The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-23 00:00:00

IDERAC Y.

(From the limes' Special tiorresponient.)
RICHMOND, Dec. 20, 1862.
A week has passed since the great battle of Fre-
dericksburg—the smoke has slowly cleared away—
the Yankee, reeling backward in spite of the threats,
the entreaties, and the promises of their officers,
have, for the first and only time in the history of
this war, acknowledged instantaneously a crushing
defeat, and extricated themselves from a most peri-
lous position by retreating precipitately across the
Rappahannock. How perilous that position was it
is obvious that the Confederate Generals,who hoped
against hope that the 1 lth or 15th December would
witness a renewal of the Federal attack, did not at
the moment fullyrealise. But summing up the results
of the late battle, it is sufficient to say that enough
has been gained by it, and although it is coneeivable
that on the night of the 13th, or the afternoon of the
14th or 15th, a general advance of the Confederate
lines might have turned the Federal rout into what is
known on this continent as "a Ball's Bluff affair,"
still it is more in accordance with the well-known
humanity of such men as Gens. Lee and Jackson
that not one life, even the life of an enemy, should
be unnecessarily sacrificed, when already a sufficient
lessen had been taught to their foe.
That the lesson is sufficient, the reports from the
North, which will reach England long before this
letter, will probably satisfy even the most sceptical.
It is not my province to call attention to them, or
to point out that the wail of a nation in its agony,
which ought to have made itself heard at the end of
last August, is beginning to ascend in tones distinctly
audible. There may be crusades against Vicksburg,
against Charlestown, Mobile, possibly against the
Texan coast, and there will certainly be a strong
irruption of Western troops into the Mississippi
Valley ; but if I am not mistaken, it is not too early
to prophesy that against Richmond itself no North-
ern army will again be led. How hopeless was the
Northern prospect of crushing out all Southern re-
sistance, until 10 or 12 States should lie prostrate at
the foot of New England, it required a residence of
not more than 24 hours in the Confederacy to satisfy
any reasonable and impartial spectator. And if, at
this stage of the war, it is imagined that the capture
and destruction of any number of seaboard cities,
the reopening of the Mississippi to iron clad gun-
boats, and some apocryphal successes in Arkansas,
Texas, or Mississippi, can arrest the attainment of
Southern independence, then may we hope to live
until an expedition is launched in balloons against
the moon.
My last letter brought the narrative of events
before Fredericksburg up to the night of Saturday,
December 13. It would be idle to pretend that
upon that night the magnitude of the success which
had been gained by the Confederates was fully
gauged and comprehended by their Generals. It
was hoped and believed that Sunday, the 14th,
would witness a renewal of the Federal attack; and
the night of the 13th and the subsequent nights were
busily employed by the Confederates in atrengtn-
ening their fortifications and throwing up fresh
earthworks on the Confederate centre and right.
" If I had only thrown up these works before," ex-
claimed Gen. Lee two or three days after the battle,
" I should have saved many valuable lives." That
a renewal of the Federal attack would have been
most disastrous to the assailants it is now hardly
necessary to state. It was felt by the Confederate
Generals that after Saturday's experience no serious
assault would again be directed against Marye's
Heights, and ample provisions were made for meet-
ing the heavy onslaught which it was expected
would on the morrow be made against Gen. Jack-
son's corps on the Confederate right. Never were
the spirits of that General more ecstatic than dur-
ing the fight on Saturday, and while his antago-
nists appeared to " mean business" on the morrow.
But it must be confessed that, while the bulk of the

Confederate army believed in the renewal of the

battle on the 14th, there were not wanting Confe-
derate Generals whose prescience told them that
troops so roughly handled as the Yankees would
- be little apt to resume the offensive. Among others,
on Saturday night, Gen. Stuart hazarded the predic-
tion that there would be no fresh attack by the
Federals on the Confederate lines. A lingering Ne'-'-
to direct his Horse Artillery there and then a
the enemy's flank was probably uppermost L...
night in the General's mind.
When Sunday, the 14th, came, it brought full
confirmation of Gen. Stuart's words. The day was
clear and calm and warm as its predecessor, but
totally devoid of haze or fog. The Yankees, on their
left and centre, had passed the night in the plain,
where darkness overtook them, without blankets,
without fires, with only half-rations. The day wore
away, and witnessed no Federal advance. There
was heavy skirmishing between the pickets in front
of Gen. A. P. Hill's division, and occasionally the
boom of a heavy piece of artillery, fired from one
or the other side of the river, struck upon the ear,
and sounded as a strange contrast to the incessant
and continuous roar of the day before. On the night
of the 14th prophecies that the Yankees had had
enough of it, and would get back across the river
as best they could, were more abundant, and
when the morning of the 15th broke and still the
Federals failed to advance, it became incontestable
that the Federal army was in a perilous strait; with
a deep river and three pontoon bridges behind, and
with a victorious and elated enemy and 300 pieces
of artillery in front.
As the afternoon of the 15th advanced there was
the same coquetting on the part of the Federals as
to asking permission to bury their dead and carry
off their wounded as had been displayed by them on
the field of Sharpsburg. At Sharpsburg, as had
been many times previously remarked, the ground
on which the battle was fought was held by the
Confederates. To have sent a flag of truce and asked
permission to bury his dead would have seriously
discredited Gen. M'Clellaa's repeated telegrams that
be had gained a great victory. It became necessary,
therefore, to have recourse to artifice, and a flag of
truce was sent in by one of the inferior Federal
Generals, which was subsequently disavowed and •
disclaimed, or perhaps was never recognised, by
Gen. M'Clellan himself. Such is believed here to
have been the secret history of the Sharpsburg flag
of truce. Something of the same kind was attempted
on the afternoon of December 15. There was every
disposition in the Confederate Generals to strain a ,
point to alleviate the misery of the wounded Fede-
rals who had now lain three nights on the field ;
but Gen. Lee's resolution that no flag of truce
should be accepted unless sent by Gen. Burnside
to himself was final and inexorable. A flag sent in,
as was believed, by the Federal General Birney was
therefore rejected. Every possible effort was made
by the Confederates to relieve the sufferings of those
wounded men whom their companions had not carried
off the field; but, as is usual on such occasions, the
individual eases..of misery were terrible and heart-
rending. Swell alicene as a battle-field presents during
the first night after a battle it would baffle any
raottalt pen todeieribe. In addition to the agonised
cries for' Witer,:Eind to the groans of 'tortured and
dying ;Ononay be heard voices • •
, constantlyFrowing
fainter and: fainter, shouting out the names and
numbers'of their regiments in the hope that some of
their comrades may be within
hearing,
or that a
party from their regiment may have been sent out
to fetch in its wounded men—" 14th Massachu
setts !" " 104th Pennsylvania !" " 47th Noith Caro-
lina!" such are some of the shouta which ring
through the night air, and are never likely to be
forgotten by those on whose ear they fall. In the
end no flag of truce for burying the dead was on this
occasion adjusted until the morning of I,‘ ednesday,
December 17, when the Federals sent over a large
body of men to bury their numerous slain. The
wouneed were by perrnis ' ion carried off on the
afternoon of Monday, the 15th.
Bat in the meantime, on the night of Monday,
it, was determined by the Federal generals not to risk
another day without putting the liver between
themselves and their victorious foe. A more favour-
eble night for their purpose cannot be conceived.
On the afternoon of Monday the wind began to
rise, and by seven in the evening and during the
night it blew a hurricane from the south, so that
all sound from the Federal army was carried away
to the north in a direction contrary to the position
occupied by the Confederates. At the same time
there fell a deluge of rain. Great credit is cer- i