The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-24 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YoRK, May 10.
Tha bold as well as complicated movement against

Richmond which Gen. Grant, spurred by the impa-
tience both of the Government and the people, has
undertaken occupies all men's thoughts. It is now
seven days since the order to cross the Rapidan was
given, and though several bloody battles have been
fought and thousands have been killed and tens of

housands wounded, the decisive struggle has not

yet commenced. There has been much less boasting

on this occasion than usual. Gen. Grant is a silent
soldier, and allows his deeds to tell their own story

after their accomplishment, and stands in favourable
contrast in this respect with the Popes, the Burn-
sides, and the Hookers. Nor has the press, with
one vile exception, which not to name is sufficient
to designate, beenless sensible and reticent. Though
nearly all the jiarnals believe that Grant has done
so well that victory must ultimately, though not
perhaps until after many a sanguinary contest, re-
ward his efforts, they know from past experience

how uncertain are all the issues of battle, and how

apparently small a thing, or a circumstance totally

- -
unsuspected, may even at the 59th minute of the

11th hour reverse the fortune of war, and convert
what looked like victory into defeat and humilia-

tion. The same temper prevails among the people,

They have been too often deceived to trust much
to appearances, and wait the results of Giant's

movements without fear, but certainly withou

undue elation. The speculators and the politi-
cians (and it should be borne in mind by English
readers that a politician in America is a man who
makes a trade of politics and depends for his
daily bread or his future prospects upon the success
of his party) are more excited. The speculators,
like other gamblers, to whom a battle is no more
than a pugilistic contest, or a race, or any other
larger or smaller event which by the uncertainty of
its issues offers an opportunity for staking a sum of
money upon a chance, aro not all on the patriotic
side. If they were, how could their operations be

carried on ? Some believe in Grant, and some in

Lee. Some base their calculations upon the capture
of Richmond, and some on that of Washington.
Some demand That paper shall rise to a par with
gold, and 'there fear that they shall be ruined if
gold do not rise to a premium of a hundred. The
politicians, though more remotely interested, are
not less keenly susceptible. If Grant achieve what
Scott, M‘Dawell, M'Clellan, Meade, and the three
smaller lights failed to accomplish, nothing can pre-
vent him from becoming President of the United
States, except his own unqualified and peremptory
refusal to accept the honour. As it is not in Ameri-
can human nature to believe such remarkable abne-
gation to be either possible or probable, Grant is
already considered President by that large proper•
tion of the people who think that Northern wealth
and numbers must in the long run be more than a
match for Southern patriotism. The only question
which remains in their minds is, who shall be Vice-
President in the new regime? Some are for Butler,
some for Fremont, and some for M'Clellan, the pre-
ponderance of sentiment and of judgment being
decidedly in favour of the latter.
It is natural tnat at such a time all sorts of
rumours should be circulated. Credulity, self-
interest, and that prolific parent of lying, the wish
that is father to the thought, combine with the
self-importance that sometimes invests and still
oftener exaggerates news to lengthen the tongues
of the idle and to keep the ears of the multitude
upon the stretch for the "latest intelligence." It
serves no real purpose to repeat these lies, unless it
may be thought that such voices out of the crowd
show the crowd's temper, and may therefore help to
a truer understanding of the varying aspects of the
day than might otherwise be attainable. Thus it
is asserted that Butler has entered Richmond as a
conqueror, that Lee has died the hero's death upon
the field of battle, covered with innumerable
wounds ; that Grant has met the same splendid
fate; that the Confederate array has thrown down
its arms and fled like a cowed and discomfited
rabble ; that the Southern President and his Cabinet
have escaped to Montgomery, Alabama, and oiler
figments born of gobemoucherie; or, perhaps, pushed
into existence by some too clever Secessionist, to
throw discredit upon the whole brood of rumours
that every hour brings forth. The real facts, es far
as they can be gathered from documentary evidence
and from the reports of eye-witnesses, appear to
extend to no later date than Saturday evening. On
Wednesday General Meade passed the Rapidan
without opposition. On Thursday the Army of
the Potomac was assailed by General Lee in great
force, the objet being to crush the athancing
columns before they were in position, or within sup-
porting distance of each other. The shock was so
severe and the issue so doubtful that the reserves
under Burnside had to be ordered up. They arrived
iu time, and saved the fortune of the day. The
number of killed and wounded on the Federal side
amounted, according to Federal authority, to up-
wards of 8,000. One peculiarity of the encounter
was that artillery was brought into play. The
ground, near and in advance of the former battle-
field of Chancellorsville, where Hooker lost the
day, and his reputation along with it, was so
thickly wooded that cannon could not be used on
either side, and the conflict was hand to hand, with
the bayonet or the rifle. How stubborn it must
have been is evident from the number of the killed
end wounded, which, if at all balanced on the Con-
federate side, would not fall short of 16,000. The