The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-21 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Special Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, April 1.

With snow in Virginia 12 inches deep, and a suc-
cession of rain storms that have flooded the rivers
and softened all the roads of the North, it is not
likely that either of the opposing armies under
Generals Grant and Lee will make a forward move-
ment for the next 10 days. Whatever the Confe-
derates may do in the meantime, General Grant is
busying himself with the reorganisation of the
Army of the Potomac, and has already weeded out
of it most of the drunken and many of the incom-
petent officers appointed to command for political
reasons. There are indications, also, that Grant—
on whom so much has been devolved, and on whom
such serious responsibility has been thrown—is ex-
ercising his influence with the President to procure
the retirement of Mr. Stanton—without exception
the most unpopular man in the Administration, if
not in the North—in favour of General Butler, and
the restoration of General McClellan to active duty.
The indications are still stronger that his presumed
plan of advancing upon Richmond with two separate
armies—one by way of the Rapidan, and the other
by way of the Peninsula—will be disconcerted by
Gen. Lee, and the transference of the seat of war
from Southern to Northern soil by the invasion of
Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio, and a movement
of Gen. Joseph Johnston upon Chattanooga for the
recovery of Tennessee; Under such circumstances,
Richmond, which has been strengthened so es to be
able to support a long siege and to defend itself
against an army ten times as strong as its garrison,
is not likely lo be very seriously threatened; and
Charleston and Mobile need be in no immediate ap■
prehension of danger, or even of attack. To keep
up the spirits of the Northern people, and especially
that portion of them who are threatened for the
first time with feeling in their own homes the mise-
ries which their armies have carried into Virginia,
and other regions which war has reconverted into
the original wilderness, or something worse, it is
announced by all the organs of the Government that
the Federal armies amount to at least a million of
men, and those of the Confederates to only 300,000.1
Few, however, except those who think it a refined
pleasure to be cheated, believe that the Federals
possess even so many as half a million of effective
men, or, whatever the disparity of numbers between
the two armies may be, that there will be much dis-
parity of strength when they come into collision on
the field. In all the drawn battles fought by
McClellan his forces were greatly in excess of those
opposed to him, and in all the victories achieved by
General Grant he has not only had the advantage
of a naval auxiliary force upon the rivers, but an
army four and even five times larger than that of
his antagonist. In the capture of Vicksburg, which
was the first great step in his career, his forces
amounted to at least 100,000 men, while those of
General Pemberton (the sick and disabled all
counted) were at most 20,000; and notwithstanding
this immense numerical advantage, and the aid of a
flotilla of gunboats on the Mississippi, it took him
sixty-five days to accomplish his task, and might
have taken him a hundred and sixty-five if the garri-
son had not been reduced to the extremity of famine,
having eaten their last mule and dog in default of
all other sustenance. Great things are expected of
him, but those are sanguine indeed who think, be-
cause ho has done much on a small scale, that his
failure on a great scale is impossible. It remains to
be seen what his energies, his abilities, and above all
his dogged perseverance, can accomplish against an
equal or a nearly equal force in the open field, led
by the most accomplished soldier of the age, and
one more trusted in and beloved by his men than
any captain since the days of the First Napoleon.
The shock will be a desperate one when it comes.
That it will end the war, on whichever side victory
may declare itself, few are so credulous or self-
blinded as to believe. Even the two or three Ad-
ministration journals that continue to " blether"
about " the beginning of the end," and the restora-
tion of the Union by the 4th of July, only write in
this strain because they think it flatters the popular
prejudice or foments the public passion, and not
because they mean what they say. Their glowing
anticipations are mere " buncombe," and have little
effect except to make the 4th of July ridiculous.
It is to-day announced fro►n Washington, under
the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, that 35
Federal war ships are unable to put to sea for want
of sailors to navigate them. Surely a Government
that labours under a difficulty like this ought not
only to be liberal in its offers of pay before enlist-
ment, but generous in its treatment of the men
afterwards. Above all things, is should be just to
all parties, high or low, and as rigorous in the en-
forcement of discipline on the part of the officers as
on that of the men. How far the undoubted un-
popularity of the service may be accounted for by
the brutality and drunkenness of thoso in command

may possibly be estimated by the following narra-
tive of the wrongs and misfortunes of a British
subject, the details of which are derived from
his own mouth, to the truth of which he
has sworn, and which there is reason to believe
have already been brought under the notice of the
British Government, with a view to obtain redress
from the United States. It appears that on March
21, 1863, a British blockade-runner, the steamer
Nicholas 1., was captured off Wilmington, North
Carolina, by the United States gunboat Victoria,
taken charge of by a Lieut. Ivison, or Everson, of
that vessel, and a prize crew, and ordered to New
York for adjudication. One of the firemen on board,
named James O'Neill, 45 years of age, a native of
Dublin and a British subject, was asked by the chief
engineer of the captor to volunteer to work as fire-
man, or rather to continue to work as fireman, till
the prize reached New York, and promised wages
at the rate of a dollar and a half a day. O'Neill
consented, and the engineer having been ordered to
get up steam about 10 o'clock on the morning of the
capture he worked until 2 o'clock, under the super-
intendence of a first class fireman named Gurdon,
sent on board from the Victoria. At that time the
prize was brought to anchor off Wilmington, and
O'Neill, stepping to the ventilator to cool himself,
told Gordon that quantities of gunpowder and salt
were stowed in the bows of the vessel, and that it
would be advisable to inform Lieut. Everson of the
fact, in case any of the crew should be careless in
smoking or in going about with lights. Gurdon
was of the same opinion, and left O'Neill below
while he reported the circumstance to the officer.
In a few minutes Lieut. Everson made his appear-
ance, drunk, and wildly excited, and seeing O'Neill
called out to him to keep back or he would shoot
him. O'Neill had no time to reply before the lieu-
tenant discharged a pistol at him, the ball from
which entered the left thigh, severing one of the ar-
teries. Gurdon indignantly remonstrated with the
lieutenant for shooting a man who had been working
hard and doing good service, but the lieutenant made
no other remark than " It's all right," and left the
man to his fate. By Gurdon's promptitude and care
the wound was bound up till the surgeon arrived.
O'Neill had fainted from loss of blood, and was
taken on deck. A torniqnent was applied, and he'
was removed on board the Victoria. After remain-
ing there for five days he was sent to Fortress Mon-
roe, and thence to the hospital at Norfolk, where he
was subjected to the painful operation of having the
artery tied, and lay upon his back helpless for 62
days. As soon as he was able to crawl about by the
aid of a stick he was transferred from the hospital
to the Brandywine storeship at Fortress Monroe,
and kept a close prisoner in irons, until the doctor,
after two days, seeing his utter helplessness, had the
irons removed. He remained in prison in this ship
from the 15th of June to the 13th of November,
when he was again put in irons, placed on board the
transport ship Ne wbern, and conveyed to the navy-
yard at Brooklyn, preparatory to his consignment
to Fort Lafayette as a prisoner of State. In this
dungeon he was confined in a casemate with two
other prisoners—one named Andrews, charged with
being a ringleader in the New York anti-conscription
riots in July last. He was locked up night and day,
allowed neither exercise nor fresh air, nor permitted
to leave his cell even for the calls of nature. This
particular casemate was called " the doomed cell."
He obtained his liberty early in March, through
the representations of Lord Lyons, to whom the
facts were officially transmitted by the British con-
sul at this port; but his wound, and the subsequent
cruelties he experienced, have seriously, and, per-
haps, permanently, injured his health. He has not
recovered the use of his leg, is quite unable to
work, and totally destitute.
Lieutenant Everson, on being called upon by Ad-
miral Lee, his superior officer, to explain his con-
duct, had nothing further to say than that O'Neill
had a keg of gunpowder in his hands, which he was
about to cast into the furnace to blow up the ship
and all on board, when he shot him to prevent the
catastrophe. He still persists in this statement,
though it has no foundation but in the temporary
insanity of his own intoxication and alarm at the
time, and is disproved by the evidence of Gurdon
and the other firemen who witnessed the circum-
stance. Does not the Federal Government owe it
to its own dignity, to the naval service, and to every
man in it to bring Everson to trial for this cruel
outrage ? And, moreover, does it not owe it to the
British Government and to poor O'Neill to pay a
liberal compensation to the unhappy man who in the
execution of his duty was maimed and ruined for life
by the frantic fool and blackguard who only had
power and opportunity to commit such a wrong be-
cause he happened to be invested with the autho-
rity of an officer of the United States and the right
to wear its uniform ?