The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-12 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
RICHMOND, March 31.
March, like February, has rolled away without
any advantage having anywhere been gained by the
Federal, or aggressive party, and it is the opinion
of all thoughtful men that every day during
which this miserable strife is protracted is an un-
questionable gain to those who are acting on the
defensive. Still, three months of inaction and of
dexterous mendacity on the part of the hundred-
mouthed and unscrupulous press of the North have
again created a soul beneath the ribs of death, have
depressed the premium on gold in New York to less
than 40 per cent., and have persuaded the gullible
and sanguine populace of the North that the object
to attain which they have in two years spent as
many lives and millions as all Europe has expended
in two centuries, is on the eve of accomplishment.
Well may an impartial spectator, resident in the
Confederacy, rub his eyes and ask whether the un-
broken spirit of resistance which he everywhere sees
around him is a hollow delusion—a bubble which
is about to burst, or whether it portends such a
termination of this struggle as is confidently antici-
pated by every man, woman, and child whom he
meets. Let the North make the most of the lull
which winter has interposed between the savage
passions of the belligerents ; it remains to be seen
whether the third and most sanguinary campaign
of this war wilt effect more towards the restoration
of the Union than its two predecessors have done.
One thing, however, may be confidently predicted ;
in the battles which are now apparently impending
there will not be such absence of great results and
critical denouements as hasattended the bloodshed of
tee last 24 months. The terrible apprenticeship
through which the two sections have passed, the
experience which at least on one side the Generals
have gained, will, it is everywhere believed, be
fruitful of events, and the achievements of an army
which has witnessed 100 engagements will excel
the achievements of raw recruits as far as the
army of Toulouse excelled the army of Corunna.
The moment is a solemn and serious one,
likely to be deeply impressive to a spectator to
whom are entrusted by dozens of officers with
whom he has contracted friendships com-
missions to be discharged in the event, so generally
anticipated by many of them, of their falling.
Never since war fiist desolated the earth has such
slaughter attended the collisions of mighty hosts of
men ; never have such death-dealing weapons or
such exuberance of artillery been brought into the
field. Chiefly in the terrible battles of the West,
of which only an imperfect record has ever reached
New York or Richmond, and of which not much
more is known in Europe than of the battles o

Charlemagne, has this fearful slaughter been appa-
rent. At Murfreesborough, out of 45,000 men
whom General Rosecrans led into the field, at least
one-third lay dead or wounded at the close of those
frightful days of bloodshed. In the battles around
Richmond, and in none others, the Southern loss
was upon a similar scale; but in those battles the
Federals fought behind entrenchments, against
which storming patties of Confederates were again
and again led. But if ever again the fortunes of
war shall lead to the collision of great hosts of com-
batants in the vicinity of Richmond, let no such ad-

vantage be looked for by the North. On every hill
and crest in the neighbourhood of this city, on

every stream and point of vantage in the neigh.
bourhood of Petersburg, works and fortifications o

every description have, Under the inspiration of the
best engineer officers of the old United States'army,

been elaborately prepared, and well may the confi

dent allegation, that against such works the whole
might of Yankeedom will expend itself in vain, find

credence in the breast:of any observant spectator.
There is little apparent ground for the belie:
which seems to have found favour in England, that

the greatest and most eventful struggle of this
war will occur at Vicksburg. From accidental

circumstances, and chiefly from the " sensation"
writing of the New York
• press, an amount

of interest has attached itself to Vicksburg
which is by no means entertained with regard to it
in the Southern Confederacy. If ever my letter from
that remote point has made its way to England, it
will have been seen that the chief strength of Vicks-
burg consists i❑ its inaccessibility. From the river
alone can it be formidably attacked, and all the
immense hailstorms of shot and shell which have
hitherto been thrown into the little city from the
river have produced indcsci ibably little effect. In
half a dozen different ways the Federals have tried
to flank or evade it. Apparently, the least formid-
able of ail their efforts has been through what is
called the Yazoo Pass. A fort at the mouth of the
Tallahatchee River has driven the Yankee gunboats
and transports headlong back to the Mississippi ;
nor is it likely that the New York Herald, the cor-