The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-04 00:00:00

ir.HE CONFEDERATE STATES,

(Rom the Special Correspondent of the 2imes.)
RICHMOND, Jane 27:

If a man were landed here from a balloon after
six r nont.hs' absence—if he were taken along Grace
or Franklin Straits in this city on a summer even•
ing, and told that two enormous armies are lying a
few miles off and disputing its possession, he would
deem his informant a lunatic. In every porch he
would eee a group of gaily-attired ladies (I do not
believe that 20 rigorous years of blockade would
pale the lustre of ladies' toilet in an American town) ;
he would hear many a light laugh, many a song
issuing from open casements ; he might pass an hour
in conversation without being reminded that war is
furiously raging, otherwise than by the suggestive
boom of the faintly beard cannon ; and, finally,
when the conversation turned into its wellewern
groove, he would find that Richmond trusts and
believes in St. Lee as much as Mecca in Mahomet,
or Spain in St. James of Compostella.
That the confidence reposed in Gen. Lee's ability
is reasonable no one disputes. Do the circumstances
in which his army is placed, its morale, and num-
bers inspire equal faith ? In order to answer these
questions I must premise that two railroads feed
Richmond from the south—one the line from Wil-
mington to Weldon, Petersburg, and Richmond—
the other the railroad which comes up from Greens-
borough through the centre of North Carolina,
enters Virginia at Danville, and, running through
the heart of the State, reaches Richmond from
the southewest. It may be at once conceded
that there is little likelihood that the first—the
Petersburg and Weldon Railroad—can be kept open.
Grant's army lies so closely in its proximity, and
his cavalry can strike it in so many points along
the 60 miles which intervene between Weldon and
Petersburg, as to negative its utility. It would be
a waste of power for General Lee to try and keep
it in operation. Upon the other railroad, or rather
npoa the 90 miles of it between Richmond and the
Staunton river, Gen. Lee's defensive ingenuity will
be exhausted. This railroad is, in its nearest point,
distant about 2.5 miles from Grant's extreme left,
and trends away from him into the interior of Vire
ginia, so that an interval of 90 miles divides him
from the bridge over the Staunton river. Can this
railroad be kept substantially in operation ? It has
already been destroyed at intervals for 35 miles
northwards from the Staunton river by a mingled
body of Federal cavalry and infantry, bat inasmuch
as no important bridge has been destroyed, the da-
mage can be repaired in 14 days. I will at once ex-
press my conviction that Grant ifs not strong enough
either in cavalry or infantry to do more than dash
as this railroad and inflict from time to time light
damage upon it. Richmond can never be starved out
until these two railroads from the South as well as
the James River Canal and the railroads from the
North can be utterly annihilated, and can be kept
annihilated. As an illustration how quickly damage,
if lightly inflicted, is repaired,l may mention that the
Virginia Central Railroad, which was destroyed for
many miles by Sneridan upon Jane 11, has for some
days past been open and running to Charlottesville,
whence it continues indirectly to Lynchburg. This
line would, in addition to the James River Canal,
abundantly victual Richmond, although every other
line were cut. In short, to talk of Richmond being
besieged because Grant's army environs Petersburg,
22 miles away, is about as reasonable to pretend that
London was on short rations when Napoleon's army
menaced England from Boulogne in 1804. It is a
tremendous undertaking to starve out a town, even
when it is closely invested by land and water. We
Gil know the historical sieges which Londonderry,
Ssregoesa, Genoa, and 100 other cities have stood ;
there is as much analogy between the present con-
dition of Richmond and these memorable passages
of history as between the lazy Scheid and the rapids

of Niagara.

Secondly, it is abundantly evident that Grant,
though outnumbering Lee largely, dares not spread
over tco long a line, for fear of having his centre
pierced, and Austerlitz reenacted on the southern
bank of the James. The Federal General has already
tried to stretch his left as far as his men could be
persuaded to go, but the past week has shown that
between the armies there is almost as much differ-
ence of morale as between Leonidas's Spartans and
';.erzes's Persians. Upon the 23d the Confederate
Gen. Mahone doubled round Grant's left and cap-
tured 1,600 men, who scarcely fought at all. Two
days later a body of Federals en trenched them.
selves upon the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad,
were attacked by the same Confederate General,
and fled at once, leaving 500 of their number priso-
ners. The inpouring of Federal prisoners into Rich-
mond these last four days has been incessant. lam
at a 1053 to convey to you the contemptuous tone in
which the tried and war-worn soldiers of Gen. Lee
talk of the huddled rabble of black, white, and cop-
per coloured victims (there are Indians serving
under the Stars and Stripes) who are at times goaded
up to the Southern lines. Who can wonder that men
coming en an acre deep are mercilessly massacred ?
We read with astonishment in the Northern jour.
nals that the fighting around Petersburg has been
teriific. The universal account given to me in the
Southern army has been "since the battle of Cold
Harbour on June 3 we have had little but skirmish.
ing." It is safe to conclude that Grant will never dare
to spread his army over the 25 miles between its pre-
sent position and the Danville Railroad, and unless
he can encamp upon the two railroads, and lie there
permanently, he is as far from the completion of his
task as a traveller who has surmounted the Mon-
t+ nvert is from the top of Mont Blanc.

I am satisfied that General Grant will make no
more onslaughts upon Confederate breastworks. He
knows very well that neither Petersburg nor Rich-
mond will be taken by fighting. It is a question
of subsistence, and if Grant lies in his present lines
through the summer, Richmond's poorer classes
may see hard times before September, and for the
twentieth time the Confederate army may be for a
few weeks on half rations. But, if it is imagined
that the earnestness of these Southerners, proved
in the furnace of three years of suffering and afflic-
tion, and stimulated by such acrid hatred as eye has
not seen nor ear heard before, is unequal to the
occasion, England must be as ignorant about this
steuggle as she is held here to be indifferent. In
the meantime, Grant's difficulty in holding his posi-
tion on Bermuda Hundred and close to City Point
will be enormous, putting aside all question of fight-
ing. He is constantly being reinforced by raw,
green troops, who are absolutely worthless as fight-
ing material, and who are destined to fringe the
River James with their graves from CityiPoint
halfgway to Fortress Munroe. The marshes of the
lames in August and September are as deadly as
the swamps of Welcher= or Terrecina. There is
some nonsense talked in Northern papers about
Grant's occupying a fine, healthy, rolling country.
It is notorious that Bermuda Hundred is one of the
mast pestilential spots on the river, and the night
fcg which arises from City Point, and spreads over
half the Northern army, tells its tale to all who
are not7wilfuilv blind. General Lee has exacted
heavy toll between the 3d of May and the 33 of June
—the James river will assist him in August and
September as much as that memorable night of frost
in 1812, in which 20,000 French horses perished,
aided the Russians.
It is impossible to resist speculating upon the
question whether, after a review of the campaign
of the last two months, it is reasonable to pro.
flounce Grant a great General--to put him on the
same platform as Lee. I will at once
conviction, which is shared by
everayvoownemworth
n
listening to in Secessia, that not one of Grant's pre-
decessors in Virginia has shown one tithe of the
tenacity, energy, celerity, and resolution which the
recent campaign
has set down to Grant's credit
I,4pcielien, Hooker, Pope, or Bureside would have.
after the battle of the Wilderness,
gone burg
and
would never have got such an Effort as was made at
Spottsyivaaia
Court-house eut- a b
eaten army.
But, after giving Grant due credit for vigour in
handling his men, and keeping them compactly
together (which is the greatest difficulty a Federal
General encoueters), I am unable to ace that his
conception of the campaign was able, though it
'acge incompetency
of Butler made half of Grant's plan a fiasco before
it was commenced. Cfn-main it is that if in the first
inst,ince he liad lauded 200,000 men on the York

m ast be eonfeseed