The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-04 00:00:00

TEM CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, Nov. 20.
Thoe,e who have read the seven or eight letters
preceding this will feel no great surprise on hearing
that General Burnside is in some danger of being
gobbled up" (to use an elegant American phrase)
by the Confederates. He may yet offer a glorious
and s-accessfal resistance, or he may adroitly slip
through his enemy's fingers, but that he is in a
somewhat awkward predicament his best admirers
are not unwilling to admit. The telegrams are as
yet, actor ding to their wont, obscure and contra-
dictory, but this much can be satisfactorily made
out—tleat Burnside's advanced forces at London and
Kings ton came into contact with the Southerners
under Longstreet, and that, after a series of sharp
skirmishes, which lasted from Saturday, the 14th,
till the ensuing Thursday (yesterday), the Federal
forces had been driven into Knoxville, and the piece
WAS completely invested. Gen. Shackelford was
attacked by the Confederates on the other slide of
the Holeten, three miles above Knoxville, and held,
it is said, the enemy in check (luring the whole of
Sunday. It is evident, however, that the Confede-
rate movement took place after a long-meditated
and well-conducted plan, so as to press simultaneously
ore all Burnside's forces, and shut them up in Knox-
ville, the only place they now hold in East Tennessee.
'[he losses of the Federals in these various en-
counters have been rather heavy ; by their own
accounts between 200 and 300 on Monday, and 150
on the following day. General Sanders was borne
off the field badly wounded. The Federals, how-
ever, console themselves with the hope that their
enemy's, loss must have been far more severe-1,000
on Monday, 400 or 500 on Tuesday.
By the side of this momentous and possibly
ominous episode the other recent incidents of the
war sink into comparative insignificance; "All
quiet" on the Rapidan and Chattanooga, with the
usu el thundering canonade against Fort Sumter—
the flag shot down several times bat as many times
hoisted up again, and for the hundredth time within
the last four or five months, the confident predic-
tion of the surrender of the fort. The pen wearies
with writing down the same things again and again.
The affair at Buzzard Prairie, on the east side of
Bayou Teche, in Louisiana, on the 3d, turns oat to
have been a more serious one for the Federals than
had rat first been supposed. Washburne's column
lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners, 577 men.
The whole of the Indiana 77th was captured, the
60th Indiana and 96th Ohio suffered severely.
These, be it remembered, are Federal accounts. It
appears that Washburne's force only owed its safety
to its excellent artillery. Thedisaster is, indeed,
accounted for by the alleged fact that the Confede-
rates were as five to one (5,000 against 1,800), but
the presence of such superior forces in Louisiana is
a sufficient evidence of the amount of work the
North has yet to accomplish before the rebellion is
crushed,even in those territories on the main Feints
of Which the stars and stripes have been waving
triumphantly for the best part of a twelvemonth.
With all their millions under arms, somehow the
Federals seem always to contrive to find themselves
on the battlefield against overwhelming numbers.
It certainly, however, is no easy matter to damp
the spirits of these wonderful Yankees. Whatever
happens is for the best. Driven from one pcsition
they take up the next. They allow no reverse to
shake their confidence of ultimate success. At the
time that General Grant was sent to supersede
Itoseneranz and take the command of all the armies
of the South-West it was e-epected that " a bloody
and decisive" victory would crush the rebellion at the
close of the season. A month has now elapsed,
Red hardly au inch of ground has been gained in
Tennessee or Georgia—nay, the chances are that
Burnside wili lose more than ho has pined, and for
the rest the usual drawn game is being played be-
tween the Rapidan and the Rappahannock. But
now those same Yankees who were " cock sure" of
signal Bile cess iu the field begin to discover that
`` they had better stand still." The South is a vast
citadel which cannot be taken by storm. It must,
therefore, be reduced by blockade.
It may be worth while for the reacr to follow
'the train of Yankee argument. Thu rebel army in
the field, they reckon, cannot exceed 200,000 men.
Of these about 55,000 are under Lee in Virginia,
65,000 more obey Bragg's orders on the borders of
Georgia. The rest are scattered about doing
garrison duty ; 2:5,000 men are still beyond the
Mississippi. The Federals, on the other hand, have
"300,000 combatants in active service, in the front;
their effective forces are actually three to one to
those of their adversaries. These latter, indeed,
avow that "the Yankees have one army too many
for them:, Each party tries to multiply its forces
by shifting then rapidly from east to west, from
one camp to another. The Federals are stretched
en a line nearly twice as long as that of the
Southerners; but the means of locomotion of which
the former dispose more than compensate for the
disadvantage of double distances. The Confede-
racy is like a vast beleaguered fortress. Reduced
to its present dimensions it is a square, two aides of
Which are made by the sea from Baltimore all
round the coast to New Orleans, and the two others
by the Mississippi from its mouth to the confluent
?t the Ohio, and further to the meeting of the
rotmessee and the Cumberland with what the
French settlers call La Belle Riviere. With the ex-
ceptionof the Alabama and the Tombigbee, all the
water
e°llraes are in the hands of the Northerners
As the
Confederates have lost almost all communica-
tion by water, so are they also sadly deficient in all
their means
t locomotion by laud. Their rail-
ways are used
13, both rails and rolling stock ; and
they have done
eT to nothing to make up for the
'wear and
tear their extraordinary war move-
ment. Not halt a dozen locomotive engines have
been either
manufactured4l or imported since the
outbreek of the War, and
more than 150 have been
Tendered unfit for use,
gorses and waggons are
"
also getting scarce,
and the Confederates must sup-
ply themselves with wiles
their
'to manage
to take from their.enemy,6
North, on the con-
trary,all its ener
to bear on its means
brought es
of locomotion. The war has been a
godsend to its
railway companies, and they never
re in more
capital trim ; horses Wore never more plent.f
currency being t k al, nor
ever, the state of the cu a en into
sideration, were they to be had at more r con.
Sears the North bas
prices. For the last two r It has aa
ad n°
other business than this SN4 • . Strainedverye
nerve iu its furtherance; it pursues it to the flay
extent of its boundless means ; it bears its burden:
without apparent distress.
The blockade is now almost complete. Its effects
began to be evident since the tall of Vicksburg and
Port Hudson. It is even now reducing the rebels
to extremity. There is sore famine in the South.
The Confederates have lost large and valuable tracts
—Tennessee. Mississippi, aid the region beyond.
Georgia and Alabama could grow corn, but the
planters are slack in their work, for a debased cur

rency and the dreaded requisitions of the army are
but indifferent stimulants to agricultural industry.

Crops are said to be short at the South. There is
rtal destitution and threatened famine in Dixie.
The Federal captives are an unbearable burden to
their captors, and from 1,000,000 to 1,800,000
negroes, driven into the contracted Confederacy
from the invaded Border States, are eating up the
land like locusts. " Every ono of theso swarthy
fellows fights the Union cause whenever he gots a
dinner."

So
*a- the°t;a literally. Yankee politicians, whose words I have
almost
I,iterally. Now for the answer on the
other aide. That
there is distress in some parts
of the rJonfederZY fact not to be disputed. The
Federal prisouraal: a
Richmond and elsewhere have
been submitted to dire
erings. No meat, it is
said, " had been furnishatieff-
i,
reacsit to them for 12 days.',
At Belie Island they
'Touching the hardships 071 tohri dogs,'' &,:,..
ever, it is difficult to get at the troth. captives, how-
loutilanatnOn than to
recent period nothing was reer:T. Up to a very
hear the contending . parties
Praises of the mgnner In which their reesaceh .other's
soners were dealt with. That feed has Lentive a
and very cares, in ItichrLond wa have no
reear ° " '
to doubt, though we may hesitate to believe
,that
any pert or the active Con Cederate army ever. „
sub,
Fisted Cu half rations." The Richmond People Were
hard-up for their own food, and had but little to

spare for the Federal guests. Abstinence from
meat, even for a week or two, is, in itself, no very
dreadful hardship for people deprived of locomotion
and of healthy exercise, as prisoners are apt to be.
When the evil had reached a certain point, some of
the prisoners were released or " paroled," and their
appearance on this side the Federal lines seems to
have borne evidence of long endured martyrdom.
Many fainted and some died on the road. There is
some misunderstanding, however, in the rumour
which has been spread, that the Southerners do not
allow the prisoners to be relieved by their Federal
friends. The supplies furnished by the Baltimore
Relief Fund were, up to yesterday, going forward
regularly.
We are to!cl, truly, that the same facilities were
not offered to the commissaries that offered to come
in with their stores from Fortress Monroe. But
at this place, we know, Generalßutlerisinbrcnotraal-
mand, and there is little doubt that by some
message, or by some inadmissable conditions, the
man " riled" the Confederate authorities, who, how-
ewt they
ever, objected not to the introduction of the stores,
dp
np
er
se.
a
but only of the cosmmesi:ssaernitest,o
in
expose hoseeni the
hended so many pi
of the land. For the rest, I think, it would be folly
to impute wanton barbarity to the Southerners, and
it is worse than madness to try to goad the Fede-
rals to retaliation, as I hear many of the rabid
Aboliatrieonpisntesidtiovienigy
informedtothe utmost
thatof theiraneh
evil power.
We
soners as have money are free to use it for th of tehier oPriwn-
sustenance, and we are also aware that greenbacks
ere exchanged at the rate of eight dollars for one in
Confederate currency. The receipt of packages from
the Federal lines has been freely allowed from the
first symptoms of distress. The supply of blankets
has also promptly reached its destination. There
are about 14,000 Union prisoners in and about Rich-
mond, and the distress is so great in that city that
a large part of the population had to be removed to
better quarters. Whether the Confederates ought
rather to release than to starve their prisoners might
be a debateable question, but I think it will be made
clear in the end that no greater hardship has been
inflicted on the prisoners than circumstances
rendered absolutely inevitable. Those who gloat
upon tales of horror, and strive to stir up the worst
passions of one-half of their Union" against the
other half, little consider, or perhaps little care,
what treasure of rancour and revenge they lay up
in the hearts of a people who were brothers only
three short years ago, and who will within three
years more be brothers again, if the dearest hopes
of Yankee patriotism are to be realized.
If we may rely upon the same accounts, the distress
of the South is only partial and local, and the
Northern blockade is as unlikely to bring the
" citadel" to surrender as the Northern army are
still far from being in a condition to storm it. The
prices of most articles are fabulously high, by which
we are to understand that the Confederate paper
money is ridiculously low. But for the rest,
" though there is an immense amount of suffering
throughout the rebel domains," we learn from very
good authority that " the Confederacy is far from
exhausted; the crops are abundant and food is
plenty, but the rebel army is looked after first and
well supplied, and, with this and the difficulty of
obtaining transportation, little food finds its way
to Richmond." This, in a few words, we may be

lieve to be as near as possible the real state of affiirs,
and if so we can hardly believe that the Confederacy
will be " reduced by blockade'' in the course of this
winter.

Ths papers of to-day are almost entirely filled up
by two speeches delivered by two orators as unlike
each other as it might well be possible for this
Western world to produce—Mr.Everett's inaugural
oration at Gettysburg, and Mr. Beecher's "Impres-
sions of the feeling in Europe with respect to the
American War," spoken at the Brooklyn Academy
of Music.

The inauguration of the cemetery of Gettysburg
was an imposing ceremony, only rendered somewhat
flat by the nature of Mr. Everett's lecture, and
ludicrous by some of the luckless sallies of that poor
President Lincoln, who seems determined to play in
this great American Union the part of the famous
Governor of the Isle of Barataria. Honest old Abe
arrived at Gettysburg o❑ Wednesday evening, and
after supper was serenaded by the band of the sth
New York Artillery. There was a loud call for the
President. He appeared, and was loudly cheered,
when he opened his mouth and said :

" I appear before you, fellow-citizens, merely to thank
you for this compliment. The inference is a very fair one
that you would hear me for a little while at least were I to
commence to make a speech. Ido not appear before you
for the purpose of doing so, and for several substantial
reasons. The most substantial of these is that I have no
speech to make. (Laughter.) In my position it is some-
what important that I should not say any foolish things.
(A. Voice—' If ycu can help it.') It very often happens
that the only way to help it is to say nothing at all.
(Laughter.) Believing that it is my present condition this
evening, I must beg of you to excuse me from addressing
you further."

Mr. Seward soon afterwards spoke rather more
to the purpose, urging that the cause of the war was
slavery, and that the war would end in the removal
of its cause. He had hoped to see slavery die by
peaceful means, but he was destined to see it die by
the fates of war. The after-supper speeches of
Wednesday, however, were hardly to be looked upon
as a prelude of the great sayings and doings of the
ensuing day. Yesterday the proceedings were
opened by the Rev. Mr. Stockton with a long and
impressive prayer, followed up by the dedicatory
address by the President, got up in a somewhat
different style from his extempore effusion of the
eve, when at last the time came for the orator of
the day to open his MS.
The Hon. Edward Everett is a lady's orator. I
remember convening with fair enthusiasts who sat
under that gentleman's pulpit on his dibut as a
Unitarian minister in Boston, and who had not,
after many years, recovered from their rapture at
the "solemn, handsome, inspired, countenance,"
the "stately bearing,' the "deep, mellow voice"
of the youthful preacher, and especially at the
"graceful wave of the dazzling white hand.'' as
it followed the cadence of his well-rounded periods.
On all occasions where words are wanted—not
thoughts—where feelings are to be tickled—not
roused—nothing can be more refreshing or pleasing
than to hear and see Mr. Everett. Here, however,
mere rhetoric was out of place, and whatever effect
the lecture may have had on the feminine part of
the audience, which mustered rather strong on the
spot, there is no doubt that it reads tame beyond
belief, and is such a performance as would scarcely
win the prize for composition over the common run
of undergraduates. Mr. Everett begins by high-
-B°"ding allusions to Athens and Marathon ; he
gives a very minute description, or say circumstan-
al ,
and more than technical report, of the three
ig,itoatab_ iatutio-days of Juiy, 1863, then launches forth
that :toiuiry into the causes of the war, proving
began it," that the rebels are rebels,
and reheln:ttle
whnette
t most hideous crime man can be
of all possible
guilty of
saluvfkims at the overturn of the beat
the meats. He added that division
Evacvneare
had always been
of all communities, but
that the wounds infli6etbeTbe
healed, and the very Scar? political dissensions soon
effaced by time, and
calculated to call forth deep
, the wars of the Roses,
tihnsetraenbeeeldliothneacnadseroervolation,
and those of Germany,
&c.. Anything more dathing less ull and corn-
Initoanlyp,lace, France,an
or lively or lasting emotions, would not ba easy
by the most fastidious
taste, the moat ul unwearied
industry, and the most consummate scholarship
without a soul to it to produce. Mr. wardp
Jeeectier's
address was something different. It is not hie first
appearance before a Brooklyn audience since the
popular preacher got home : but he was awfully
sea-sick during his voyage, and his qualmish
efforts to spetk before his
• full recovery
must not be taken into account. Last evening
he was in the vein, and being addressed by
a brother preacher, Mr. Stozrs, who praised him for
"having literally taken the British lion by the ears,
and drawing it with so dexterous a gentleness, and
so wise a firmness, that the Royal beast roared in

approbation of the treatment," Mr. Beecher an-
swered, modestly enough, that " he put no immo-
derate estimate on his services," though "he beiieved
he did some good wherever he spoke. The object
of his speech was to point out to his countrymen
which classes and parties of the English public were
in favour
of the Northern cause, and which were

people;" "the
against it. He was sure of the middle and lower
classes—of the heart of the English
upper-class, as they are called, are on the side of the
South." The reasons by which these latter are
actuated are " commercial interest and rivalry
therein, class power and fear of contagion of Ame-
rican the fact that the Americans are too
large
andideas; the
a nation." For the rest, the cause
t the Union numbered many friends in England
o ida
among the members of the Government—the Queen
and the late Prince Consort first and foremost—
many organs of the Press, and a number of worthy
and influential persons, of whom he gave the names
in the midst of the applause of his delighted audi.
ence. Mr. Beecher's style of eloquence is now
familiar to most people in England, and needs no
remark on my part. Only it seems that he last
evening addressed his audience with a kind of home
feeling, and that the certainty of success bore him
up so as to render his triumph more brilliant than
any achieved by him on former occasions.

November 21.

General Burnside assures his friends at Wash-
ington that he is " all right," sate in his " impreg-
nable position" at Knoxville. His communica-
tions, however, are cut off in every direction. De-
spatches of the 19th report that there was fighting
throughout that day all round the closely beset
place. With the exception of Knoxville, all East
Tennessee is lost to the Federals, and it is very ques-
tionable whether a diversion in favour of the shut
up General can be effected either by Grant, who has
to be aware of Bragg, or by Meade, who seems to
seek for Lee everywhere where he is not. Grant,
after Sherman's junction with Thomas, is, numeri-
cally, very strong, but he has to deal with very per-
plexing difficulties of the ground, where his adver-
saries are evidently much more at home than he is.
The Northern newspapers begin to-day to find out
that "the statement that the rebel authorities had
refused permission to convey provisions and cloth-
ing to the Union prisoners in Richmond appears to
have been a mistake." Not only have the authori-
ties there accepted the contributions, but have ap-
pointed a commission of Union officers to distribute
them. The rebel officers only" objected to our agents
accompanying the supplies within their lines." It
is all precisely as I had stated : how foolish ought
those fanatics to feel now who only yesterday en-
deavoured to stir up the wrath of the Northern peo-
ple, and were ready to preach a crusade against the
inhuman monsters at Richmond !" The Lawyer-
General Schenck has achieved another of his great
electoral victories in Delaware. As he had done in
Maryland, he beset the polls with strong military
detachments, and put the voters to the ordeal of his
terrific " loyal" oath. 'The Democrats of the State
conceived that the military had no constitutional
right to impose such an oath, they resented the
misdeed as an indignity, and abstained en masse
from she suffrage. The Republican candidate for
Congress, Mr. Smithers, has been returned almost
unanimously, the dissentient votes hardly amount-
ing to 13. By such means, doubtless, the Admin-
istration is sure of a majority, both in Congress and
in State Senate and Assemblies, on the Bench, and
in all State and municipal bodies.