The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-14 00:00:00

I he ye come to the threshhold of the American
civil war—to the troops-beset city of magnificent
eistf.inces. We arrived yesterday morning in one of
this heavy showers which seem intended almost day
by day to temper the tropical heat of this western
continent, but which have only the effect of adding
to its stifling oppressiveness. We waded and floun-
dered through Washington as through a sea of mud;
ss circumstance which did not prevent the same town
from presenting the image of a perfect wilderness
of dust before evening. We found soldiers at the
station, I can hardly say how many companies of
them, quartered in the waiting-rooms, offices, and
gang, ways of what is here called the depot or ter-
minus; we had to jump over them, we and our
cloaks and our carpetbags, as they lay full-stretched
in our way on the sloppy floor of the ill-sheltered
establishment. Outside, the hardiest or unluckiest
of the gang were wallowing in the mire, to which
they are, io judge by their look, as thoroughly
accustomed as to their beds; and all along the roads
along those vast spaces of muddy mounds and quag-
mires which are here classed and numbered in
streets, on the steps of the Capitol, before the doors
of public buildings, everywhere we saw them ; sol-
diers of all aims, in every variety of costume, with-
cut visible distinction of corps, on no perceptible
duty or errand, were there—not in great numbers,
truly, 'out still conspicuous everywhere—as if to
ware us by their übiquity of the fact that we had
some to the seat of a Government whose only ',wi-
nes's is war, to the centre of a nation converted into
a vast camp, with a metropolis for head-barracks.
I had seen soldiers enough in New York, in
Boston, throughout the Eastern cities, and needed
hardly to visit Washington to come to the conclu
sion that the word "soldier" must be understood in
America to convey a different meaning from that
universally received among the well-organised and
civilised nations of Europe. Of the dashing and
enduring valour, of the hardihood and perseverance
of American fighting men on either side, the world
has for the last three years received more than suf-
ficient evidence, and the laurels they have reaped
in the field cannot be tarnished by any word of
discouragement that may be breathed as to their
tidiness and discipline in camp. No one could be
unwilling to make great allowance for the circum-
stances under which a hest of 1,000,001) combat-
ants were suddenly called to arms, for the nature
of the men who supplied the rank and file, for the
inexperience of the leaders, for the carelessness, to
call it by no worse name, of the rulers at the war
department. It takes years to make a soldier, and
here not an army, but a host of armies, was to be
got up at a moment's notice. But when all was
said, and when forced, disastrous marches, want of
accommodation, and the worst of management were
taken into account, there still remained great ,
reason to marvel at the prodigious dirt and squalor'
of the American soldiery. I saw squads of armed
men in New York, in the streets of a city running
with bountiful streams, who Reeled to have a hor-
ror of water, sail the pure element had power co
wash " the very marrow out a strong man's bones,"
as if parting with the crust of many days' dirt was
as painful to them as to the victorious racer of an-
cient times to shake the Olympic dust off his cha.
riot wheels. They seemed actually to delight and
revel in dirt, and in the tatters of their loose hang-
ing garments, in the rust of their dinted and twisted
weapons. They had gone through hard work, and
were fain to call the world to witness of the stren-
uousness of their exertions. The Neapolitan regi-
ments in the palmy days of King Bombs were not
more unmindful of that proper soldierly pride
which, in the Old World, seems to identi, y valour
with pipeclay, than are these heroic warriors of
the Western Continens. They seem as scornful
of uniformity of costume as the mosstroopers
of the middle ages, and fall as naturally into the
odd and the picturesque. Not a score of them
are anywhere to be recognised as men belonging
to the same corps. The ungraceful and in-
convenient kepi, the last contrivance of French
absurdity, has been officially copied here as every
where on the continent of Europe, bat Republican
freedom has substituted all possible varieties of ,
slouched hats ; of buttoned-up, tidily-fitting coats
hardly an instance occurs, even among the officers;
and, altogether, a more odd, ruffianly-looking set of
armed men than I have seen marching along the
footpaths in Bradway, in the midst of a delighted
mob of citizens, clapping hands at them as if they
were mere damb figures at the play-house, it never
was my lot to see anywhere—except, perhaps, in
the suite of the Garibaldian bands in Calabria.

Wnen this is said, the very worst is said with re-
gard to the outward look of these champions of the
American Union. The mere mannachaft, as the
Germans have it—the thews and sinews, the mein
and bearing of the great balk of the Northern army,
are all that the heart of its leaders could wish.
There are no very high statures, no very bulky
frames among them; they are, most of them, men
of middle size, lean and lank, narrow -shouldered,
stooping and shambling in many instances ; they
look worn and sullen, but they bear every mark of
stern endurance and dogged resolution. They have
no spare fitsh, no exuberant spirits, no song, no
frolic ; but they look like work—up to their busi-
ness, which is to kill, to die.
A gentleman who has had much to do with the
management of these troops complains of them as
"thinking bayonets." "The Northern soldier,"
he said, " would rather go without his breakfast
than without his newspaper. He discusses the
plan of the campaign with his officer, and sits in
judgment on his General's tactics." To this carp-
ing critici,m of the rank and file, to this want of
good confidence in their leaders, the gentleman in
question ascribed the slow success and the frequent
reverses of the Northern arms, and he contrasted
it with the spirit of the Confederate soldiers—un•
educated men, as he described them—who look up to
their commanding officer as a demigod, who receive
orders, ask no questions, and allow themselves no
remarks.

With all this disadvantage of not unwilling but
unsteady discipline I hare every day greater cause
to wonder at the transcendant confidence of the
majority of those Northern men in the ultimate
success of their cause. The earnest steadiness with
which they pursue their purpose is only commen-
surate with their utter recklessness as to the means
Which must lead to its attainment. only Nutdo
t•ll3' " not care," but they positively delight in the
Vitlatn_ts
t of the sacrifice their country demands or
them. They seem less eager for victory than for
the tearful
to
of blood and treasure by which
they are e
Charl, ston s',4chieve it. " Are they sure to take
tremendous;
; " Aye, sure as death. The
cost will be
rttt
but who would wish to
have it at a cheap
" Hdng the expense !" is
the motto. It is not of
the result of their mighty
effort that they are
proud but of the capabilities
and resources of their country
putting forth such
colossal power. The big War, they
prove, bears full proportions withleY are anxious to
lel
the bigness of the
Republic. Every man seems to
,v before you as
he d wells on the gigantic strength t e
State brings
outbreak
into the field. The navy has raised
the number
of
men of war, which were only 60 at the
of
hostilities, to 600. What to-day costs
morrow will rise to tens of millions. reituifhey are not
sorry for it ; they they Will
to-
are delighted at it ;
have no rest till the expense shall be hundreds of
millions ! A steam frigate founders, a regiment is I
cut to pieces, an ironclad is sunk by the enemy. '
Hurrah ! All the greater their joy. Here they are,
ready with four new regiments, with four more
steam al ironelads.
AA
steam frigates, with ten additional
Failure braces them up even more than success
would elate them. All they are anxious to show
is the boundlessness and inexhaustibleness of their
means. Their is no loss they cannot repair, no
waste, no extravagance they cannot afford. Of this
the world must be well assured. It is in this extent,
in this expansiveness of their means, that lies the
certainty of their progress to the end. They want to
make much of it, doubtless ; they brag an intole-
rable deal about it, we are all sure. It is on this
lavish, wanton display of unlimited power that they
lay their hope of its irresistibleness. It is by it that
they aspire to strike dismay and despair into the
hearts of their present foe—that they trust to over.