The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-23 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 23, 1863.

The Africa has just brought to us news from
America. The intelligence dating down to the 11th
inst., at New York, arrived, it will be seen, on the

22d at Queenstown. It is precisely of the old
lamentable character. Several exploits attempted,
some of them partially accomplished, but nothing
done on either side calculated in any way to bring

this hideous contention to a close. Like the little

scientific Marionettes in the obsolete toy barometer,
in and out, alternately appearing and disappearing
with bewildering uncertainty, move the Federals
and Confederates. But that the results are so
frightful the events would be simply contempti
ble.

As it is, becomes to the last de.

gree wearisome to reiterate continually the same,
precisely the same, kind of inconclusive occur-

rences. Assured all tho while that ruin and blood

shed increase, as the time advances with the multi-
plication of these events, one reflects at the same
moment that nothing all the while comes of it—
nothing, that is to sqy, in any even the faintest
appreciable manner calculated to lead towards the
conclusion of this chaotic epoch of disasters.
Two enterprises stand forth in our latest budget
of news from the opposite shores of the Atlantic as
constituting the incidents of the civil war since the
receipt of our former despatches.
On the seventh the Federal cavalry appear to
have obtained a certain advantage over the Con
federates at Unionville, in Tennessee, about ten
miles from Murfreesboro. A sudden attack adven-
tured upon by the former enabled them to bear
cif at its termination the camp equipage of the
Southcrns at Unionville, together with a number
of prisoners.

There was tit for tat, however, at as early a date
afterwards as the morning of the ninth, when the
Confederates resolved upon and successfully accom-
plished a bold raid into Fairfax Court House. At
two o'clock in the morning this rush into Fairfax
Court House was effected—Brigadier General
STOUGUTON, with head-quarters, guard, and fifty •
five horses, being the captured trophies of the day.
GlAthering their prisoners together and stowing
away their booty—" boot, saddle, to horse, and
away !" went the Confederates afterwards on the
road to Warrenton. It mattered nothing that
they had to pass the outposts at Centreville. 7 hat,
to keeu-witted warriors, like the Southerners,
proved to be nothing of an impediment. In the
captured order-books of the Court House at Fairfax,
the countersign being looked for, was there duly
found, was thereupon duly used, and thus was won

a clear passage through the obstructive outposts at
Centreville ! To indulge in as choice a specimen of
elegant latinity as any of those charming fragments
from the classics adorning the conversation of Capt.
WRAGGE, one might imagine the leader of this
audacious raid upon Fairfax Court House muttering
to himself sardonically as he turned the leaves of
the captured order book in search of the counter-
sign-4'as est ab ?:oste doceri. No wonder when all
was done ttas adroitly, no wonder at all, that
nothing cams of it, when the Federal cavalry were
sent in pursuit.
According to the accounts now brought to us by
the Africa,VaN Do
all appears to have had under him
fully 10,000 men auxin
the recent contest at Spring-
ville. And, if we are to credit the assertion on the
other side that the Federate mustered there no more
than 3,000 in all, it cannot be any longer matter of
much surprise that with his 10,000 MetkVAN DORN
was enahied to take from among the opposing3,000
as D'-"any as 2,000 prisoners.
As to the maritime movements both among the
Northerns and Southerna, there are two or three
WM reported that are not unworthy of being par-
ticularised. First of all the statement as to the
destruction of the Nashville at Savannah is, by
these advices, fully confirmed. Then rumours were
afloat on the 10th at New York to the effect that
several gunboats had contrived to pass at length
through the channel formed from the Mississippi
into Lake Providence. There were flying state-
- New Yerkeven:adding that already those
4-. ling, about them consider-

-.Tint so far