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

many very rapid discharges, cracked ono 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. Nevertheiess, if the
siege is to be nothing more nor less t iaa.n a struggle
between scientific engineers the chacees 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
has
rf ul effe
effect
in
and worthy of remark. It
Battery Wagner has exercised a
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 has been watching the siege for the last month
writes to me, in explanation of this circumstance, in
the following terms :—" The sharp cracking report
of the Monitor guns it agacant (I know no corre •
aponding English exrression), 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 aide."
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. ft 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 ho 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 6jo 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-
out 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 found 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.Rosen-
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

mitted 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 a very formidable aggre-
gsto has recently been swelled by the subtraction
from General Lee's army of the fiae 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. But 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 Lougstreet
himself, there is abundant reason to think that
they are confronting by far the most formid-
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. Rosencratz. 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, cf
:hick so large a portion of the eastern Federal
to armies has been composed,it is impossible to be blind
the fact that Gen. Bragg has led into the field
Borne of the best troops which the Confederacy can
boast' The slight and indecisive superiority over
their opponents which, during the last 12 months,
has been rae,
in my
opinion, o.fested by Gen. Rosencranz's army is,
t ?be set down to the credit of that
patient and
pertinacious commander himself. The
presence of mind
and
the bloody battle firmness with which, after
of Murfreusborough, he massed his
artillery and protected his troops,
and elan of Breckin-
troops, demoralised by
and shrinking before the i
ridge's Kentuckians, indicate
qualities of a general. To hi 8 indomitable firmness
in retaining possession of the ground must be attri-
buted the retreat to whichGn the very highest
. i 3
next day driven. Again, the
abilityergg was the
Bragg
and resource
which he displayed tins summer in maintaining his
position in front of Gen. Bragg, although greatly
weakened by the loss of reinforcements which he hady
sent to Grant, and in spite of the failing water of the
Tennessee River, falsified the anticipations of the
wisest heads in the Confederate States, and are de.
serving of the highest commendation. There never
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 BlacK 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 Emozyille without