The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-31 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Time? Correspondent.)

GLIFTON•HOIISE, NIAGARA FALLS, Aug. 15.
'The opposition of Mr Lincoln's re-election gathers
et rength every day. Even the great M'Clellan
m. 3 eting at New York, imposing in numbers and
ex berant in enthusiasm, proved to be more of an
ant ..•Lincoln demonstration than an expression of
sympathy with the name and character of him in
who se behalf it was summoned. The General con--
tin u es to be a " war democrat," while the bulk of

the eemocracy is not simply drifting but rushing

into peace. New York is always influential, but in
the approaching contest it will not be all powerful.
The 'West and North-West have become weary of
the war, and while the commercial metropolis may
send its thousands and tens of thousands into Unions
square, to listen to brass bands playing " Yankee
Doodle" and " The Star-spangled Banner ;" to gaze
at rockets and transparencies, and shout for a name
—which they are always ready to do—whether the
name be Butler, M' Clellan, Grant, or, if he were
successful, Jefferson Davis,—the outlying States of
the Union, who have borne the brunt and received
none of the profits of the war, are determined either
to have change of policy or change of Presidents.
To this quiet and picturesque hotel, in Which
Northern and Southern men may meet in freedom
and on terms of perfect equality, under the safe-
guard of the British flag, there is a. daily and hourly
influz. of the leading statesmen, politicians, and
"wire pullers" of the North-Western States,to con-
sult with the three or four Southern emissaries in
eferson Davis, who have
the confidence of Mr Se
temporarily taken up their abode in Canada, and
learn from them whether compromise be not pos.
Bible, on any terms' and especially on those of an
armistice and convention of the States. As
already notified, Mr Dean Richmond may, if he
will, become the nominee on this basis of the Chicago
Convention
but he hesitates, it appears, to accept
;
the position, though he has not formally declined it.
The lerCiellan meeting has not materially altered the
conditions of the case. It was by common consent
the most numerous ever held in Sew York, and if
the vote of that city could carry the Presidential
candidate in spite of the wishes of the organised
Democracy of other States, it is probable that the
struggle would ultimately lie between Mr Lincoln
and Gen. M'Clellan. But New York State—much
less the city—cannot carry a candidate against the
North-West, and against the regularly constituted
agencies that nominate the members of the Convene
tion, which in its turn nominates the man, whom the
party is bound to support, under the usual penalties
of disruption. There is a disposition on the part of
the friends of Gen. M'Clellan to take the decision
out of the control of the partysmanagers, and if he
be not nominated by the Chicago Convention, to no.
urinate him by the people. Indeed, a threat to this
effect was ostentatiously inserted in one of the reso-
lutions passed at the meeting, but as such a proceed-
ing would hopelessly divide the Democratic party, it
is more probable that Gen: M'Clellan will accept the
Chicago platform than that the threat will become
anything more than a brutum fulmen. Among a
hundred of the most eloquent, distinguished, and in-
fluential Democrats, who were publicly announced
as favorable to the objects of the meeting and pledged
to support them by their presence and their speeches,
only three of any note appeared. The remainder
did not even think it worth their while to send writ-
ten apologies for their absence—facts which help to
show that party discipline has not been seriously re-
laxed, expectant officeholders under the new rSgiine
are true to their allegiance, and have no intention of
committing themselves to any candidate until the
Chicago Convention shall have spoken. The third
of the resolutions, which declared that the final
selection of a President "must fall on one of the
great soldiers who have distinguished themselves in
defence of the principles on which the Government
is founded," has greatly damaged the prospects of
General M'Clellan, and unless he shall at the
eleventh hour, or within ten minutes of the 12th,
resign his commission as a Major. General in the
service of an Administration that might otherwise
compel him to fight for the abolition of slavery, as
a condition precedent to peace and reunion, may
prove an impassable barrier to his nomination. To
Hay that none but a distinguished soldier shall be
President is to declare virtually for a military des-
potism, even though the declaration may be modified
by the proviso that such soldier must have drawn
his sword in favour of State rights and other fun-
damental principles of the Union. The feeling of
the Democratic leaders, and especially of those who
are pledged to support an armistice, is strong
against M'Clellan, He is held to be too timid to
suit the emergency, even if he should have the pre-
liminary courage to resign his commission. The
coming days threaten to be dark and gloomy,if not
bloody ; and a strong-minded, resolute civilian like
Mr. Dean Richmond, accustomed to manipulate the
masses, knowing the pulse of the public, thoroughly
acquainted with party mechanism in all its intri-
cacies, a man who can manage it as an engineer
van manage a steam-engine, is recognised as more
likely to be an effective President in a dangerous
crisis than a military man like M'Clellan, whose
sins, failures, and shortcomings have sprung
from excess of caution ; who had the greatest op-
portunity ever thrust by fortune into the lap of a
favourite since the days of Napoleon 1., and who
threw it away either because he did not see it or be-
cause he had not the nerve, the pluck, the tact, and
the daring to take advantage of it. In short General
M'Clellan labours under the imputation of civic
cowardice, or of a slowness and hesitancy of judg-
ment, which, by producing the same results, would
repel the co-operation of men who thoroughly ap-
preciate the fact that the country is in danger, and
that violent diseases require bold remedies. Not-
withstanding all these things, he may even yet
make himself the nominee of Chicago—but if so, he
must in a very short interval take a decided step.
He must disavow the policy of Mr Lincoln's famous
letter, "to all whom it may concern," tear off his
shoulder-straps, throw down his sword, become
again a civilian, and trust his fortunes to the ballot.
boz. By such means he shall regain the military
rank which he shall have temporarily renounced—
be not only a General, but a creator of Generals;
and, as President of the United States, Commanders
in- Chief of all the naval and military forces of the
Republic.

Meanwhile, the military agents ofthe Government
in the North• West are doing their utmost to remove
all the prominent individuals known to be opposed
to Mr. Lincoln's ro-election, and to be in favour
of making terms with the South. In Kentucky,
more especially, a complete reign of terror has been
established by two Brigadier-Generals, one named
Paine, commanding in the southern, and the other
named Burbridge, in the northern division of
that State. Under the pretence that they have
harboured guerillas, that they have given aid and I
comfort to the enemy, or the vaguer charge that
they sympathise with the South, hundreds of the
'wealthiest men in Kentucky are driven from their
homes and business, and told in the brutal language
of Burbridge—who, before he became a Brigadier-
General, was a dealer in mules and asses—to
`` go to Hell or to Canada." Choosing the plea-
santer or cooler alternative, these luckless exiles,
with their wives and families, pour into Canada via
Detroit and Windsor, and spread themselves along
the frontier from London in the west as far as Mon.
treed and Quebec in the oast. Many of them take
refuge at Niagara Falls and St. Catherine's, where
they tell sad stories of the wrongs and indignities
they have suffered, and nurse the hope of retribu-
tion, or, it may be, of vengeance, against their op.
Pre"'"- Not one of these expatriated citizens will
be allowed to return home until the Presidential
contest be deeide.d, and probably not then, unless
the Peace candidate he elected. Ono of these gen-
t] ecnen Ivßo warned by a friend to escape
to Ginsde. if he woula escape a worse fate, and
whose (Tiffin Was th'lt two of his awn were in the
Confederate army—arrived hero a few days ago,
sand narrates that he saw at the railway station at
Louisville, in Kentucky, as he passed through that
town, from 800 to 1,000 persons,principally women,
who had been banisned en masse by order of Gen.
a to At-
Sherman. In his march from Coattanoog
lanta the G meral recnpild the town of Marietta,
hurat down several cotton nod other falterioe
engaged in the production of stores clothing
't
g I

By this act nearly 1,000 people, mostly women,
were reduced to destitution. Gen. Sherman would
neither allow them to remain in Marietta, nor
transport them within the Confederate lines, but
sent them in a body, packed as close as cattle, in
the railway cars to Louisville, thence to be conveyed
across the Ohio into Indiana, to shift for themselves
as best they might. Among the number was one
old lady of 92, the grandmother of one of the factory
girls, who sat with the rest at the station without
food or shelter, under a broiling sun, waiting for
the conveyances that were to take them over the
river, and there pitch them among strangers on an
alien soil, as if they had been of no more account
than so many cartloads of refuse and rubbish. Many
of the women were sick and ill, and one was prema•
turely delivered of a stillborn child in the train. My
informant thinks that there were at least 150 young
children in this unhappy multitude, and, as far as
he knows, not a word of their fate was allowed to
appear in any of the Kentucky newspapers.
Gen. Burbridge, though he revels in the wanton-
ness of arbitrary power, acts, it appears, under the
orders of Gen. Sherman, and does perhaps no more
than his instructions warrant. He has declared his
intention to make " a wholesome example" of all
" Secessionists" and " Secession sympathisers," and
to " tolerate none but loyal men and women on the
soil of Kentucky." He is particularly scrupulous in
enforcing the law of retaliation, and will not only
have an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but
two eyes for one eye, and three lives, if he be in the
humour to exact them, as a penalty for one. Among
the specimens of his "vigour," the following may be
cited—At Georgetown, in Kentucky, a man who
was known by his fellow citizens to have been in the
Confederate army and to have deserted was recog-
nised in the streets in the Federal uniform. A
crowd gathered around him. He was accused of
treachery, laden with opprobrious epithets, and vio-
lently assaulted. He drew a revolver or some other
weapon to defend himself, and in the confusion that
ensued was shot dead. The circumstance being re.
ported by telegraph to Gen. Burb'ridge, he sent the
Provost-Marshal to the prison, where some hun-
dreds of Confederate soldiers were confined, with
orders to take out the first two " that came to
hand" and have them shot. Two unfortunates
were accordingly selected, and two coffins were
hastily prepared to receive their bodies. They were
then driven through the principal streets of the
little town, seated each man upon his coffin, to
the place of execution. As soon as they arrived a
spade was put into the hand of each, and he was told
to dig his grave. This done, they were bandaged,
and shot with as little remorse as if they had been
wild beasts. When the facts came to be talked over
by the people of the town, a large body of men
hastily armed themselves, proceeded to the house of
Burbridge, near the town where he had left his wife
and family, and seized two of his young children,
under ten years of age, with the intention of putting
them to death in retaliation. This, however, was
too horrible to be permitted, and the leading men
of the place, hastily organising, flew to the rescue,
and were fortunate enough to recover the children
from the hands of the mob and deposit them in
safety in a distant city.

Another case as savagely vindictive as the pre•
ceding, and as horribly illustrative of the agonies of
civil war, was that of a gentleman named Sparks
—a member of the Kentuckian Legislature, and a
weil.known opponent of slavery. When the Con-
federate troops entered the town of Eminence, in
which he resided, he fired a pistol at them from a
window and killed one of the soldiers. The exas-
perated comrades of the man thus slain broke into
the house, and Sparks, going out by a back door,
attempted to make his escape, He was hotly pur-
sued and brought down by a long shot, mortally-
wounded. General Burbridge, when made ac-
quainted with the fate of his friend, ordered three
Confederate prisoners to be sacrificed to his manes,
and they were accordingly shot, after having been
drawn through the town seated upon their coffins,
and made to dig their own graves, after the fashion
most approved by this great adept in the art and
mystery of refined as well as brutal torture.

The General, however, does not always wait to
be assured of the death of the person on whose
enemy he desires to be revenged. Hearing that a
man named Porter had been shot by guerillas in
the neighbourhood of Russelville, in Kentucky, he
ordered a Confederate lieutenant to be taken out of
the nearest military prison, brought to Rusaelville,
and there had him publicly shot in the open market
place. Porter appeared the same afternoon alive
and hearty, having only suffered a thYsh wound, and
Barbridge expressed his joy that there was a loyal
man alive whom he had imagined to be dead, and
" one more Confederate in hell."

It is not by such modes as these that fraternal
union can be re-established in Kentucky or any other
State, though, to judge from the general action of
the Federal Government, Mr Lincoln and his ad-
visers, civil as well as military, appear to bo of a
contrary opinion.
Naval and Military Intelligence.

An Admiralty order has been received at Chatham
for the fine screw frigate Bristol, 39, 600 horse
power, now being brought forward for the steam
reserve squadron, to take the place of the Arethnsa,
35, 3,141 tons, 500 horse power, in the first division
of the steam reserve, the latter frigate being in-
tended for the pennant. The Bristol has been re-
moved into the steam basin, where her fittings are
being prepared as rapidly as the resources of the
dockyard will permit; but there are several months'
work to be effected on board before she is com-
plete. Her armament is to consist partly of the
100 pounder smooth bore guns, the 110 pounder
Armstrongs, and the old naval 6S pounder.
The 41 armour plates from the Lord Warden tar.
get, recently tested at Shoeburyness, and the re-
mains of which were removed to Chatham Dock.
yard, have undergone a careful inspection by the
officials at that establishment, in order to ascertain
the quality of the iron after the battering the plates
received during the trials with the 600 pounder and
other guns. The opinion formed of the quality of
the metal is that the plates are the best of the kind
yet received at the dockyard, and when it is remem-
bered that the armour-plates in question were taken
from a stack of several hundred tons, sent in by the
Iron Company, it is satisfactory to know
that those in store in Chatham are in every respect
as good as those tested. The Lord Warden plates
have been removed from the Anchor-wharf to the
smithery, where they will be broken up under the
tilt hammer, and the iron used for the general ser•
vice of the yard.

Capt. F. S. Tremlett, inspector of training ships,
completed his inspection yesterday of the Wellesley,
72, training ship, in Chatham Harbour.

The paddlewheel steam surveying tender Bann,
Lieut. Horner, was placed in No. 3 dock in Daven-
port yard on Saturday to stop a leak. She was
removed on Monday, and will shortly resume her
duty on the coast.

Preparations are making at Devonport for expe-
diting the departure of the screw steam corvette
Brisk, 16, to Australia. Draughts of men are being
told off from the receiving and training ships in
Hamoaze, and it is probable that her marines will
be sent on board this week.

The half•yearly inspection of the troops in Ports-
mouth garrison took place yesterday on Southsea-
common. The troops formed in position on the
common between 2 and 3 p.m., and consisted of the
B and K batteries of Field Artillery, under the
command of Major Milman, the Ist battalion of the
21st Regitnoat, Col. Stuart, CA, 20th Regiment,
Col. Carey, and the 64th Regiment, Col. Shute. The
inspecting-officer, Major- Gen. Lord W. Paulet, CM.,
accompanied by Col. Shadwell, Assist.-Quarter-
master-Gen., Col. Thackwell, Assist.-Adjt.-Gen.,
Col, Elliott, R. A., Town-Major E. 'Breton, and Capt.
St, John Paulet, Aide-de-Camp, arrived rn the
ground in the front of the line at 3 p.m., fknil wt►s
received with the ,sue! honours. After thu parade
ceremony of marching past had been gone through
the troops were put through a series of mum:lyres
incidental to a field-day on a small scale, in which
the artillery played a conspicuous part. The troops
appeared to go through the different movements
very steadily, and at 5 p.m. Lord William Panlet
brought the inspection to a close, and dismissed the
man to their respective gnarters.
The Orontes, screw troopship, Capt. W. H. Hire,

was undocked at Portsmouth yesterday, and is
ordered to leave Portsmouth on the 9th prox. for
Dover, where she will embark troops for the Cape
of Good Hope and the Mauritius, calling in at
Devonport on her way down Channel.
A number of ten-years men whose period of en•
listment has expired have this week been either die-
eharged or re-enlisted at the camp at Colchester.
The men who have re-enlisted have obtained three
months' furlough, in addition to a liberal bounty.
Admiral Sir Charles Burrard, on the retired list,
with the pay of 20s. a day, becomes entitled to the
pay of 255. a day in consequence of the death last
week of Admiral Popham, Sir Charles entered the
navy in July 1805, and, after serving in the Chan-
nel, was present at the capture of the Marengo, 80,
and Belle Poule, 40, March 13, 1802. He was ad-
vanced to Lieut. May 1, 1812, and as such served
on board the Mitford, 74, in the Adriatic, and was
employed on shore in the batteries at the reduction
of Trieste in October, 1813. He became commander
June 7, 1814, and commanded the Grasshopper, 18,
at the blockade of Naples in 1815. He commanded
the Hind, 20, stationed in the Channel for the sup-
pression of smuggling, from April, 1819, until ad-
vanced to post-rank January 29, 1822. He was
Flag-Capt. to Vice-Admiral Sir H. B. Neale in the
Mediterranean from March, 1823, until April, 1827,
became retired Rear-Admiral October 1, 1852 ;
Vice-Admiral November 4, 1857 ; and Admiral
April 27, 1863.
The following appointments and promotions were
made yesterday at the Admiralty :--Thomas H.
'lizard, master, additional, to the Rifleman ; Sub.
Lieut. Alexander R. Kerr, to the Marlborough ;
Sub. Lieut. Algernon H. Percy, to the Meeanee ;
Sub-Lieut. R. W. Stopford, to the Revenge; Alex.
M. S. Gimme, William E. B. Atkinson, Norman L.
H. Clarke, Herbart Wilkinson, Robert Sutton, and
Henry L. F. Boyle, midshipmen, to the Marl-
borough ; Bertie W. Vernon, midshipman, to the
Meeanee ; Thomas A. Hamilton, midshipman, to the
Gladiator ; Murray Johnson, Samuel Ewin, Regi-
nald C. Prothero, Robert C. Leader, Robert M. Bun-
bury, and Stephen H. Thompson, naval cadets, to
the Marlborough ; Hans H. H. Brooke, naval cadet,
to the Gibraltar ; George S. Langton, naval cadet, to
the Brisk ; H. J. Leyland, chief engineer, to the
Cumberland, for the Forte ; P. Richmond, of the
Royal Oak, confirmed as engineer; S. V. Bull, of the
Chanticleer, confirmed as first class assist.-engineer ;
Michael Harris, of the Insolent, promoted to acting
engineer; T. G. Woodfield, of the Asia ; J. W.
Owen, of the Dasher, H. Burstow, of the Mfeanee,
R. B. Nicholson, and J. W. Watson, of the Indus,
to be first class assist...engineers.