the evasion in the one case as bad as the evasion in
the other ? And, as an effort has been made to
stop the sailing of the rams, ought not the Kim;
persistent effort to be made to stop the sailing of
Tz'rnes
the recruits ? These queries are propounded every
day by the people one to another, and, beingunable
to answer them myself, I send them to the
that Government and its friends may have an op-
portunity to make a fitting reply to them.
The negotiations for the removal of
belonging to the French Government have
concluded, ald some of the vessels which are to take
•
it hence have already arrived at Chty Point, a few
miles below Richmond, on James River. The
Confederate authorities have never interposed any
objection to the removal of the tobacco,
States, the difficulty
which have
being on the part of the United the tobaccobeen
at last given their consent.
Some of the tobacco,
of which there are nearly 6,000 hogsheads, was
bought before the war nommen"d ' and some of it
will not stop
since. The vessels taking it
out at
any Federal port, nor will they pay any duties
on the tobacco.
Official information has just been received of the
capture of a Federal gunboat on the Yazoo River
by Wirt Adams's cavalry, and her complete destruc-
tion after the removal of her guns and stores.

original E ; A
pressM I N
at
whiFRANKLIN'Sch
Benjamin PRINTING PRESS.—The
Franklin worked, Mr
Wyman, of the firm of Cox and Wyman, has kindly pre-
sented to the Patent Museum. This press was for many
years in the printing-office in Great Queen-street (the
printing-office of the Builder, by the way), and it is even
believed that Franklin worked in that office, which is the
oldest established printing-house in London.—Buildsr,
A MILL BURNT Dows NEAR HALIFAX.—On
Thursday morriinE,P, about 7 o'clock, a fire broke out
in the dule room of Mr Outram'3 mill, Greetland, near
Halifax, and by S o'clock it was burnt to the ground. The
fire is supposed to have begun by fire hard substance pass-
ing through the dule, and by friction producing a spark,
The workpeople were upon the premises, and some of them
had a narrow escape, so rapidly did the flames extend. The
fire originated in the bottom room of the mill, which was
five storeys, and was occupied by three or four tenants. The
damage is stated to be £7,000. The building and some of
the stock are insured. . _

notwmeevnetr acnardefPuill lms ,a—n
Ha[pAppyv inirteTalltshE.lEHNTO.w]ever illl
p
may be, he is still destined to be assailed by sickness, and
it is wisdom to be provided with a remedy against such a
—°:olvviadYens t(, )
calamity. The ointment and pills discovered by Professor
Holloway are acknowledged by every person who has tried
them to possess the highest merits in curing all outward
diseases and other maladies resulting, from violence, ex-
posure, mineral poisons, or scrofulous taints. This oint-
ment heals all ductiptions of ulcers and sub lues ioilar..tria-
tions. These pills purify and strengthen : and thus, even
in moderately good health, occasional doses of them prove
highly beneficial by their tendency to preserve the body
from impurities and weaknesses, wlicuee serious ailments
frequently arise.