The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-13 00:00:00

T 1 lB CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

;(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 29.

Ten d aye ago General Rosencranz was the only
genuine Napoleon of the war. All others, includ-
ing Ger .eral M'Clellan, were fictitious, or, in Ameri-
can par:lance, " bogus:* Rosencranz was the man
of the hour; the nen-political General who was to
-win battles, pierce the heart :of the Confederacy,
and brileg the Southern leaders to their knees howl.
ing for mercy. But General Bragg has wrought a
change,. and. Rosencranz has been thrown from his
pedestal, -and will, unless he gain a victory even now
—whieth no one expects,—be consigned to the him-
ber-roorn where rest, more or less broken and
dilapidated, the once heroic statues labelled with
the names of 3{‘Da well, M'Clellan, Fitzjohn, Porter,
Pope, Stone, Butler, and others, who have served
their turn, and are now considered neither useful
nor ornamental. Disheartened by one reverse, the
supporters of the administration are calling for the
dismissal of Rosencranz, and the appointment in his
place of General Thomas, whose division in the great
battle of Chickamauga on Sunday, the 20th inst.,
saved the army of the Cumberland from total rout
and annihilation. But the Administration, knowing
-that it ordered Rosencranz to advance against his
better judgment, hesitates to adopt this course.
Knowing at the same time that a scapegoat of some
kind is necessary to appease the people, and help
to divert attention from its own mismanagement' it,
has found the victim in the person of General
Burnside, who, whether as military satrap of Ohio
or a leader in the field, has been without exception
the most unfortunate person the Federal Government
has ever had in its employ. The General has had
a keener appreciation of his own demerits than the
Government. He has never willingly assumed high
command; he protested against his own nomination
to succeed General M'Clellan ; he went reluctantly
to Cincinnati to play the part of a dictator, brit
having once tasted the sweets of arbitrary power,
he appears to have become unfitted for a secondary
position, and to
have yielded but a grudging obe-
dience to General Rosencranz, his junior in the ser-
vice_ A fortnight ago he resigned his command,
but was persuaded by the Government to reconsider
his determination. He did so, and was ordered to
march from Knoxville to the support of Rosencranz.
This for some reason he failed to do. The battle of
Chicxa mange was fought in his absence, and Rosen-
cranz was defeated. Though the same fate might
have befallen the army of the Cumberland had Burn-
side been present with his 25,000 man, the Govern-
ment assumes the reverse, and has marked its dis-
pleasure at his ill luck, or his inability, by relieving
bim of his command, and appointing General J oseph
:Rooker, the defeated of Chancellersville, in his place.
But General Burnside has not been allowed to fall
without a defender. Parson Brownlew, the most
profane "rowdy" that ever pretended to preach the
Gospel, or was dubbed " the reverend," a man who
-would not be tolerated as a clergyman in any part
of the world but in America, has publicly declared
in the columns of the Cincinnati Commercial that
Burnside has not been to blame, and that the Go-
vernment, in ordering him to advance, acted in the
profoundest ignorance of the topography of the
country to be traversed. The "Parson" states that
`` he has known the country since 1829, when it was
possessed by the Cherokee Indians; that he has in
the interval travelled over it in every conceivable
Way ;" and that a great deal more was expected of
Burnside than it was possible for Burnside to per-
form. The distance from Knoxville to Chattanooga
is, ha says, 110 miles, and from Chattanooga to La-
fayette•—in the immediate vicinity of which the
battles of the 19th and 20th were fought-45 miles
more. Throughout this district all the bridges had
beon burnt by the Confederates ; the streams are
sluggish and deep, and the banks high ; and the
country thickly timbered with a heavy undergrowth,
"making it rather impassable for the operations of
a large army." The " Parson" calls lustily for rein-
forcements for Rosencranz, and thinks, if he gets
them " in sufficient numbers," which is exceedingly
doubtful, that Rosencranz will " whip the whole
Confederacy." As for himself, he has no fears of
the result. Blood, murder, fire, and extermination
are the weapons he recommends. " Greek fire for
the masses of the Southern people, and hell fire for
their leaders"—so shrieks this minister of the Gospel,
this man, who would be a shameless ruffian if he
were not a lunatic, which for the credit of Chris-
tianity and humanity it is to be charitably hoped
he must be.

Public expectation has for weeks been on the
stretch to hear of great events on the Rapidan and
in the harbour of Charleston. But the war languishes
in both places. General Meade has not the means
to advance against General Lee, and though sorely
pressed by the fools of Washington to run his head
against a wall, refuses to perform the Japanese
ceremony of Hari Kari. General Gilmore and
Admiral Dahigren at Charleston are equally power-
less, or equally prudent, and find themselves so
effectually checkmated by General Beauregard and
the gallant defenders of the brave little city as to
be unable even to plant their banner upon the ruins
4r)f Fort. Sumter, or make a single move with their
monitors and ironclads against the formidable ob-
structions that might in one moment quench the
pride of Ericsson, and prove that great as the capa-
cities of science are for offensive warfare, they are
more than equalled by its capacities for defence.

But Charleston, the Rapidan, and Chickamauga—
all
the phases of the war—have fcr the moment lost
their interest in comparison with that excited by the I
preeene, in
New York harbour of a greater fleet
foreign Near of
vessels than was ever seen in those
Watersimrie, since°il
board the Nile, arrived yesterday from
'the
India station, accompaniedlmmortalhe by the gunboats
and
Guerriere has mble.
The French frigate
biraleet•urned from Halifax with
three others, and
war ships has been here for nearly of
no less than seven
week. No one
knows why this rendezvoursuhee9:bileettn appointed, or
what hostile or amicable purposes
, a corn dealer and i
of it. Gen. Hiram „allbriF are
at
the bottom ;
one of those haters of England, o
tossed
ancn- ,
- L
temptnously his grain bags to the'e
people
of
con-
shire a few months ago when George Griswold
laden with ostentatious charity, to show
generous and
showhewmwisaes.
Table English operatives were and n
forgiving were the merchants of New York, has,
is true, taken upon himself to declare in presenceit
of
some of the Russian officers (who, although they
spoke English,
and had previously addressed the
company in that language, did not think it expe-
dient to contradict him), that the object of the Czar
in sending such a fleet to New York was to have it
at a place " where, at a given signal, it could sweep
the commerce of Great Britain and France from the
seas." But as Gen. Hiram Wallbridge is no autho-
rity upon that or any other matter, except the price
Of breadstuffs, the gratification that might have been
excited in the American heart by his pompons an-
nouneement is qualified by the misgiving, largely
prevalent, that the bloodless general spoke from the
exuberance of feeling excited by the flowing bowl,
rather
than from knowledge or from any official
Fonsut.
- -Ing, either Russian
less, to , or American. Neverthe-
tery of taib'airuch wonderment to pierce the mys-
tery As no one can solve it, and as
gold is alarm"
modity has at the doubt, that tremulous coin-
per cent., lest gone Great from 381 to a premium of 44
should, after all, be in Britain. France, and Russia
and conjointly determined accord, and have severally
South for the commanding
to notify to North and
harbour, that the war had position of New York
long, and that it is high dt. lasted a great deal too
for the North to ad-
mit the logic of facts and
the s
jueteheseity, and consent to
the independence of
Among minor affairs the steal° of as
eer. Valla.n-
digham for the Governorship of 14.1),,,;:
prece-
dence. The event comes
off
next:rnitnaiks:Brati
otoeffort is and will be made by the AA week- Every
defeat the candidature of that gentleman, '
R.
Gess would be a blow so damaging to the a "e-
-reputation
of the Cabinet that no stone is left unturned to
pie_D
every kind vent it. The State is "stumped" by nd of
speelser and orator in the interest of the Republican
party who can be persuaded or paid to declaim
againat the man who in his exile gives Mr. Lincoln
aryl his friends almost as much uneasiness as Gen.
Lee or Gen. Beauregard. The services of the gentle
thing but her tongue
Anna Dickinson—gentl in any