The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-04 00:00:00

CONFEDERATE ARTILLERY,

A M. Giraud, having just returned from the Con-
federate States of America, has thrown his reflec•
tions into the shape of a memorial, which he has
addressed to the Emperor Napoleon. The Army
and Navy Gazette publishes a summary of this do-
cument, from which we make the following
extract:--

"We will now turn back to the text for a de-
scription of the Brooke gun, whose balls seem to
have gone through the Keokuk with the facility
and eccentricity of lightning through a country
parsonage. There -is nothing extraordinary in
the aspect of these guns. An attentive observer
would not fail to remark the circular bands closely
united to the piece, and which are destined to
give a greater resisting force. With regard to
their rifling, it is on the system of inclined
planes instead of groves (elle est en plans inclines,
au lieu dare sillonee). The projectiles are of forged
iron. Those which I had an opportunity of ex-
amining were adapted to 7-inch guns. Their form
is elongated, cylindrical nearly their entire length,
with the exception of the front part, which is
slightly conical and rounded off at its periphery.
the two extremities are vertical. The hinder part,
which presents itself to the breech of the piece,
bears on its circumference a bell-mouthed groove,
and receives a copper ring, whose ends nearly meet
at the end of the projectile. The projectile has
bands of copper running round it, one about
four inches from the front, and the other
close to the hind part. These bands alone
are destined to take the rifling of the piece.
At a distance of 200 yards, and with a charge
of 201 b of powder, these projectiles penetrate four
iron plates of two inches each, backed with 18
inches of oack, the whole fixed against a clayey
cliff. M. Giraud can testify to the precision of this
gun as well as its penetrating power, and it would
certainly seem that there must be some powerful
instrument keeping at bay he much-vaunted Federal
monitors. How otherwise account for their inac-
tivity ? How account for their being held in check
by dismantled forts ? The Keokuk went within
900 yards, and sheered off merely to sink the next
morning. M. Giraud, after this naval informa-
tion, shows what the Confederation has done
in the way of establishing arsenals, etc. To
supply the troops an immense bakery has been
created in Richmond, which turns out daily 350
barrels of biscuits, which, with the exception
of the kneading are made by steam. Government
contractors buy the flour on the most favourable
conditions, and without damaging the interest of
private bakers.

" The writer visited the naval encampment of
Drewry's.Bluff, situated nine miles below Richmond,
upon the James River. 'lt is this locality which
the Federals have decorated with the pompous
name of Fort Darling. There never was a fort at
this place; it is only an ordinary cliff rising about
80 feet above the level of the river, and which com-
mands a radius of between four and five miles.

When the Federal fleet, under the command

of Commodore Rogers, advanced, in May,
1862, upon Richmond, the cliff at Drewry's

Bluff was in ite natural state. It was

covered with thick forest vegetation. The Con-
federates had only just time to make a few
openings and lay three guns when the Federals
made their appearance. The river was defended
by three guns and barred by means of a few ships.
The enemy was repulsed with great damage, and it
was probably owing to this circumstance that ' Fort
Darling was invented. It was necessary to find a
plausible pretext for defeat. After the engagement
several tons of projectiles were picked up. The
Confederates have now, however, made of Drewry's
Bluff a most formidable position, which is guarded
by a naval encampment. More than one battery,
plated with iron now defends Richmond from
assault by the James River, and lying in
the stream is the plated steam frigate
Richmond, a kind of improved Merrimac, armed
with Brooke guns and manned with a crew of 150
sailors, who would no doubt prefer dropping past
Monroe into the Atlantic. When M, Giraud left
the Southern States a couple of months ago, there
was great activity in the yards of the capital. rwo
other vessels, on the model of the Richmond, were
being built—the Fredericksburg and the New Mer-
rimac; both sufficiently advanced to be able to take
part in a combat. The Patrick Henry is employed
as a naval school, and the plated gunboats Beaufort
and Hampton do duty between Richmond and the
river forts defending it. In all, six plated vessels
are ready in case of need to protect the capital."