The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-25 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

(Fr ow the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
RICHMOND, Aug. 29.
The scorching enervating heats of such an August
as has been unsurpassed in caloric fur 20 years, the
natural fatigue and reaction which follow excess of
ef:Jrt such as on both sides was lavished during the
three days of battle of Gettysburg, the dispersion in
the west of General Grant's victorious unit of an
army along 1,000 miles of river and in 20 different
posts which he has no choice but to garrison, the
renewed assumption by the Confederate armies in
every quarter of a generally defensive policy, the
absorbing interest with which in both sections the
operations against Charleston are watched, have
conspired for the last seven weeks to impose upon
the hosts which for 1,500 miles face each other in
battle array the necessity for maintaining what has
been on both sides regarded as a masterly inactivity.
But there are not wanting signs that the next few
weeks will witness a change of attitude. In Vir-
ginia, where it is always more than usually
hazardous to try and read the future, there do not
seem to be indications that General Lee, who is
more than ever lord of the ascendant, contemplates
an immediate advance, Nothing material would
apparently be gained by his driving the Federals
pell-mell into their works at 'Washington, and it is
doubtful whether a fight other than from behind the
Washington breastworks could be got out of General
Meade, unless General Lee again crossed the Poto-
mac and entered Maryland. In the west there is
promise of an early battle between the forces which
near Chattanooga and Knoxville obey Generals
Bragg and Buckner, and those which are marshalled
against them under Generals Rosecrans and
Burnside. The other Western Confederate army is
at Morton, patiently undergoing reorganization at
the hands of General Hardee, and has suffered par-
tial eclipse by reason of its recent reverse at Vicks-
burg, and of the interest which attaches at this
moment to a Court of Inquiry now engaged at
Atlanta in investigating the causes which led to
the fall of Vicksburg, and likely, as it seems, to
elicit some curious disclosures. In order to attend
this court, Generals Johnstone, Pemberton, Loring,
and others are for the moment detached from their
several commands, and at present unconnected with
the operations in the field of the western armies. As
for the trans-Mississippi troops, the occasional re-
velations of their movements furnished by the mis-
tiest of telegrams resemble the transparent haze at
sea through which the mariner sees false icebergs
and imaginary headlands, and which is more dan-
gerous and misguiding than profoundest darkness
itself. Little more is known than that Generals
Kirby Smith and Price are active and enterpris
icg;
but such is the ignorance of Washington and
mood in regard to the true and condition of affairs in
Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Western Louisiana
that the dim chronicles of Northern and Southern
writers who profess to give information about these
remote regions must be received with as many grains
of salt as Niebuhr sprinkles over the funeral eulo-
gies and family narratives which are our principal
guides to much of the history of the first few cen-
turies of Rome.
CHARLESTON AND EASTERN TENNESSEE.
The principal points of interest for the moment
are Charleston and Eastern Tennessee. In the
latter district the Federals have two large armies
in the field—the first under General Rosecrans,
who for eight months has shunned any renewal of
the terrible engagement which at Murfreesborough
inaugurated a celebration of Christmas sadly at
variance with the doctrines of peace and good-
will inculcated by that festive season ; the second,
under General Burnside, who, at the head, as is re-
ported, of 30,000 men, is descending from Southern
Kentucky and threatening General Buckner and
the slender force with which he holds Knoxville and
Tennessee. Modest and unassuming, as are all
the best officers of the Confederacy, calm and
sagacious, and well instructed in his trade of
soldier and military engineer, much beloved and
admired in his native State of Kentucky, tenacious
and enduring, General Buckner will greatly dis-
appoint his many friends in the Confederacy if
he does not prove himself fully equal to his oppor-
tunity, which seems at hand, and maintain the high
reputation which he gained at Fort Thnelson, by
sticking to his post and being taken prisoner when
his associate Generals saved themselves by a night
retreat. It may be mentioned en passant that the
statements with which Federal journals, especially
in the West, have lately teemed, to the effect that
Bragg's army is very weak, its morale bad, and its
numbers thinned by desertion, are just the reverse
of the truth. Officers of character and position who
are fresh from the scene of action speak enthusias-
tically of the temper and condition of Gen. Bragg's
army. With some considerable experience of the
Northern press and its antics during the progress
of this war, I have never observed it mere reckless
and unscrupulous in its statements than during the
last six weeks. Honourable exceptions are of course
to be found among the multitudinous journals of
this continent, and conspicuous among them is the
New York World, which has secured respect even
in the South by reason of its superior regard for
veracity. But the assumption by most of the organs
of Northern opinion, that the rebellion is staggering
on its last legs, and that hope has bid farewell to
the breasts of men like President Davis and 'Gen.
Lee (both of whom I have never seen in better
spirits than during the present week), is a contri-
bution to history such as at the end of the last great
war between England and France was furnished by
a French publication entitled Tables du en2ple de
la Glare, which consisted of a catalogue raisonne
of all Frenchmen who thought they had distin-
guished themselves in the course of that war. It
was obvious that in many instances the articles
were contributed by the persons who were the heroes
of them, and it is no less obvious that the corres•
pondents of divers Northern journals, especially in
the -West, take their inspiration and gain their facts
from the Generals with whom they are living, and
of whose hospitality they are perhaps permitted to
partake. If at the beginning of the last century
Sir Robert Walpole's tamous apophthegm about the
necessary falseness of history could not be repressed,
what would ho have said in the present day, when
the materials for his history are such as I have des

scrib2d.
The truth, as seen by those who reside in the
heart of the Confederacy, is, in reality, as follows.
Never, from the moment when the fall of Fort
Sumter inaugurated, in April, 1861, this colossal
civil war up to the present hour were the spirit and
temper of Southern resistance more keen anl ex-
asperated than at this moment. Thera have been
times during the progress of the struggle when, for
various reasons, apprehension has weighed heavily
upon the minds of the great rebellion's pilots. No
one is now ignorant, for instance, that during the
first six or eight months of the conflict there was
not enough gunpowder at any of the Southern ports
to have supplied the demands of a single battery
for three hours. At present what is the case ?
Without entering into minute particulars, it will be
enough to state that there are three powdermills
actively at work in the Confederacy, and that the
daily supply of powder exacted for the Confederate
armies in the field and for the seaports, which are
defensively occupied, is fully furnished by two of
these milks, whereas the third and largest has been
for many months past engaged in manufacturing
superfluous powder, which has now grown into a
large reserved stock, and is being daily and rapidly
increased. Take another item. There have been mo-
ments when the supply of small arms has been much
less than the demand, and the consequent inconveni-
ence has been great. It will be remembered by your
readers that in the first half of July prisoners of war
at Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and Gettysburg, were
captured by the Federals to the extent of nearly
50,000 men. It is true that at Gettysburg at least
as many Federals were captured by the Confederates
as Confederates by the Federals ; but, so far as the
present argument is concerned, this fact is ad
rem. There were lost to the Confederates in the
first half of July no less than 50,000 muskets. The
reader will be surprised to learn that fully this
amount of muskets has during the last seven weeks
been successfully introduced through the blockade,
to say nothing of cannon and multitudinous other
supplies of all kinds. It may be conceived what are
the chances of subduing a rebellion in a country
which not only possesses all the resources of the