The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TlMES.—Every succeeding report of a great Ame-
rican battle, by some invariable rule, seems to be
nearer the truth than the first. Three steamers have
arrived since the earliest intelligence of the two days'
engagement on the Southern frontier of Tennessee
reached New York, and it is only from the third
series of telegrams that we begin to learn the facts
with certainty. The Damascus brings a brief abstract
of General Bragg's official report of the battle, and
some further details from an eye witness of the con-
flict, that have been published in New York. As
the description furnished by the Northern observer
fully confirms the statement of the Southern Com-
mander, we have two accounts from different sources
that may be read plainly, without requiring careful
interpretation. There is still much to be filled
up, but the few outlines are distinct enough to
render the result clear, and account for the reserve
with which it was at first officially described.
The engagement that has received the name of the
Battle of Chicamanga, from the creek or stream on
which the Federal line was drawn up, went more
decisively against General Rosencranz on the first
day than the early reports admitted, and on the
second closed with a defeat that has reduced the
Federal force to "a defensive position for some time
to come." Only one corps, that of General Thomas,
is described as having borne the brunt of the
fighting, and, if so, it must have fought des-
perately to have prolonged the conflict to a
second day, and General Bragg admits that the
Confederate victory was not easily won. Two corps
of the Federal army are said to have been " badly
beaten" and " driven in all directions" on the
19th. It was at first reported that the troops thus
thrown into disorder were rallied in the evening or
during the night. But it must have been imper-
fectly, or in reduced numbers, for on the renewal of
the engagement, on the 20th, they could not hold
their ground. The first charge of the Confederates
" broke their lines, routed the entire commands,"
and drove them into Roseville, through or past the
town, and to the heights of Chattanooga, still farther
to the north. The American report describes the
retreat as a complete flight, and even terms it a" dis-
graceful panic." Fuller details may explain how far
the eye-witness was justified in employing such
strong language. It may be he was unable otherwise
to account for the reverse; but the obstinacy with
which the battle was continued, and the losses in the
Confederate ranks, prove at least that the panic could
not have been more than partial. Some of the Fede-
ral divisions must have fought stoutly, and it would
be singular if any very large portion of the army of
the West repeated the confusion of the retreat at Bull
Run. The truth must be left to the decision of
future evidence, and we can only accept the report as
given. We cannot venture to soften an American
description of such an incident. Whatever term it
may deserve, " flight," " rout," or " disorder," it
brought with it the catastrophe of the battle. The
divisions broken by the Confederate charge formed
the Federal centre. The army was cut in two, and no
courage exhibited afterwards could retrieve the for-
tune of the day. A final retreat and concentration of
the whole force among the heights to the north of the
battle-field closes the story. The Federals left fifty
pieces of artillery in the hands of the victors, besides
a great quantity of the material of war, thus confirm-
ing a Southern assertion that they have generally cap-
tured in one battle enough ammunition to fight an-
other. The report of the Confederate commander sim-
ply says that the Federals retreated during the night
of the 20th, leaving their dead and wounded on the
field. He asserts also that they have sustained great
losses of men, artillery, small arms, and colours. He
announces the victory as " complete," and that the
Confederate cavalry on the 21st was in pursuit of
the retreating force. Of the numbers engaged on
both sides no accurate account has yet been given ;
but Gen. Bragg, contradicting the Northern reports
in this respect, says the Federals had the numerical
superiority. There is " no danger," it is stated, in the
present position of Rosencranz. Again a Federal
army has placed itself in "safety." But to the side
that must completely conquer to effect anything the
use of such a word implies all that can be under-
stood as failure. An army of invasion or occu-
pation reduced to the " defensive " is baffled in
every purpose of the hostilities, and all the expen-
diture of money and lives is made in vain. The
invasions on both sides have failed, only serving to
prove the hopeless nature of the conflict. The ques-
tions in dispute appear to Europeans of the kind that
cannot be determined by arms. The greatest battles
are becoming only repetitions of fighting. The loss
or gain, more or less decisive, brings the hostile par-
ties no nearer the res alt, which must be a political
supremacy to be of any effect. In whatever part of
the immense continent the strife rages, it is, in rela-
tion to the whole country, but an isolated point. An
engagement adds another tale of slaughter to the
already saddening list, but it is not followed by any
results to place it among the " decisive battles of
the world." By no fluctuation of military success is
a Government prostrated, a dynasty changed, or the
command of a whole realm secured by the posses.
sion of its capital, as in Europe. Everything short
of the entire conquest of the South is to the North
failure. To the Confederacy, to maintain their
defence is success. If the fighting is continued for
years to come, it is difficult to see how it can
change these conditions. fhe retreat of another
Federal; army with "safety," congratulating itself
on something gained when reaching it, ought toraise
grave misgiving as to the principle of such a war.
A result that seems unvarying must arise from the
operation of some general law. Hitherto invasion
has always broken its wing, and been compelled to
retire or take to some perch of " safety," and remain
inactive, incapable for a time of any fresh flight. In
the Chattanooga Mountains the Federal army of the
West is now driven to a refuge. The incidents of
the war repeat themselves almost to monotony. It
is not certain it cannot be attacked, even in that
strong position, and it is exceedingly probable that
the reinforcement it awaits under General Burnside
will be cut off. His position, it is admitted, is ex-
ceedingly critical. If Rosecranz is reduced to the de-
fensive merely, he cannot move in any way to hasten
the junction of the two forces, while there seems
nothing to prevent the Confederate army from
niacin, itself in the gap between the main body of
the Federals and the troops advancing to their re-
lief. The last official reports as to Burnside's position
are not assuring. He is said to have reached a point
where he is " expected" to prevent " a lank move-
ment" by the Confederates. This is all that can be
said, and it reminds one of the " flank movements"
and " strategic reasons" with which the Russians
excused their defeats in the Crimea. The perplexity
of the Federal Government is curiously illustrated
by the New York telegrams of the 26th. They are
made up of beliefs, expectations, hopes, and conjec-
tures. fhe dimmest inanity is all they present to
the reader. Burnside is "expected" to do some
thing. The North is asked to form a more cheerful
" belief" as to the condition of Rosencranz and his
troops. The Army of the Potomac is " moving," in
what direction or with what prospects is not stated.
Transports are loading at Alexandria, below Wash-
ington, but their destination is a " matter of con-
jecture." It is believed, or surmised, that the re-
inforcements sent to Gen. Bragg from Virginia have
left Richmond nearly defenceless. In the absence
of any substantial facts the official news is a string
of speculations, and the people of the North are be-
ing fed with empty wind.
POST.—The King of the Hellenes is revisiting, as
a monarch, the country with which he first made
himself acquainted a few months ago as the younger
son of an heir-presumptive. For him the change
has been a rapid one, and we hops that his future
career may be as little chequered as his eleva-
tion into the fraternity of crowned heads was then
unexpected. Scarcely any royal family has risen
in so short a time to European celebrity as that of
Prince Christian of Denmark. Until twelve years
ago they were not even in succession to the Danish
monarchy. Now, on the contrary, Prince Chris-
tian is not only the next occupant of the throne of
Denmark ; the eldest of his daughters is married to
the Heir-Apparent of Great Britain ; the second
is betrothed to the Heir-Apparent of all the
Russias; and the second son now visits London as
Sovereign of Greece. This is a very remarkable
ascendancy in the fortunes of a single branch of a
royal house; and we trust that King George, in
accepting his own good fortune, will not be slow
to bear in mind that power has its obligations as
well as its rights, and that great opportunities are
but the measure of the moral responsibility they
carry along with them. We have no doubt that
much of the future of Greece will be found to depend
on the personal character and conduct of her new
Sovereign. In that country this will be the case
even more than in most other constitutional States.
Greece looks upon her new Monarch to rescue her
from an otherwise inevitably-impending anarchy,
and to dispel a state of confusion, both as respects
civil and military government, which the Provi-
sional Administration have rather augmented than
redressed. She does not rely upon him to do this
by the mere force of his will, or by means of ad-
ministrative talents which are not to be predicated
of, and which it would be unreasonable to expect in
so vcung a man. But she looks upon the arrival
of her Sovereign as typioal of the settlement of
her national government, and of the loyal and
industrious return of the population to the avoca.
time of peaceful life. These are the results on
the mass of the population which the settlement of
the Government at Athens is likely to produce.
But over and above this, if the new King succeed
in establishing a strong and intelligent Ministry, he
will be able to address himself to the correction of
a vast number of abuses in government, and to the
promotion of many social and political reforms,
Some recent declarations by the National Govern-
ment of Greece serve to point these observations. It

has, for example, just been acknowledged by them
that large sums of the public income have been from.
time to time abstracted during the year of the Revo-
lution. These malversations, repeatedly occurring,
and never apparently detected, or at least not firmly
repressed, offer a fresh evidence of the importance
to be attached to the definitive formation and
settlement of the new Government. Although re-
cent discussions have als) left it doubtful what the
deficit of the Exchequer for the current year will.
really amount to, there is no doubt of the conclusion
that the State has been very largely overspending
its income. These may be but venial sins while an
interregnum lasts; but every one knows that they
would be unpardonable under a firmly established
Government; and it is to That event we must now
look for the fulfilment of whatever hopes exist of
honesty in admioistration and of economy in expen-
diture. This, however, is but one of many points
to which an established Government must call its
attention. Misrule has so long prevailed in Greece
that, to whichever side we turn, we find a reform of
one kind or another urgently required. Roads,
tramways, railways, irrigation, drainage, present
the material side to the question. Education, police,
the suppression of the banditti, form another class
of objects without the attainment of which material
reforms will go for little or nothing. Then there is
the question of a revision of expenditure, and of a
im
politic
system readjustment of the present
system of taxation. We could go further, and ex-
patiate on other reforms that would exhaust even.
the innovating appetite of a Sieyes, and serve to
show what an unbounded field an enterprising
King of the Hellenic people has before him.
All this, no doubt, is much sooner said than
done; and we think that the question on which
almost all others depend is that of the success which
may attend the new regime in its efforts to establish
a firm constitutional Government. At present, no
doubt, it remains a problem to what degree the
Danish party will succeed in carrying out this
indispensable preliminary of all good administra-
tion in Greece. The Government must be strong,
as it must be also free. It must encourage men of
tried honesty and tried capacity to assume the
leadership of parties in the Legislature. What a
King can effect under a constitutional polity, to give
a character of respectability and stability to the
Government over which ho presides, has of course
very strict limits. The leaders of parties must shed
as much lustre on the State as the Monarch him-
self ; and, if this condition is to be realised, we must
see very different men in high office from those who
conducted the Government of Otho. This, we re-
peat, is the most important, inasmuch, at least, as it
is the preliminary, question to be settled; and it is
that which lies at the root of all ulterior measures of
public improvement. The lonian Islands have now
proclaimed their acceptance of the offer of union
with Greece which we made them early in the
career of the Greek Revolution ; and they have
tendered us becoming thanks for our handsome self-
denial. It may be true, indeed, that England is not
sorry to terminate her responsibility for the affairs
of a Republic which has never hitherto appreciated
her motives or acknowledged the services she has
performed, and which now, perhaps for the first
time in tne history of the British protectorate, has
voted her its grateful acknowledgments. We will
not venture to predict whether a fairer view of the
services we have rendered during the last fifty years
will not lead them to the conclusion that we were
better masters than the Greeks may prove ; we have
borne all the anger we have had to experience from
the lonians with calmness ; and we now take the
first opportunity of relaxing the chain which seems
to have been so galling to them. We bid the
lonians heartily farewell ; we shall always be in-
terested in their future; but we rejoice that the
expense and responsibility of providing for their
requirements are at an end. May it prove that they
have not compromised their freedom in merging
their separate existence into independent Greece.