The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-27 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

-s-- -

(From an Occasional Correspondent of the Times.)
RICHMOND, April 21.
Upon my return here I find that the clerks, male
and female, employed in the clipping and signing
of Confederate Treasury notes have been ordered to
report at Columbia, South Carolina, where the notes
are printed, and that the employes in the Second
Auditor's bureau have been transferred to Mont-
gomery, Alabama, the town in which the Provi-

sional Government was originally organised. This
step has been taken, as I learn from the most trust-
worthy sources, in consequence of the scarcity of
provisions in Richmond, which, since the beginning
of the war, haft at once been a besieged city and a
city of refuge and resort. The deficiency of trans.

portation arising from the deterioration of the rail-
way lines and the deficiency of food in Virginia
. . _

arising from the occupancy of important grain-
growing districts by the enemy, to say nothing of
the presence here at all times of a large number of

Government employes, refugees, visitors, and per-

sons belonging to the army, render it necessary for
Government to practise the utmost economy in the

consumption of food. It is not improbable, there-
fore, that other persons connected with its service at
the capital, whose duties ca❑ be performed as well
at one place as another, will be sent to points more

convenient to supplies.
As has already been intimated, this order was
not issued at the suggestion of the War Office.

On the contrary, reasonable confidence is felt,
both in official and unofficial circles, that General

Lee will he able to give a good account of him-
self in the pending coßflict. A battle between
himself and General Grant is imminent, and may
take place any day if the present dry weather
continues. During the whole of February and
the early part of March the weather was favour-
able to military operations, but since the 15th ult.
it has been unusually wet and cold ; otherwise, it
is not improbable that General Lee would have
given his antagonist battle before this time. It is
known that General Grant, in anticipation of such
an event, is now concentrating his army in front of
General Lee, and that General Sherman is concen-
trating his at Chattanooga in front of General
Johnston. Indeed, the United States may be said
to have now only three armies in the field—the
army now assembled in Richmond, the army
in the vicinity of Chattanooga, and the
army under General Banks in the Red
River country. The coasts, rivers, and inland
towns have been stripped of their garrisons in a
great measure, and every available man sent for-
ward for the reinforcement of these three principal
armies.

Thus, at the beginning of the fourth year of the
war, the Federal Government finds it necessary to
abandon much of the territory which its armies
have overrun, in the vain hope that by missing
great bodies of men, and hurling them upon parti-
cular points, they may be able to reach a vital part
of the Confederacy. But the truth is, the Confe-
deracy, like Milton's archangel, has no vital part ;
it is instinct with equal life and resistance through-
out all its parts and members. The possession of
Richmond, as of New Orleans and Chattanooga,
would certainly not be without its advantages to
General Grant ; but, aside from its moral effect here
and on the other side of the Potomac, the evacua-
tion of the town by the Confederates, and the with-
drawal of their army further south, where it would
be more convenient to supplies, wield be a -positive
benefit to them. The necessity of di:lending Rich-
mond has always been asource of embarrassment to
General Lee, as well as (I work of exceeding diffi-
culty, owing to the 'peculiar geographical coefigura-
lion of Eastern. Virginia, and the want of a 'fleet of
gunboats. l'his will be apparent to the intelligent
reader upon an inspection of the map, without which
all military speculations are so much vain verbiage.
But it should not be inferred from what is here said
that the authorities have any thought of abandon-
ing the capital, or that the country is without
strategic points of great importance.
Intelligence received here within the last few
days has, it is believed, put the Confederate autho-
rities in full pOssession of General Grant's plan of
campaign in Virginia. It is uow understocd that
he will move on Richmond with three columns—
at any rate with two, each one moving by a different
route and having a distinct base. The first under
General Grant himself will move from the line of
the Rappahannock ; the second under General
Butler will move from Fortress Monroe by way el
the peninsula, following the route that M`Clellan
took, and the third, led by General Burnside, and
consisting of the corps he is assembling at Anna-
polis, will operate on the south side of James River,
and seek to cut the railway line leading southward
at Petersburg or Meldon. Shoald the movement
be made with two columns instead cf three, then
Burnside will take the place of Butler, and advance
up the peninsula. Such, at least, is the information
received here from sources considered worthy of
confidence. But the question occurs, will General
Lee wait on his adversary, and give him time to
complete his combinations, or will he assume the
offensive, and strike him in detail ? A few days,
the weather permitting, will bring us an answer
this interesting inquiry. co

Some additional inteliigenca
-4 come to hand in
rEgird to the late operatior6 in the Trans-Aliesis•
sippi Department, el'
tided to in my letter of the
14th inst. A telr
gram dated at 161obile yesterday
says ;—S:" /Yr.-alter; despatches report a battle at
_ad, in north-western Louisiana, April 8,
lr_. Which the Federais under General Banks were

defeated with a loss of 8,000 men. General E.
Kirby Smith captured 35 guns, '2OO waggons, and
2,000 prisoners. The Federals admit a defeat.
Generals Mouton and Polignac were severely
wounded. General Steele (Federal) is surrounded
on the Little Missouri river awaiting reinforce-
ments." Whether the particulars here given are
correct or not it is impossible to say ; though there
are certain features of the report, such as the
wounding of Generals Mouton and Polignac, who
are known to have been with General Smith, and
the location of the battle at Mansfield, at which
place General Banks would probably have atrived
about the Bth of April, which induce this belief in
official circles here that Banks bat tnet with a seri-
ous disaster, especially since some u the Northern
newspapers admit a defeat, and
say the accounts
have been suppressed at New Orleans. As the
pies much of the country lying
Federal army o-an
between 'ffilansfield and the Mississippi, it may be
sore days before a full and circumstantial account of
the battle can percolate through their lines, and the
wide network of rivers, bayous, swamps, and cane-
brakes by which that distant region is reticulated,
and in which General Banks, if ho be not careful,
will become inextricably entangled. General Polig-
nac is the son of the late Prince Polignac, of France,
and has been in the service of the Confederates
since the first year of the war. He was present with
the French army at the siege of Sebastopol, and
took part in the operations which preceded the re-
duction of that stronghold.
General Forrest, after the fall of Fort Pillow on
the 12th inst., of which you were advised by my
last letter, held the work for some days, and
then proceeded to demolish it. The heavy guns
by which it was defended, were thrown into
the Mississippi, or rendered unfit for service,
and the military stores removed, after which he
withdrew his command to Jackson, in Western
Tennessee, where ho has ebtablished his head-
quarters. Lower down the great river Colonel
Powers, with 200 men, dashed into Port Hudson
on the 71 h inst., capturing some guns and prisoners,
and inflicting considerable loss in killed and
wounded, considering the number of men in `ols
command. The European reader will kna-vs- what
estimate place pofo at thbeeue:ittreadv asgtaant
et.
sstoriesnwith
n
which
tto
papersh
e
regard to the treatment or the garrison at Fort
Pillow by General Forrest. They remind one of
the fables so extensively circulated just after the
first battle of Manassas.
To the foregoing instances of success and activity
on the part of the Confederates I have now to add
an irnprtant advantage gained yesterday by Bri-
gadier-General Mike, at Plymouth, on Albemarle
Sound, in Eastern North Corolina. Telegrams re-
ceived at the War-office last night and this morning
state that he had carried the place by storm, though
I defended by strong perrnaeent fortificatiors, and