The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-09 00:00:00

The Admir Aid' ration at Washington and the prints
which yield. it a fitful and often captious support
have done thei r utmost during the week to repre-
sent the defer it of General Rosencranz at Chica-
mau em on Stir .day last as a slight reverse, even if
it were not a oirawn battle between the contending
armies. The main object of these persistent milli-
representatiot is was not so much to deceive the
American people as to gain a few days' grace in
Europe, and to prevent the Scotia that sailed on
Wednesday from taking out intelligence that might
serve to convince the statesmen and people of
Great Britain. ands France that the cause of the
Confederacy Ivo by no means so near a collapse as
the State department and all the organs of the Go-
vernment hied taken pains to represent. Though
nothing is ultimately to be gained by such ostrich-
like proceedings, of hiding the head and exhibiting
the tail, the, people in power are so4sensitive to the
opinion of Europe, though affecting to despise it,
that they think it a master-stroke of policy to
conceal bud news, if it be only for the interval
between the sailing of one steamer and another.
To effect this object they have no resource but the
manipulation of the telegraphic despatches that
reach them from the seat of war, but as the written
correspondence that follows surely, if
not very
closely behind, cannot be intercepted in Wash-
ington and doctored in the War Department, the
truth 'dews steadily out through a
thousand loop-
holes, end the Government gets nothing for its
pains,leat the discredit of having endeavoured to de-
ceive the public. This has been the case on every
reverse that the Federal arms have suffered during
the war, and such has been notably the case with
regard to the series of battles fought on Saturday
and Sunday last, to which the Confederates seem
to have given the names of the Battlea of Chica-
mauga, from the little river on the banks of which
they ovens, fought, at a point about 23 miles from
Chattanooga. Both sides fought desperately, and
while Gen. Bragg, in his official despatches, claims
a great, if not yet decisive victory, Gen. Rosencranz
in his admits his retreat to Chattanooga, and only
qualifies the damaging confession by the assertion
that he is now in a position from which he cannot
be dislodg ad. It is evident, however, that if he do
not rece speedy reinforcements he will either be
iv
compelled to retreat or be beleagured in that posi-
tion, and perhaps starved into a surrender, for he
is at a long distance from his supplies, which can
only res ch him by bridle paths over the mountains,
the intricacies of which are far better known to
his enemies than to himself. General Burnside is
marching to the rescue, and although the Govern-
ment will not admit that he is in any danger, or can
postale- fail to make his way to Rosencranz, such
grave doubts upon the subject are entertained else-
where, that it would grieve many, but surprise few,
to be informed that he was flanked and intercepted
and forced to capitulate, with or without a battle.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that the
Confederate General has not done all that ho
attempeed, to do so. The resistance of Rosencranz
was more vigorous than he anticipated. The armies
were pretty equally matched ; and though Rosen-
cranz, by his own showing, had, undoubtedly, the
worst or the encounter, he lives, like other retreat-
ing heroes, to fight another day, and to feed upon
the heeee that he may retrieve his losses.
ther from correct information or the reverse,
the Administration and the people have got it into
their heads that General Bragg could not have
turned the tide of battle and stayed the seemingly
triumphant advance of Rosencranz, unless he had
been largely reinforced from the army of General
14". Deocrters and others represented the army of
Northern, Virginia as reduced to one-third of its
numbers, and the known presence of Gene-
rals Longstreet, Hill, and others, at Chicamauga
leads colour to the report that these distinguished
soldiers rendered more than general aid to General
Bragg on Sunday last. However that may be, the
cry of "On to Richmond" is again raised, and
General Meade has received orders to advance.
He has been to Washington, and after a consulta-
tion of some length with President Lincoln, General ,
Helleck, rend Mr. Stanton—a very ominous circum-
stauce—has again placed himself at the head of his
army. So that from Virginia, as well as from
Tennessee and Georgia, great news may be daily
expeoted. As at least nine-tenths of the troops that
ware sent to keep the peace in New York during
the terogress of the draught have returned to tee
Army of the Potomac, it is possible that General
Meade may have at this moment as many as 100,000
men ender his command. How many General Lee
may have is not known to any one ou this side of
thu Rapidan ; hut the chances that he has at least
as many as Meade, and that the stories of the de-
pletion of his ranks are fables, set afloat by his own
spies to deceive the enemy and lure him on to his
destruction, are sufficiently serious to justify all
reasonable Northern patriots, if there be any, in
watching with some anxiety for the result.
But although it is abundantly evident that the
campaign in Tennessee and Georgia, from which
such great results were expected, is a temporary,
perhaps a permanent failure, the undaunted Repub-
lican journals have discovered a soul of goodness in
the evil thing. Mr. Seward's particular organ in
the New York press—perhaps Mr. Seward himself
—for who else could put so smiling a face on so bad
a business ?—says " that every battle, whatever the
nominal result may be, is a defeat for the South,
simply because every battle thins the ranks of the
faithful few who stia keep the field ; doubtless the
choice spirits of the Confederacy. Whether they
win or lose, as long as fighting makes gaps in their
columns, which they cannot fill, the only result of
their straggles is to defer for a short time the doom
of the Confederacyd' Candide revivivus, were he
to revisit this best of all possible worlds, could not
speak more hopefully, or overlook more compla-
cently the main element in the agreeable calcula-
tion. Granted that the South cannot fill up the
gaps created by the successive—if not the successful
battles which they fight, they must succumb
ultimately—provided always that the North is in
the more fortunate position of being able to drive
fresh bullocks (to use Mr. Lincoln's forcible
simile) to 'the slaughter pens as fast as the veteran
the
are put under the sod, or by bullocks loss
ce their legs are disabled from goring and butting
any more. The whole question hangs on this one
supposition. The North knows nothing whatever
of the power r still remaining in the South to
raise and ecluiP new armies of white men ; nor
whether a quarter
or half a million of slaves may
not be quite as reedy to fight for their masters as to
work for them, on the promise of freedom, or even
for some meaner and less precious inducement.
And while the North is thus ignorant of both the
spirit and the resources of the South, any impartial
"Be"er,who is not dazzled
very
by the gorgeous visions
of the
party in power, may discover that the
condition supposed to exist among
the Confederates
is present amen the the Federal people; and that the
, neither by force nor persuasion, by
North Cu •
bounty money nor conscription, fill up the gaps
which every battlescription, makes in its armies.
has only produced instead of havinproduced 300,000 men,
80,000
extremely The last con-
favourable
showing. It is 'gopn the most
even produced so many doubtful whether it has
as 60,000. Whatever be
the real number
a large proportion is composed of
mercenary substitutes
who take the money of the
original conscripts and afterwards desert in such
urge gangs that it is deemed necessary, by way of
example, to shoot them by half
-dozens -dozens in the pre-
sence of the army. And these 60,000
or 80,000 men,
many of them worthless as soldiers, have it is calcu-
lated, cost the Government and the people in one
way or other as much as 3,000 dole, a head,partl
in bounty money and exemption fees, partly in cost
of accoutrements and transportation, and partly in
the expense of keeping an old army of 5000 men
to preserve the peace of New York and other great
cities while the conscription for a new army was in
progress, The zeal of the native-born American, as
far os fighting is concerned, appears to have died
out
unwelcome business is left to raw new-
aom' and the
prs from Ireland and Germany, who understand
little or nothing of the cause to which they sell
'
themselves, and who would as readily fight for the
one side as the in the American
equal. Whatever zeal
other if the money inducement were
rpmains