The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-30 00:00:00

many very rapid discharges, cracked one of its
bands, leaving, however, many of its brethren be-
hind it at Charleston, which will make th, mselves
felt as the siege progresses, and which will be more
carefully handled hereafter. Nevertheless, if the
siege is to be nothing more nor less than a struggle
between scientific engineers the chances are that,
give them time enough, and the Federals will win.
They have quite as much science as the Confederates
and far better and illimitable material. The utmost
confidence is felt by the Confederates that if it
comes to mere fighting " belly to belly"—the style
of fighting which General Longstreet is said always
to adopt—they have nothing to fear from their
opponents.
The influence of such a protracted agony as the
siege upon the character of the inhabitants and de-
fenders of the beleaguered city is likely to be strange
and worthy of remark. It has been observed that
Battery Wagner has exercised a powerful effect in
the way of promoting religion among its occupants,
who, when relieved (which happened every four or
five days), were in the habit of flocking in large
numbers to the nearest " camp revival." A friend
who hatebeen watching the siege for the last month
writes to me, in explanation of this circumstance, in
no
the following terms :—" The sharpl
knowcrac cor reportr-
king
of the Monitor guns is agacant (I
sponding English expression), even when heard at
the distance of four miles; but conceive its effect
upon the nerves when it is heard from a distance of
only a few hundred yards, and is accompanied by
the explosion of a 15-inch shell, containing within
it several smaller shells, which come banging and
cracking and snapping about your ears, and per-
haps tearing in pieces a comrade by your side."
It must not be forgotten that this hail of projec-
tiles has frequently been maintained day and
night for weeks together, keeping the garrison
always on the strain, and promoting an irritable
feverishness and nervous susceptibility, which can
be more readily conceived than described.
In a former letter I mentioned that considerable
disappointment had been felt in high quarters here,
in regard to the loss by Gen. Beauregard, more than
two months ago, of Morris Island. It is nothing less
than justice that I should now state the defence,
advanced in extenuation of the General by his many
friends. It is asserted that Gen. Beauregard would
have swept the enemy off Morris Island the day
after he landed there if he had had anything like a
sufficient force to attempt it. But at the moment
he had only 700 men on Morris Island, 1,500 on
James Island and in Charleston, and 6t.ro on Sulli-
van's Island. His force had, as is now generally
known, been greatly depleted with a view to rein-
forcing Gen. Johnston—to little purpose, as it
subsequently proved. It is by Gen. Beauregard
regarded as a signal mercy that the Federals landed
on Morris instead of James Island, inasmuch as his
force was at the time too small to withstand them
on the latter, and inasmuch as (to quote his own
words) "Morris Island is not the key to Charles-
ton." But as matters now stand, with a far larger
force of Confederates to defend Charleston than
there is of Federals to attack it, and with new sand
batteries growing up daily on James Island, there
is little reason to fear an attack upon this point. I
am assured that the new batteries on James and
Sullivan's Islands are entirely of sand, even with•
oat revetments of wood, which were found to
splinter and do mischief at Battery Wagner. The
health of the troops is excellent, but they have to
be fortified with daily doses of quinine as a sequel to
their dress parades. Last year this ceremony was
omitted, and there was abundance of intermittent
fever. But, in spite of the belief held universally
before the war, that it was death to a white man to
sleep in summer for a single night upon one of the
islands around Charleston harbour, it is tound that,
given such a prophylactic as quinine, there are few
healthier or more agreeable marine residences than
the islands in question.

SEPT. 21.

I turn with reluctance to the consideration of the
momentous drama which is being enacted in the
neighbourhood of Chattanooga, and concerning
which, notwithstanding the facilities which have
always been extended to me, any information to be
gained in Richmond in so insufficient and inexact
that I have resolved to repair to-morrow to the
scene of action, and to judge with my own eyes.
It is impossible to deny that the Western campaign
of this autumn opened unpromisingly for the Con-
federates. In the first place the bloodless sur-
render by General Frazier and 2,000 Confederates
of their post at Cumberland's Gap—an eagle's nest,
which a handful of men could have held against
the world—is regarded here as so inexplicable that
1 hesitate to clothe in language the surmises which
are indulged in at Gen. Frazier's cost, and must
await fuller information before any judgment is
formed. Secondly, just at the moment when entire
confidence was felt that nothing could drive Gen.
Bragg from his impregnable position at Chatta-
nooga, Richmond was electrified by the tidings that
Gen. Bragg had withdrawn and allowed Gen.lto.sen-
cranz to slip into his nest. Thirdly, surprise and dis-
appointment have been felt that Knoxville and the
larger portion of the Virginia and Tennessee Rail-
road have been ceded with so little resistance, and
that more use has not been made of a country
abounding in strong and defensible position, and
difficult beyond description of access.
But having stated these preliminaries, and ad
milted their disadvantageous aspect, I must record
that unquestionably the finest army numerically
in the Confederacy is that which is now commanded
by General Bragg, and that there are brigades and
divisions now serving under him which are not
surpassed by the division of General Hood or by
any other section of General Lee's army. I may
also now be permitted to state that a muster roll
which previously presented every formidable aggre-
gate has recently been swelled by the subtraction
from General Lee's army of the fine corps of Gene-
ral Longstreet, who went last week to the West,
and has carried the enthusiasm and vigour which
his presence always awakens to inspirit the counsels
of a General who has unquestionably lost much of
the confidence which was last autumn reposed in
him. Bat I should not omit to mention that, for-
midable as is the army of General Bragg, swollen
by the addition of General Longstreet's corps, and
animated by the presence of General Longstreet
himself, there is abundant reason to think that
they are confronting by far the most formic'.
able General whom the war has yet thrown
to the surface upon the Federal side. It is my
impression that full justice has not been done
either in England or in the Confederate States to the
ability of Gen. Rosencranz. Although it may, per-
haps, be true that the Western men who obey Gene-
rals Rosencranz and Grant are finer material than
the sweepings of New York and Philadelphia, of
Which so large a portion of the eastern Federal
tulles has been composed, it is impossible to be blind
t° the fact that Gen. Bragg has led into the field
bus of the best troops which the Confederacy can
their melt.
The slight and indecisive superiority over
opc
has be__p invents which, during the last 12 months,
patient and pert?
in
my'opiniauifested by Gen. Rosencranz's army is,
be set down to the credit of that
presence of
raltrilacious commander himself. The
e of withllllLfirre:rosrsoUgli ,
he which,
massed
his
e rs
the bloody battle
artillery and protected
his
and shrinking before the troops, demoralised by
ridge's Kentuckians, in:re and elan of Breckin-
heai indomitable firmness
in the very highest
qualities of a general. fro
gcnmust be attri-
buted the retreat to which
next day driven. Again, the abilitygg Was
t"
he displayed this summer in •
and resource
naaintaining his
in front of Gen. Bragg, Itith
position which
ough greatly
sent had
weakened by the loss of reinforcements wh'le Y
of the
sent to Grant, and in spite of the falling waters
Tennessee River, falsified the anticipations of the
wisest heads in the Confederate States, and
are de.
serving of the highest commendation. There Lever
has been a moment when the widely-spread rear of
Gen. Rosencranz's armies has not been far more
vigilantly guarded and less accessible to attack than
that of the Federal armies in Virginia. It is be-
lieved that the attack upon Vicksburg along the
vulnerable heel of the Big Mach: River was directed
by the acuteness of none other than Gen. Rosen-
cranz. Lastly, the dexterity with
which he has
manoeuvred and elbowed Generals Bragg and Buck-
ner out of Chattanooga and Knoxville without

losing a life, the skill with which he has carried
his armies across such a stream as the Tennessee
River, and in such a country, and has all the time
kept his rear open, have combined to inspire in the
minds of all those who look sagaciously on a degree
of respect for General Rosencranz which has during
this war been elicited by no ether man except
General Lee.

It will then be believed that, great as has been
the confidence reposed in the numbers and morale of
General Bragg's army, there has been no inconsi-
derable relief experienced here by the arrival this
day of the following telegram :

" Chicamauga River, Sept. 20.
"After two days' hard fighting we have driven the
enemy, after a desperate resistance, from several strong
positions, and now hold the field ; but he still confronts us.
The losses are heavy on both sides, especially so in our
officers. We have taken over 20 pieces of artillery, and
some 2,500 prisoners, " BRAXTON BRAGG."
Into speculations and surmises about this battle,
in view of the fact that I hope to collect accurate
details in regard to it upon the spot where it was
fought, I shall not now attempt to enter. But
although thus far, the engagement in question can-
not but rank with other indecisive Eylaus and As-
perns which have been fought in the West, it is
evident that Gen. Bragg's army is fully able to hold
its own, and it is questionable whether the Federals
can afford to fight only a second Murfreesborongh.
There is excellent reason to think that the actions
of the 19th and 20th were fought before all Gen.
Longstreet's troops could have joined Gen. Bragg,
in confirmation of which belief I may men-
tion that lam about to travel to the West
to-morrow, in company with several of Gen.
Longstreet's staff. But, in the eyes of all thought-
ful! observers, it is becoming more and more appa-
rent that, so far as concerns soldiers in the field the
two sections are fighting more on a numericaleqUa-
lity than at any previous stage of the war. It is at
such a moment as this that, if rumour speak true,
it has seemed good to the war junta in Washington
to dismiss a large portion of General Grant's victo-
rious army into the wilds of Texas, there to combat
two antagonists more inexorable than the Confede-
rates—climate and distance. It is difficult to resist
the inference that such a step is timed with a view
not so much of strategy against the Confederates as
of future menace against France and Mexico. If
so, there is good reason to think that, blind to all
the previous warnings of the struggle, the Fe-
derals are again committing at the end of the
third year of war the same mistake which they
committed at its commencement, and are despis-
ing the enemy with whom they are actually en-
gaged. It will require some more level battle in
the West, and some more engagements in Virginia
—and such an engagement is at this moment
menacing General Lee, under circumstances far
more favourable to him than those under which the
Batttle of Chancellorsville was fought—to convince
the Federals that they are as far from the attain-
ment of their purpose as they were in April, 1861,
and that they may indefinitely increaee the volume
of the vast ocean of blood which has already been
spilt without advancing the question which has been
so long and bloodily debated one step nearer to its
solution.

SEPT. 22.
The preparations which are necessary for a trip
to Central Africa are scarcely more elaborate than
those which precede such an excursion as I am
about to undertake to East Tennessee. It was my
belief yesterday that, after much labour, they were
happily concluded, and that I should be enabled to
start this morning ; but yesterday evening my
horse, left standing for a moment in the street, was
stolen, and my departure is delayed until fresh ar-
rangements can be made. The incident is only
worthy of mention as indicating the snares and dif-
ficulties through which the Confederate States are
passing as they slowly win their way to indepen-
dence. Horse thieves, burglars, and occasionally
garotters, swarm in the streets of Richmond, The
very atmosphere is corrupted by the presence of the
hosts of money-grabbing Hebrews and blockade-
runners, who reck nothing of Federal or Confede-
rate rights, and are the great debasers of Confede-
rate currency and the elevators of gold. It requires
the heart of a nation and its leaders to be eminently
sound to withstand the pernicious influence of such
a hunger and thirst after money
per-
vades. not only Yankeedout, but also so large a por-
tion of this community. as at present
But much as the mania for speculation is to be
regretted, it has not as yet eaten up public virtue
in the Confederacy. A stranger to the streets of
Richmond would this morning be astonished could
he perceive the deep-seated heartiness and earnest-
ness of the joy with which the fast-coming telegrams
from General Bragg's army, each bringing greater
assurances of victory, are read and commented on
by the throngs of passers-by. The public heart was
far from:being satisfied with the telegram which I
mentioned in my letter of yesterday, but it requires
nothing to be added to the telegram of to-day,
which is in these words "
Ten miles south of Chattanooga, Sept. 21.
"The enemy retreated on Chattanooga last night, leaving
his dead and wounded in our hands. His loss is very large
in men, artillery, small arms, and colours. Ours is heavy
but not yet ascertained. The victory is complete, and our
cavalry is pursuing. With the blessing of God our troops
have accomplished great results against largely superior
numbers. We have to mourn the loss of many gallant
men and officers. Brigadier- Generals Preston-Smith, Helm,
and Deshler are killed ; Major-General Hood and Brigadier-
Generals Adams, Gregg, and Brown wounded.

" BRAXTON BRAG/61."
Other telegrams have followed, indicating an amount
of demoralistition in the Federal forces which make
it doubtful whether Gen. Rosencranz can hold his
own at Chattanooga; and if he is driven from Chat-
tanooga, who can say how far he may not be forced
bank ?

Already there is a confident conviction in this city
that the strong aggressive attitude which the forces
of Gen. Meade have lately worn in Virginia will
suffer immediate abatement and diminution.
Nothing has been more marked throughout this war
than the sympathy on both sides between the armies
fighting in the East and West. The policy of the
Federals at this moment should evidently be ag-
gressive. I may be mistaken, but the indica-
tions are that upon this attitude of aggression
they will not, after the battle of Chattanooga, ven-
ture to embark. It will be my endeavour to put
your readers hereafter in possession of fuller parti-
culars in regard to the great Western campaign of
this autumn, which would otherwise be little likely
ever to come to their knowledge. But it is not prema-
ture to say that there is a widespread apprehension
here that the victories of the 19th and 20th have,
among many other valuable lives, deprived the Con-
federacy of one General whose place it will be
almost as hard to fill as the place of Stonewall
Jackson. It will be remembered that at Gettys-
burg the services of General Hood were at an
early period lost to General Lee. General Hood
suffered greatly from a painful wound which broke
both bones of his left arm, and I was shocked re-
cently to observe how much he had been reduced by
his wound. But when the order to his division to
go to the West arrived, nothing could withstand
his impatience to accompany them, and with wound
only half healed, and against the advice of his
friends, he hurried out in company with General
Longstreet. Tidings have been received that in the
battle of Chattanooga one of his legs was carried off
by a cannon shot, and it is impossible to hope that
in his weakened condition he can recover from such
a wound. There have been men by dozens in the
war who have on both sides attracted more of the
public attention, but it is certain that no braver, no
more modest, no more faithful and self-sacrificing
soldier than General Hood.

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