The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-13 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(Fr om the Speeicg Correspondent of the Tones)
NEW YORK, Oct. 30.

Unless the bungling, blundering, eccentricities of
American strategists for the hundredth time disap-
point the world, we are, indeed, on the eve of some
great feat of arms in East Tennessee. Gen. Grant,
in command. of all the forces stationed in Tennessee,
Xentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and part
of West Virginia and North Carolina, is bringing
up as many men as he can muster from distances of
200 and even 500 miles to the rescue of Thomas's
army, hemmed in and almost beleagured by Bragg's
Southerners at Chattanooga. On the other side,
Gen. Lee, having put a spoke in the wheel of the
Federal Army of the Potomac by the destruction of
the Alexandria. and Orange Railway, is believed to
have sent a large division of his troops against
Burnside on the borders of West Virginia, while it
is stated a portion of Bragg's army threatens the
rear of the same Burnside on the Tennessee side.
The latest tidings of the Northerners at Chattanooga
were rather disheartening, for their communications
wen', cut off in most directions, and provisions could
only reach them by a tedious march over a long
ar,d wretched mountain road, rendered almost im-
:passable by recent heavy rains. Lately, however,
if we can give credit to a despatch of the 27th,
which reached the Cincinnati Gazette on the 29th,
a new communication has been thrown open for the
benefit of the Federals between Chattanooga and
Bridgeport, a place down the Tennessee river, about
30 miles below the Federal headquarters, and this
was effected by a sudden attack of the Federals, who
succeeded, not only in clearing the left bank of the
presence of the Southerners, but also in driving
them from their commanding position on Lookout
Mountain. We have, up to this time, no other
account of this combat, which is said to have cost
the Federals only five killed and fifteen wounded,
than the somewhat meagre telegram in the Cincin.
nati Gazette, which, in some unaccountable manner,
has in this instance, stolen a march upon the all-
monopo lising Washington official press.
The Army of the Potomac, under Meade, enjoys
a happy holiday. Some changes in the position of
his tortes are said to have taken place, with a view
to protect the men engaged in the repairs of the
damaged railway. The work of construction is
:pushed on with great eagerness and 15 miles—i. e,,
nearly up to Warrenton Junction, are reported
as
ready for use. General Gilmore seems to have
started .up from his prolonged nap at Charleston,
and, as if to rouse all other sleepers in the neigh:
bourb cod, has keen, on the 26th, firing away from
Batteries Gregg and Wagner against Forts Sumter
and Johnson. It was, however, mere noise, and no
hurt. One hundred shots were thrown from Morris
Island and 160 from two Monitors which took part
in the noisy fireworks. Fort Moultrie thundered
in return from the besieged side. It is reported that
Gilmore is making ready for a bombardment of the
cify of Charleston in dread earnest.
The New York State election for which the 3d
'lay of November is appointed seems likely to turn
out rather a tame affaii It is not about the choice
of a new Governor, nor about the return of new
members to their Legislature, that parties are now
astir, as you are undoubtedly well aware; they are
simply contending about the refilling of some magis-
terial offices and naming a few second rate function-
aries, a matter rather of personal than of great
general interest. Every trifle is welcome, however,
which offers the least opportunity for a fight. The
Democrats, borne down by the results of the late
struggles in Pennsylvania and Ohio, are further
*weakened by internal dissensions ; and it is very
doubtful whether all the eloquence of Governor
Seymour, who is expected to address a grand meet-
ing at the Cooper Institute tomorrow evening, will
have power to give weight and consistency to the
Conservative vote. By his indecision and faintheart-
edness during the riots of last July Mr. Seymour
threw away a golden opportunity which will never
offer itself again. Moreover he is, or professes him-
self to be, a Unionist, or partisan of the war, "to
the utter subjugation of the South." Now a freak
of fortune, eome great calamity in East Tennessee,
or some terrific panic in Wall-street, may perhaps
open the way for the triumph of the peace-et-all-
price men of the Fernando Wood and Vallandigham
school; but the. views to which Governor Seymour
is wedded are already represented in the Cabinet,
and are even supposed to be entertained by the head
:itself of the executive power, and are corvequently
of no weight as an instrument of opposition. Paced
at the top of that see-saw in which the Blair-Seward
pertsg are striving to outbalance Mr. Chase, and all
the burden of his million greenbacks, President
L'.neoln shifts and shuffles with a dexterity little cal-
ri to confirm the titles of "idiot" and "half-
witted fellow" with which some journals salute him.
Lately he has deemed it good policy to exhibit some
leaning towards the Blair faction.
These B lairs are a mighty family. They have at
their head still living, and from his retirement, still
swaying their councils, that Francis P. Blair, son.,
the right-hand man of Gen. Jackson, " whose tren-
chant battle-axe hewed down all impediments that
stood in old Hickory's way," and who carried the
election of that little Dutchman Van Buren, whose
glory was limited to "treading in the footsteps of his
illustrious predecessor." The Blairs have only one of
their name in the Ministry, Mr. Postmaster-General
Montgomery Blair, but without the walls they reckon
Francis P. Blair, sen., warrior and statesman, in
himself a host, a man gifted, it is said, with all the
accomplishments of an Admirable Crichton, stirred
b 414 ambition fully commensurate with his abili-
i;s'
l'eBiNviso was said to aspire to Presidential honours,
but
who, list his father, probably considers the
position of r
of a Ring, Ring-maker tn ognaker far more enviable than that
and
set of them, i 8 ,7ho, like his father and the whole
conversant with all the machinery,
all the ins and outsall the pipes, wires, all the highways and byways,
pulleys, and trapdoors, and all
the strategy and ta,: eetriycsof
every political party in
the country, and
e Presidential candidate, from
the uprising of Old Beek
Abe.' " These Blairs, -e-"Y to the advent of '
Old
Frank and Montgomery, we
are told, are causing the Administrationl a vast deal
o en ifiescago
ribz
f trouble. The Chi
completely idt them
with thsaeysCoth .
erhr ccoaudrsse
and the St. Louis Democrat, a ienser
r " iiPsPblack as.
the ace of spades," says that they have gone, "hook
Copperheads."
line, bob, and sinker, over to the ,
oPPerheads." The
real fact is, however, that the Blairs, apart from. any
vssaitfharthet
scheme they may have of personal a ,
gerandizement,
are peace men, promoters of the
found consistent of
Pea"
on
terms that may be
any and they are in
restoration of the. Union ;
drawn knives witt-Mr. Chase and the Radicals,
these latter will only hear of peace and of the Union
itself conditionally uponi the total and final abolition
as n
dI sbayi
sbayb
ahisn u aonnsaeleeeart
of slavery, The Presiaent,
to the Missouri Deputation, and
of the measure of the draught, at least for the pre-
sent, is thought to have
evinced a wish to snub
the too zealous Republicans, and to let the
signed by
sun of his countenance shine upon the Conserva-
tives. There are letters in circu.l,e.tion,
some of Mr. Lincoln's intimate friends in Illinois,
d has been for
asserting that " the President is,
a long time, in favour of peace ;" and hints are
he inee
thrown out in some eccentric papers that
sending out trusty messengers, in the guise of ped-
lars, s
scouts, and deserters, to see how the land lies,
and acquaint him with any chance that may present
itself for negotiation, whether it be with the rebel
chiefe, or with any party among the Southern people
which might show any disposition to come to terms.
Without attaching the slighest shape of import-
ance to this idle gossip, I think it is just possible
that it may suit the President's present mood to
humour the Blairs, and that peacefully inclined sec-
tion in his Cabinet and among the public at large
which, rejecting the " lymphatic" Mr. Seward as a
candidate, show a disposition to place him, Mr.
Lincoln himself, at the head of the ticket for the
next general election. "Secretary Seward and the
Blairs," it is already freely blurted out, " have dis-
covered that the Republican candidate for the suc-
cession stands six feet three in his stockings, and
that his name is Honest old Abe., e
S great a part of the future destinies of this
country depends on t
thethuenwgeanr,eraonuds
e vicissitudes of
it seems so probable, in despite of
eff arts of the War-office to nip all military vegeta_
tion in the bud—that some successful commander