The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-05 00:00:00

the proF,ecution of the only important business
which is now before them—that is to say, of
the war. But, above all things, he has raised
the spirit of Hood's army ; he has taught it to
entertain misgivings as to the policy of always
falling back, and has reconciled it to its present
manly and enterprising commander. Nor is the re-
ward which this hitherto unsuccessful army is likely
to reap far distant or long deferred. I have the best
authority for saying that the boldest move which has
as yet been atteropted in this war—the move by
which Hood threw his army from the south to the
north of Atlanta, and fixed his claws upon the line
of Sherman's communications—is of Hood's sole
origination. It remains to be seen whether, in the
event of Sherman's adopting almost the only course
which seems open to him—l mean in the event of hie
attacking Hood behind his intrenchments—the
much abused Confederate army of the West will
strike a blow which, if successful, will do more to
end the war than dozens of such battles as were
fought in 1861 and 1862. It is my belief that
Hood's army, inspirited by the manifest sagacity
which is disclose:lin the move which it hpas just made,
will prove itself worthy of its vigorous young com-
mander, and will gain for itself and for him a repu•
eclipse the comparative failures of
tt ahtri:en
awndhiachhwalti'lyi ears. If ever there was a war in
which laudace, l'audace, toujours l'audace should be
the motto of Southern generals, it is the war in
which we are here engaged. The two most success-
ful generals of this war, Stonewall Jackson and Lee,
are the rashest; and the present promising and dar-
ing move of Hood will prove (unless I am mistaken)
before October has closed that it is only by rashness
that telling and staggering blows can be dealt.
The details of the movement by which Hood de-
scribed wellnigh three-fourths of a circle, and swung
his army round Sherman, are described to me as
having been very skilfully executed. Leaving the
railroad which runs south between Atlanta and
Macon, Hood seized possession of the railroad
which, running in a south-westerly direction, cons
netts Atlanta with Montgomery, as though he
wished to bar Sherman's passage to the latter city.
After fixing himself on this line he made great
show of vigorously intrenching himself, and secretly
threw his pontoons across the Chattahoochie River,
the course,of which lays a little distant from his left.
He was not disturbed by any reconnaissance or
scouting party of Sherman's. It may be that here-
after Sherman will disclose as much strategic abi-
lity as he has heretofore displayed pertinacity while
advancing on Atlanta ; but it roust be confessed
that the appearances are that he showed blind and
arrogant depreciation of his enemy and culpable
inactivity about watching that enemy after the Fe-
derals had once got possession of Atlanta. It seems
to me hardly conceivable that succour to Sherman
can come from the North before his supplies are so
reduced as to compel him to issue forth from his
stronghold of Atlanta. The most vigorous and for-
midable of all the Confederate cavalry chiefs—
General Forrest—has long been "on the rampage"
along the skirts of Tennessee, Northern Alabama,
and Northern Mississippi. Our last accounts re-
present Forrest as having retired before a very large
force of Federals into Northern Mississippi, and it
is reasonable to anticipate that if his pursuers turn
southwards towards Hood's rear Forrest will hang
on their skirts and harass and delay their march by
every means in his power. The vast distances of
the South over which Sherman has triumphed in his
advance on Atlanta are likely to exercise the same
unfavourable influence upon him in his present situ-
ation as they have never failed to exercise upon all
other Federal commanders who have thrust them-
selves deep into the bowels of their enemy's bound.
ess and desolate country.

The actual line held by the army of Hood, whose
head-quarters are at Dallas, commences a few miles
north of the Marietta, where his left rests on the
railroad, with his centre at Dallas, and his right
reaching down towards Alabama, whence he draws
his main supplies. By his adventurous move he has
transferred the scene of military operations once
more into that rugged and mountainous country
from which, in the opinion of soldiers, Johnston
never should have allowed himself to be driven into
the plain around Atlanta. Never was there appa-
rently such an instance as regards warlike opera-
Hong, of the truth of Juvenat's lines !
Evcrtere domes totas optentibus ipsis
Di
We have all reed with what shouts and acclamaa
tions,with what pealing of bells and what discharges
of cannon, Sherman's " great Union victory'' and
the "capture of Atlanta" were celebrated in the
Northern States—yet there is reason to believe
that the Confederates are justified in thinking that
out of this capture of Atlanta will arise for their
enemies such discomfiture as has not been hitherto
parallelled in the course of this war. The disparity
between the armies of Sherman and Hood is, if I
am rightly informed, by no means considerable.
From this passage of the war the Federa!s will learn
what they have been told a theusend times by all
spectators—thateritories like these to take towns in the
dispassionate
interior
ofv a
hostilest
t
South-
ern States is one thing, to hold them is another.
I have reason for thinking there is a gross ez'
aggeration about the numbers which are ordinarily
assigned as estimates of Grant's strength—nor can
the is composed compare
with the material
ia
materiallof
hi
which advanced on
Richmond under M'Clellan, or oven of that army
maw
of which
hieha t army
ay
which fought the battles of May last. There never
was a moment when more deserters came into the
Confederate lines, and it is observed that these de-
serters are not as of.yore chiefly Irishman, Englisha
men, or Germans, but they number among them
many Northerners of American birth. Two nights
ago 10 deserters escaped from Grant's meshes and
surrendered themselves to Lee, of whom upwards
of 00 were men born upon this continent. Strenuous
efforts arc being made to swell Lee's numbers by
calling into the ranks detailed men, by substituting
negroes for white teamsters, and by getting into
the service that large body of men who have got
" State exemptions" and have hitherto escaped con-
scription. It is estimated that in the two States of
Virginia and North Carolina there are not less than
30,000 men between the ages of 18 and 45 who have
got exemptions from Governor Smith or Governor
Vance. But the most significant fact, as indicating
that this struggle of the South for independence
will never be abandoned for years to come, is that
everywhere—on the streets, in the railroad cars,
and among private circles—the propriety of arming
and putting the negro into the ranks is eagerly
discussed. There has always in the South been a
sentimental antipathy
work of men, or, in other words, to seeking from aw and
feeble, nnarlike, to setting children to do the
submissive race the exhibi-
tion of passions and the exorcise of qualities which
have been always regarded as the attributes of a
dominant and superior race. But it remains if ecca.
sion demands for the South to exhibit how the
negro when placed side by side with the master
whom he has known and loved since the infancy of
both will fight for the maintenance of slavery against
his brethren who seek to compass its forcible
abolition. The words recently employed by Mr
Lincoln to the effect that be
had 200,000 negroes
under arms, and that he should like to see
how any Northern man who proposed to employ
only white soldiers would carry on this war, have
sunk deep into many
a Southern heart. It will be
a strange corollary to this war if the campaign of
1865 finds 20,000 armed negroes from the North
trying conclusions with 20,000 armed negroes from
the South,
and if the ocean of blood which has
already been spilt is darkened by a fresh current to
be added to it:next year, flowing from the veinslof
that hapless race which seems likely to be involved
in a conflict
whese priz:s it cannot appreciate.
whose passions it cannot share and

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