The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-29 00:00:00

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 73.

-.-.
,4 Head-quarters, Army of Northern' Virginia,
Chambersbnrg, Pennsylvania, June 27.
" The Commanding General has observed with marked
satisfaction the conduct of the troops on the march, and
confidently anticipates results commensurate with the high
spirit they have manifested.
"No troops could have displayed greater fortitude, or
better performed the arduous marches of the past ten days.
" Their conduct in other respects has, with few excep-
tions, been in keeping with their character as soldiers, and
entitles them to approbation and praise.
" There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness on
the part of some that they have in keeping the yet unsullied
reputation of this army, and that the duties exacted of us
by civilisation and Christianity are not less obligatory in the
country of the enemy than in our own.
" The Commanding General considers that no greater dis-
grace could befal the army, and, through it, our whole
people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon
the unarmed and the defenceless, and the wanton destruc-
tion of private property, that have marked the course of the
enemy in our country.
" Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and
alt connected with them, but are subversive of the disci-
piofi ne and efficiency of the army and destructive of the ends
our present movement.
"It must be remembered that we make war only upon
armed
is the
wrongs
eyes o f allopue people
bhheo:
enemies,svee
men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the
whongiavutirgieeano
atrocities of
port our efforts must
"The Commanding
the troops to abstain with
un-
necessary or wanton in'
enjoins upon all et:fleet-41'Y t°
Priv
punishment all who shall
orders on this subject. 4 any
way offend against the

. tbhubstantially, and
It is not too much to say that.
orders have
, • BE, General."
gserefraotensittshuerprise
4,11, E L
to all effects and purposes
hitherto been rigidly obeyed. Th
1 has been expressed to me by officers
Aus-
trian, Prussian, and English armies, each of which
has now a representative here—one of them
(the
Prussian) quasi-official, the other two private indi-
viduals travelling for their own pleasure that
volunteer troops, provoked by nearly 27 months of
unparalleled ruthlessness and wantonness of which
their country has been the scene, should be under
such control and willing to act in harmony with
the long-suffering forbearance of President Davis

and General Lee. Individual cases of atrocity of
course there have been, likely, if got hold of by
the Northern press, to point many an argument
from singular to universal, and to be represented as
the invariable rule of action for the rebel army.
One solitary case of rape has been reported, certain,
as the perpetrator has been caught, to be visited
with condign punishment, or, in other words,
with death ; two murderers of private indivi-
duals, an offset to many dozens of murders inflicted
Among with
mayhy mention
heen edon theer era Isc a
so Sen
of ui
rt
.h erners.
Robert
E. Scott, of Fanquier County, in Virginia—a man
regarded on this continent very much as Mr.
Henley is in England, who, apparently to the de-
light of the Washington Cabinet, was ruthlessly
robbed and murdered by some Yankee stragglers,
and likely to be signally avenged by General Lee.
But, with these exceptions, the damage done to
Pennsylvania consists in the seizure of many horses,
cattle, stores, waggons, and much forage, in ex-
change for which Confederate money has been paid,
or, if preferred, receipts have been given in the
name of the Confederate Government. Not a barn
has been burnt, not a shed destroyed. Upon each
side of the execrable road which leads from Hagers-
town to Chambersburg, a broad track as wide as
Regent-street has been trodden down by the on-
ward line of horse and foot ; beyond this, damage
there has been none, save such as is comprised in
the plucking of a few cherries from the abundant
cherry trees which grow wild in this latitude, and
the occasional larceny of a few chickens. To-day a
spectacle was witnessed, the like of which, in my
belief, has never been exhibited by any great cap-
tain during the last 100 years. General Lee wan-
dered a few yards away from his quarters, and ob-
served a rail fence girding a field, of which a few
rails had been pulled down and a gap into the field
opened. With his own hands, and unassisted, he
commenced repairing the fence, until at last Dr.
Cullen, of General Longstreet's staff, came to his
assistance, and together they made good the damage.
I am told that whenever he has observed them he
has, either personally or through his staff, ordered
the rebel blackbirds to desist from pilfering the
cherry trees.
In the meantime, General Ewell, in command of
the 2d corps of the Confederate army, has swept on
to Carlisle, and thence has proceeded eastward to-
wards York, where he cut the railroad, which con-
nects Harrisburg and Washington, and I believe
encountered a few Pennsylvania militiamen, who
are represented as having emerged from rifle-pits
as deep as a well, to discharge one round apiece at
their enemy, previous to surrendering, and being,
as is reported, contemptuously dismissed, minus
shoes and hate, by General Ewell. From York
General Ewell has shaped his course southward and
westward towards Gettysburg to join the array of
General Lee in its advance over the South Moun-
tain, and to constitute the left wing of that army.
It is understood that General Stewart is about to
join General Ewell, having made his way out of
Virginia, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Georgetown, a suburb of Washington, where he is
said to have captured 130 waggons, with six horses
or mules apiece, and 100 spare horses attached as
supernumeraries. The full details of his pas-
sage through Maryland, which is said to have been
extremely successful, have not reached me as yet,
but it appears that he cut the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad which now only runs to the neighbour
hood of Harper's Ferry, and has joined or is about
to join General Ewell on the extreme Confederate
left, and is likely to be heard of again in the event-
ful campaign on the threshold of which we are now
standing.