The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-30 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, March 15.
The accounts of the raid of General Sherman
through the State of Mississippi have been pub-
lished this morning,—the one derived from General
Sherman himself and the newspaper correspondents
who accompanied the expedition; and the other from
General Polk, the Confederate officer, who opposed
and claims to have defeated his objects. Taking the
Federal accounts, though highly coloured and obvi.
ously intended to make the best of a bad business,
to be substantially true, it will be found that the re-
sults achieved have been enormously dispropor-
tioned to the agencies employed. General Sherman
with upwards of 24,000 men under his immediate

command, aided by a cavalry force of 8,000 men,
under the command of General Smith, traversed
about 150 miles of sparsely settled territory, de-

stroyed everything that came in their way, pulled
up the rails, and destroyed the railway stations and
locomotives and carriages, broke down the bridges,
set fire to barns, mills, private dwellings and stores;
destroyed at least six towns and villages, which
had populations, black and white, of between 300
and 1,000 souls each; and having reached the vil.
lage of Meridian, of which he scarcely left a brick
or a beam standing, retraced his steps to Vicks-
burg, unable to proceed farther on account of the
failure of General Smith's cavalry to render them
the aid expected. He captured 800 mules and about
300 Confederate soldiers, besides upwards of 3,000
negroes, mostly women and children. He claims to
have virtually succeeded in his object, which was to
destroy the railway of Central Mississippi; but if
nothing more was intended, the civilised world may
well ask if it be civilised warfare to employ such
tremendous agencies for results so worthless in a
military point of view, and tending to nothing so

much as the infliction of unnecessary cruelty and
the exasperation of an enemy whom it has left un-
subdued. But it appears that the real object was
to reach and to hold Selma, on the Alabama river,
a commanding position threatening Montgomery,

vanish. He will be the Dictator, the Autocrat, and
the Cce3ar of the new nation, and the American

name will gain the lustre desired at the expense of

the liberty and happiness of the American people.

Gen. Fremont is ambitious, and may aspire to play
this eminent part in the history of the world ; and

if he do not play it, some else may, though not
perhaps before a long series of intestine troubles
stall have more thoroughly prepared the Americans
to welcome the military master whom they already

deserve, and whose seizure of supreme power they
may at that day welcome as their best if not their

only chance of deliverance from anarchy.
The programme begins to be considered as that
which the leading Republicans must ultimately
adopt. It is obviously the one to which all their
principles tend, and in which they must concen-
trate if they desire to perpetuate the ascendancy

of their party. Bat as it requires a military

man to effect such a revolution, it is likely that
Mr. Lincoln, whose present unpopularity is ex-
cessive, and all other civilian candidates for
the Presidency, will be set aside at the last moment,

and that the name of. General Fremont may emerge
from the discussions of the approaching Republican

Convention as the nominee of his party. The only
other generals of note in whom the Republicans
have any present confidence are Banks and Butler.

General Banks is, perhaps, ambitious, and he is
certainly an abler man than General Fremont ; but
his ideas on the question of slavery are not so
thorough as the Doctrinaires and exterminators
would wish, and for that reason he is not so likely
as his rival to receive the support of the leaders of

the party. Butler's private character and personal
unpopularity—and the doubt whether, with all his

talent and cleverness, he understands anything of
military affairs, or has in him the stuff of which a
great conqueror can be made, will keep him in the
background. He has sufficient of the spirit of a
despot to suit the place, but he lacks other qualifi.
cations which Fremont possesses—the qualities of
a gentlemanly bearing, a cosmopolitan education,

and an extensive knowledge of ail that other and
not unimportant portion of the world which is not

included within the limits of the United States.

And while the Republican party is gradually
concentrating itself around Fremont as the man of
their necessity, that large portion of the Democratic
and State-rights party, which as yet sees no way
to peace but by the vigorous prosecution of the war,
is in like manner concentrating itself upon General
M'Clellan. The Democratic party in this city is
represented by three several organisations, which
sometimes unite for local purposes of party spoil,

which upon the war question appear to be hopelessly
divided. The first and oldest, and parent source from
which the other two proceeded, is the Tammany