The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—With the exception of the siege of Vicks-
burg, the incidents of the Civil War that have
marked the conflict in the West and the legion
verging on the great Valley of the Mississippi have
hitherto excited less attention than they deserved.
Even in America the distance of the scene of opera-
tions from the great cities of the East seems to have
lessened the interest 'with which the military move-
ments in Tennessee were followed. The campaigns
in Virginia, the successive advances on Richmond,
and the battles on the Rapidan and the Potomac
have appeared to constitute almost the whole of the
war. But since the Confederate army retreated
from Maryland to its old line of defence, holding it
in strength sufficient to reduce General Meade and
the Federal force to inaction, indications have not
been wanting that the next blow would be struck
in the West. In the State of Tennessee General
Rosecrans, with the Army of the Cumberland, has
been gradually approaching the Confederate force
commanded by General Bragg in the direction of
Chattanooga. Here a position described as capable
of being easily held against a strong attack was
abandoned by the Confederates, and the point thus
gained was considered in the North not only as a
decided advantage, but a proof of growing weakness
on, the part of the Confederates in that quarter.
the occupation of Chattanooga, in fact, was sup-
posed to be nearly equivalent to a victory, as the
position would have been worth a battle to force.
If there were good reasons why the Confederates
should have held it so long, it appears there were
better for abandoning it. The retreat of General
Bragg must have dra Rosecrans on to less ad-
vantageous ground, or enabled the Confederate
General to effect a junction with expected reinforce-
ments. His movement on Lafayette was suddenly
changed into an advance and attack, and another
great battle, fought through two days, has resulted
in the defeat of the Federal army, with a loss at
present estimated at 12,000 men. The battle has
not yet received a name, but the field of the
engagements was on one of the numerous small
streams that abound in the northern part of the
State of Tennessee, called Chicamanga Creek. The
whole region is mountainous, thickly wooded, and
intersected by rivers. The Cumberland unites with
the Tennessee, and the waters of both combined
form one of the tributaries that fall into the Mis-
sissippi on its eastern bank. The details of the ac-
tion are very imperfect, their brevity not being com-
pensated by clearness of description. But as all the
particulars given appear to be derived from de-
spatches received from the head-quarters of the
Federal army, and must have passed through the
War-office at Washington to New York, we may
safely assume they do not exaggerate the disaster
Gen. Rosecrans has sustained. We may rather
anticipate that his defeat ht es been more decided and
his loss greater than these first accounts describe.
In New York the intelligence was received with a
feeling of despondency, increased by the hopes
founded on the recent gleams of success. The ex-
planations by which the Ministerial journals are
endeavouring to put " the best possible colour" on
the result of the battle have not had much effect.
The official assurances that Rosecrans will soon be
sufficiently reinforced to resume the offensive
" bring no comfort to the minds of the people."
They cannot but remember that the greater army of
Gen. Meade, after a success, is checked and held in..
active on the north bank of the Rapidan by Gen.
Lee. In such cases the very necessity of explana-
tion is ominous. Decided advantages soon explain
themselves, but the full extent of a defeat is brought
out more slowly. The nature of bad news affects
the teller, and the official party in the North can-
not boldly encounter the political discredit with
which its military failures are always visited. Tak-
ing into consideration the movements of the Confe-
derates, known or surmised, which preceded this
battle in Tennessee, we infer that the Federal com-
mander has been defeated by superior strategy
rather than by mere fighting. It is evident that
the Federal troops contested the field obstinately.
They rallied when broken, formed again, and re-
newed the engagement repeatedly. They seem to
have done all that bravery and determination
could effect. But the greater skill of the Confede-
rate generals in combining the force which made
the attack insured them the victory. While Burn-
side was still on his march to join Rosecrans
General Bragg had received reinforcements both
from the East, the West, and the South. Gen. Lee
had skilfully kept the " Army of the Potomac" in
check on the Rapidan, whi'e he detached Longstreei.
into Tennessee. Gen. Meade and the other Federal
coremauders either did not suspect the movement
or could not prevent it. From several different points
and from great distances the Confederate Army of
he West was reinforced, all an combinations were

made with rapidity, and completed soon enough to
enable them to attack with advantage. The battle
was over, and the troops of Rosecrans broken and
driven back, with the heavy loss announced, while
Burnside was still on the road to the field with a
force of 30,000 men. The action began on the 19th,
and ho had not effected his junction with Rosecrans
on the evening of the 21st. We expect to hear that
the Federals on the 19th found themselves in the
presence of superior numbers, and that the chances
were against them from the beginning of the en-
gagement. But to bring a greater force to bear on
the point of attack is exactly the object to be
attained if possible. To secure such an advantage is
the best proof of the skill of a commander. Account-
ing for a defeat by pleading that the enemy brought
the greatest numbers into the field is only a mode of
acknowledging that the beaten General has been
oat-manoeuvred. In the tactics which strengthened
Bragg's force sufficiently to enable him to take the
offensive against an army to which he had aban-
doned a strong position we may recognise the ability
of Gen. Lee. The movement of the necessary bodies
of troops over such an immense extent of country
must have been conducted with great skill. The
delay or loss of a few days would evidently have
given time for Burnside to join the main army of
the Federals. Bat the time was exactly hit, and the
Confederates defeated the troops of one General
while the force of another was at a useless distance.
It is not yet certain that the army of Burnside him-
self is safe from attack, as considerable anxiety was
felt at New York on the 23d lest he should be in-
tercepted. It is already stated that the Government
at Washington is more responsible for this defeat
than the military commanders. The Cabinet is said
to have directed the operations, and that the Gene-
rals were fettered by its orders. A " searching
investigation" into the causes of the failure is de-
manded that the responsibility may be thrown on
the real authors of the disaster.
POST.—The military operations which the Fede-
rals have been hitherto conducting in the West
with much apparent success have at length received
a decided check. It would seem to be one of the
peculiarities of the great civil war that neither of
the belligerents should be permitted for any pro-
tracted period to follow the path of victory. One
month the Northern armies are engaged in the work
of invasion, and the following one their energies are
exclusively devoted to resisting the aggression of
their adversaries. Victory alternates with defeat,
and the fruits of one campaign are lost in that
which immediately succeeds it. It is our duty.now
to chronicle another of those battles, so frequent in
this disastrous war, in which the slain are numbered
by many thousands ; and on this occasion, as on so
many others, Fortune has smiled on the Confede-
rate arms. A pitched battle has been fought on
the borders of Tennessee and Georgia ; and, so far
as we can judge from the accounts which have
reached us, the Federal army has sustained a sig-
nal defeat. Our information is derived exclusively
from Northern sources, and when we find the press
of New York unreservedly admitting that a disas-
ter has been sustained which has neutralised the
effects of a campaign hitherto spoken of as pre-emi-
nently successful, it is reasonable to conclude that
the reverse which has fallen on the Northern arms
is of no trifling kind. It is not a little curious
that on so many of the occasions on which the
armies of the rival Confederation have come in
collision on the battle-field, that those of the
Southern should have almost invariably proved
victorious. The South has sustained many serious
reverses, but they have consisted chiefly in the loss
of towns and fortified places. Military engineers
maintain, and with truth, that it is a mere ques-
tion of time when the strongest fortress, if closely
besieged, will fall; and although in the capture of
Vicksburg and Port Hudson the Confederacy suf-
fered two of the heaviest blows yet inflicted on
it, it did not on that account lose any of the
prestige which the valour of its troops, even
more than their victories, had done so much to
acquire. Near Chattagoona, in Tennessee, on the
19th and 20th of September, the Confederate army
under the command of Bragg, by the pertinacity
with which it fought, as well as by the success
which rewarded its efforts, sustained in every re-
spect the reputation so dearly purchased on so many
battle-fields by their brothers-in-arms in Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania. With the meagre
details at present at our command it is not easy to
form a clear idea of the engagement, whose result
alone is unequivocally recorded. The Northern
forces appear to have been posted on the south side
of a creek named Chickfamanga, which flows in a
westerly direction into the Tennessee river; and to
the rear of the Federal army, and to the south of its
position, lay the village of Chattanooga, to which
finally General Rosecrans found it expedient to re-
treat. The army of Burnside was, at the time the
battle was fought, reported to be in the neighbour-
hood of Knoxville, a town about a hundred miles
distant from Chattanooga, but connected with it by
the Eastern and Virginia Railway. The engage-
ment commenced on the 19th, and on that day at-
tended with no decisive result, was resumed at a