The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-27 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAIL IN AMERICA.

(From the Correspondent of the lima.)
NEW YORK, May 12.

The Government exercises so strict a supervision
over the telegraphic liver,by-meens of its military
censors, that when, on Saturday last, a few hours
after the departure of the Liverpool steamer, it was
announced, on the authority of telegraphic de-
spatches from Philadelphia, that Richmond had
been captured by the forces of General Keyes ad-
vancing from Yorktown, while General Lee was
engaged in desperate battle with General Hooker,
the news was generally believed. People would
not credit the fact that the Government would
not allow such intelligence to be flashed over the
wires if it were untrue. But it was untrue, never-
theless, and not a shadow of foundation. It was an-
nounced at the same time that Gen. Hooker's army,
so far from being defeated and demoralised, was in
the highest health and spirits, and had actually
commenced to recross the Rappahannock again to
offer battle to the Confederates. The people who
believed the one story were bound to believe the
other. The bankers and brokers of Wall-street had
by Monday morning so turned these matters over
in their minds as to have come to the conclusion
that the twin falsehoods were official truths. The
price of gold came tumbling down accordingly, and
sanguine patriotism again asserted that the back-
bone of the rebellion was indubitably broken, and
that the war would be at an end within "90 Jays."
Bat as the day wore on it became palpable that the
story of the capture of Richmond was a fabrication
concocted in Washington. It was also thought
possible that the story of the advance of Hooker
was no better. To-day it is explained that the
capture of Richmond by General Keyes was part
of the programme as arranged by General Hal-
leek, and was to have been effected while Lee and
his whole army were engaged at Chancellorsville,
but that by some fatality the project miscarried.
It is also re-affirmed as a fact beyond dispute
that Hooker has actually crossed the Rappahan-
nock, and is in full march towards Richmond,
whither Gen. Lee has retired—and nine people out
of ten believe the story. No amount of official false-
hood seems to blunt the edge of popular credulity.
New York is as confident to-day that Hooker is
advancing to assured victory as it was three weeks
ago, before he had been tried and found wanting.
The true history of the movement that ended so
disastrously for Hooker's army begins to be disclosed.
The campaign was not, it appears, planned by him,
but by Gen. Halleok, and Hooker was but but one
of four pawns on the military chess-board, while
Halleck and Lee were the players. While Hooker
engaged Lee in the rear of Fredericksburg, and
Richmond was denuded of troops, Gen. Stoneman,
at the head of 2,700 horsemen (exaggerated in all
the reports to 20,000, for the purpose of deceiving
and frightening the enemy), was to make a rapid
raid into Virginia, and destroy the railroads and
bridges in the rear of Lee, so as to render it impos-
sible for him, even if he should defeat Hooker, to
return to Richmond, except by a painful march of
several days through jungle and wilderness and
over unfordable streams. Gen. Keyes, at York-
town, aided by reinforcements from Fortress Mon-
roe, was to take advantage of the opportunity and
march into Richmond, which it was expected would
be wholly nnprovided with troops, and unable to
offer any resistance. Gen. Stoneman performed
his part in the mostbrilliant manner, scattering dis-
may on every side as, like a whirlwind, his wild
horsemen scoured over the country, destroying all
before them. Bat the Confederate Government at
Richmond scented the danger and divined the plan.
Procuring reinforcements from the south of their
capital in sufficient numbers to make it hazardous
for Gen. Keyes to advance, it entirely foiled one
part of the scheme. In the meantime Gen. Lee
finding Hooker's army divided into two—the one
portion, under the command of Gen. Sedgwick, at
Fredericksburg; the other, under General Hooker,
at Chancellorsville,—attacked and defeated both .
the former with the loss of 6,000 men out of 10,000:
and the latter with the loss of at least 18,000 in
killed, wounded, and missing. It is asserted by
Hooker's friends and admirers that the elements,
and not the strategy of Lee or the bravery of the
Confederate army, compelled him to retreat across
the Rappahannock, and that it would have been
madness in him to remain in the rear of Fredericks-
burg with that place in the possession of the enemy,
and the Rappahannock swollen above its banks by
the fiercest and most protracted rain storm of the
season. No doubt it would have been unwise; but
in war, however different it is or ought to be in
other matters, success is the only test by which the
world can judge of merit ; and the possible change
of weather was one of the contingeneies which good
generalship ought to have taken into account and
duly provided against. When the President and
General Halleck visited General Hooker at his for-
mer camp at Falmouth, the latter is reported to
have been in no wise daunted by his want of suc-
cess ; to have treated the loss of 24,000 men as a
small calamity, scarcely worth mentioning consider-
ing the work that had been done; to have repre-
sented his return to Falmouth as a mere march, and
to have urgently requested and obtained permission
to recommence where ne had left off—by once more
crossing the river and proceeding to Richmond,
through and over any force with which General Lee
might endeavour to oppose him. It is asserted by
some that this movement actually commenced on
Saturday, the 9th inst., and by others that it has
been deferred until to-morrow. From the perti-
nacity or obstinacy of General Halleck, who en-
tirely governs the President in military affairs, as
well as from the reckless dash and rude courage
of General Hooker, goaded as he must be by a
sense of failure, and anxious as he probably is to
retrieve it, there is a strong probability that Hooker
and Lee will again try the fortune of battle on Vir-
ginian soil, the scene of conflict being the banks of
the North Anna or the Pamunkey, and the stake
the city of Richmond. It is fortunate for Hooker
that he has yet one chance remaining to live or die
gloriously. All that need be said, while the issue
is undecided, is that if Hooker has really advanced,
and his legions are half as hopeful, efficient, and
valorous as the Confederates have proved them-
selves, the greatest and bloodiest battle of the war
is likely to be fought within the next fortnight.
In this rapid review of the situation the fact
ahould not be omitted that General Stoneman, in
his brilliant raid, c9mmitted no damage that the
Confederates could not have repaired within three or
four days, and that had he not made a swift detour
to his starting place his whole force would have
been captured. Creditable as his operations were
to himself and to his men, and ranking as they
will do among the most exciting episodes of the
war, they cannot be said to have produced the re-
sults anticipated, or done more than give General
Lee's army an amount ofwi
which
in rail-placing and
bridge-building upon lvh
he did not calculate
when he left his intren h
e..ment
From other quarters come s.
preliminary rumours
and announcements which tend to prove that Mr.
Lincoln's Generals and Admiralse eii
away" at Charleston and Vicksburg, and thatg pegging
pleasant month of May will not pass over without
being made more memorable in the history of
Southern independence than any previous month
since the attack upon Fort Sumter.
For the benefit of the few Republican doctrinaires
in England who seem to think that the Federal
Government can do no wrong it may be de-
sirable to put a question on the subject of
What, may be
free discussion in time of war.
gland haveit thought,
asked, would the people of En
said, or done under the following circumstances,
supposing it to have been possible they could have
occurred? John Bright, an able, clear-headed,
logical speaker, and an earnest advocate of peace,
addresses the people of Rochdale, in the year 1854,
on the subject of the war in the Crimea. So high is
his reputation for eloquence, as well as for courage
and patriotism, that not only his immediate neigh-
bours and friends, but multitudes of people from all
the contiguotu3 districts, gather to listen to his voice
and cheer the manly expression of his sentiments.
He denounces the war as wrong in principle, erro-
neous in policy, unjust and iniquitous in itself, and
more dangerous in its continuance to the liberty and
proeperty of the British people than to the stability
of the RAMA= Empire. He declares that Lord