The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-28 00:00:00

Although from my past experience of the long
delay which intervenes between the expedition of
each of my letters and its arrival in England
there is little encouragement to report facts of
which some knowledge, though perhaps an imperfect
one, will have reached your readers at least a month
before their perusal of this letter, and though I am
consequently thrown back upon mere comments
upon those facts, it may perhaps be not without
interest to them to learn the exact particulars of
the attack of " Stonewall" Jackson's veterans,
under the leadership of the one-legged General
Ewell (his other leg having been left on the
field at the second battle of Manassas), upon the
little city of Winchester. Frequently during these
last few months has the cry of agony extorted by
General and Mrs. Milroy from the unhappy resi-
dents of Winchester reached General Lee's ears,
but something has always intervened to distract
his attention, and to prolong the tenure of General
Milroy's sway. At length, when the time for medi-
tating an advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania
seemed at hand, Gen. Lee resolved to anticipate the
movement of his entire force by launching General
Ewell and his corps swiftly and suddenly against
Gen. Milroy. It the Federals lacked any further
evidence how odious and abhorred is their presence
in the eyes of the Virginians, let them seek it in the
circumstances which accompanied the advance of
Gen. Ewell. From Fredericksburg to Winchester, a

distance of more than 90 miles—through many
hamlets and villages, and through a country which,
for Northern Virginia, may be called densely peo-
pled—Gen. Ewell and his 25,000 men silently made
their way, and throughout that whole distance
neither man nor woman was found to carry to Gen.
Milroy warning that Nemesis was at hand. The
first s.ntimation that reached the Yankee tyrant of
his enemy's approach was the fire of Gen. Ewell's
advanced guard upon the pickets of the Federals.
It will be believed that it was not long before the
Yankees, finding themselves in presence of a largely
superior force, fell back into the town, and if Win-
chester, instead of being on Virginian, had been on
Pennsylvanian soil, the matter would probably have
ended upon the first day—the 13th inst.—by Gen.
Ewell's desiring the women and non-combatants to
pass out through his lines, and shelling the town
until Gen. Milroy and his men surrendered. As it
was, Gan. Ewell, wishing to get his enemy out of the
town, left open for him a bolt hole into two large forts
which overhang the town, and thither, at a very early
hour in the morning of Sunday, the 14th of June,
Gen. Milroy and his army, perhaps 7,000 strong,
hastily repaired. Upon the previous day it was
intimated to General Ewell that unless Milroy
was permitted to march out with all his stores,
cannon, and ammunition, he had resolved that he
would burn the town. Learning this General
Ewell made known that if the torch was applied
he would burn up all the Federals by driving them
back into the flames, and that if any of them
escaped he would hang them on the spot. Gaining
nothing by this motion, General Milroy earnestly
addressed himself to the consideration of the best
method open to him for escaping, and, doubtless,
although the exact details of his escape are un-
known, he displayed mach ingenuity in rescuing
his neck from the halter. It is believed that in
civilian dress, and accompanied by some 2,000 men,
he struck out of the town by an old country road in
the direction of Charlestown, a place which lies on
the road from Winchester to Harper's Ferry, and
which gained some celebrity a few years ago as
having witnessed the trial and execution of the
famous John Brown. It was at a very early hour
on Monday morning that General Milroy's escape
was made, and there is little doubt that the com-
mand of General Johnson, to whose care was com-
mitted the guardianship of the road in question,
was partially taken by surprise, and was broken
through before Milroy and his companions could be
stopped. Be this as it may, it is certain that Mil-
roy escaped, nor is it less certain that if he had
been taken alive he would have forfeited his life,
having, like General Butler and others, been put
hors le roi by President Davis's proclamation.
To return to Sunday, the day preceding the
escape ot General Milroy : I have mentioned that
most of the Federals in the town betook them-
selves to the two forts which impend over it, and
thence they threw shells actively against the Con-
federates during the whole morning. A little after
midday the Confederates, having planted their guns
upon a hill, which was pointed out to me lastmOan
her by Colonel Wolseley as dangerously coin d
them,
ing the two forts, opened fire briskly
and under cover of their
brigade advanced to storm. fire
htihneg."L:onauniasniatni
va
forward with the fire and e.lanni:
specially
carried two
seciall; charac-
teristic of the soldier of Loui.sihaout,
sustaining more
cut of the three bastions w
than a trifling loss, and drovfeutgthiteiFveesde:iacipS
less
sdtlhOtlagn
out of the forts. Of these
3,000 were taken prisonersd
taobzistrtfionusrbumrgil,eswfhreorne
Winchester, on the roa
streng Confederate
they were intercepted by
force commanded (if I mistake not) by General
Rhodes, and from 1,200 to 1,500 more were cap.
t
ured in the neighbourhood i
of Martinsburg itself,
more, than
100 officers being nciudedatmweo(n,ng
ltbooe
prisoners. Thirty pieces of artillery, be
and 200 waggons, large commissary, clothing, and
medical stores, and about 400 horses) the rest hay-
jog been pressed into the service of aiding the
flight of the terrified Yankees) fell into the hands of
the Confederates in the town of Winchester—a
weighty loss according to the computation of any