The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-02 00:00:00

r 7 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Oct. 21,

the perplexities of Diogenes in search of an ho-
ne st man bid fair to be equalled by those of Presi-
d' jnt Lincoln in search of a General. Up to this
t ime the American has scarcely been more success-
ful than the Greek. If the ancient cynic happened
to light upon what the poet has since declared to be
4‘ the noblest work of God," he had not sagacity
enaugh to know the treasure by its outward appear-
ance; and if Mr. Lincoln in the course of his long
inquiry has had for a while in his possession the
greatly coveted preserver of the Union, he has not
known either how to prize or how to use him.
31'Clellan was the nearest approach to an effective
commander that Mr. Lincoln's search has elicited;
and up to the recent occupation of Chattanooga it
seemed as if Gen. Rosencranz was the very man in
pursuit of whom the President was perambulating
his dominions. But Rosencranz having, like his pre-
decessors, failed in accomplishing the impossible,
has, like his predecessors, been hurled from the pe-
destal by the ruthless iconoclasts of the Cabinet. It
is Mr. Lincoln's fault or misfortune, as it has been
that of all his countrymen, to honour the fighting
general more than the contriving one ; to set the
sword above the spade ; and to think more highly
of mere personal valour than of military science and
of far reachi lag strategy. Hence Gen. Rosencranz,
who was the idol of the day as long as people ex-
pected that he would win a decisive victory, no
sooner lc,et a battle, which was at best a drawn
game, if so much as that, than the confidence placed
in him: melted away. The public was daily informed
for a whole month that the position of Rosencranz
at Chattanooga was impregtable, that he had been
or certainly would be, largely reinforced, and that
issuing forth in his irresistible might he would, in
his own time, scatter the legions of Bragg like chaff
before the wind, break the neck of the rebellion,
and, effecting with Gen. Meade a movement upon
Richmond, would capture President Davis and all
his Cabinet, and bring them to Washington to
be hanged on gibbets as high as that of Haman.
But people were slow to credit what it was evident
that neither Mr. Lincoln nor Mr. Stanton believed ;
and. no one has been surprised by the announcement
made yesterday that General Rosencranz has been
deprived of the command of the Army of the Cum-
berland, or that General Thomas has been appointed
in his place. No one knows anything of the mili-
tary qualities of this General. He rescued the Army
of the Cumberland from total destruction by his ob-
stinate valour
, when General Rosencranz was asleep
in Chattanooga, unsuspicious of danger, and for that
reason alone he has been chosen to command it.
But whether he can lead and manage an army as
well as be can fight at the head of a division is a
problem which the future must solve. Those who
remember the promotion of Generals Pope, Burn-
side, and Hooker for the same reason, and the igno-
minous failures which they severally made, have no
great faith that " fighting Thomas" will prove better
than "fighting Hooker," and a growing feeling of
distrust prevails that the greediness of the Cabinet
for speedy victory—desired on political more than
on military grounds—prevents the President from
knowing a good general when he has fowad him.
General Grant, though not in immediate command
of the Army of the Cumberland, is to have control
over the whole South-western campaign, so that
General Thomas will in effect act in subordination
to him, and do the fighting, not so much to achieve
victory over the Confederates before Chattanooga as
to wit'odraw the Federal force from a position in the
highest degree critical. As the Americans worship
the rising but never the setting sun, General Grant
is the present object of their exaggerated homage.
He and he only is declared to be the real and in-
disputable Napoleon of the North, a man who in
taking Vicksburg achieved a far greater and more
glorious deed than Bonaparte ever accomplished ;
and who exceeds the French commander in genius
and fortune as much as Federal America exceeds
France in length, breadth, and area, Gen. Grant
will doubtless share the fate of his predecessors.
Tor a brief space every military officer who comes
to the surface of political favour is held to be the
biggest man in the world—a man who by his mighty
deeds is to eclipse the fame of Car,Charles XII.,
Marlborough, Wellington, and Napoleon, and to
prove to the unwilling and envious nations of effete
old Europe that they must send to America if they
wish to learn the art of war and how to kill the
greatest possible number of soldiers in the least pos-
sible time and to the least possible purpose. So for
awhile Gen. Grant will sun himself in the rays of
Presidential and popular favour. If he defeat Gen.
Bragg thoroughly and finally he will rise to still
higher appreciation, and become a candidate for the
Presidency. Having reached that point the star of
his glory will have culminated. He will be in Mr.
Lincoln's way, and in that of Mr. Chase, of Mr.
Stanton, of Gen. Halleck, and of a host of political
enemies, and will speedily be unmade by the hand
which made him. Then the President will take his
lantern once more, and prowl about the camps,
keen -eyed and jocose, in search of that unattainable
general who is always coming, but never eomes, and
of that self-sacrificing hero, who will consent only
to achieve each an amount of success in the field as
'will make him tolerable to an impatient people,
without making himself obnoxious to the President
in esse, or the countless Presidents in posse, who hate
by anticipation every man in military or civil life
who threatens to become too pecular and too
Powerful.

But Mr. Li • ncolnis not only in search of a general,
but of an army. He has learnt from experience
that it
in Mr J.9let 35 - in him, as he thought it cruel
to the
°Davis, to drive unwilling conscripts
pen." battlefield"without like bullocks to the slaughter
impressing the actually abandoning the design of
Northern youth to serve is his
Southern wars,
and
continuing to hold that un-
palatable measure a
heads of the ablebosdia sword in terrorem over the
announesaa males of the North and
West, he has
by
proclamation that he
will give the voluntary a
requires 300,000 men
bv3Ttshteni one more trial. He
1864, to whom he offers the e
first week in January,
100 dole. and advance pay, This,
bounty money of
not be the solo inducement heldhis, of course, will
out .
libe-
rality of the cities and towns, and of , for the
indi-
viduals growing rich out of contracts is
increase that sum by public eubset.ipti is certain to
increase to what-
ever amount may become necessary to
purchase lris-
hmen and Germans. It cannot be a,
nosed that
it
avi 1 be necessary to purchase Americans,for it would
be a libellous denial of their patriotism to
suppose
that any one of them would take the dirty money of
the State as a bribe for doing his duty in the hour of
his country's peril. Should volunteering be not
sufficiently brisk in the interval, a conscription will
again be tried, and, although Mr. Lincoln does not
say as much in his proclamation, it will probably
be a conscription after the fashion of the Prussian
Landsturm, in which every ablebodied man of the
fighting age will be compelled to serve without right
of exemption. The proclamation, though only three
days old, has already had a remarkable effect
upon the Republican journals. Three months ago
they were all loud in praise of the draught as
the fairest and most equitable mode of raising
an army. Bat as Mr. Lincoln has changed his
opinions, so also have they. It was one of the
offences of Mr. Vallandigham which brought upon
his head the condemnation
of General Burnside
first, of Mr.
the Lincoln. second, and afterwards of
whole R.
militaryepublican party, that he denounced a
Re-
publican conscriptionliberty,
as alien to the spirit of
It was, until new light broke
upon the Adj..
brought against the
one of the main charger
" Copperheads,' the Democratic party and the
'0 tcrasonahly,” thatllll_l:a they "disloyally," if not
Union could not
bei i ned that if the armies of the
was an end of the Union,
by volunteers there
; inasmuch as conscripts, if
procurable, which was
the worst possible materiamio
fre than doubtful, were
or
and especially in a civil war, soldierstetween men of the
in any war,
same race and language. But
now
been put upon the matter by all tahe friends and
new face has
organs of the Administration. in a
constitutional
country the King can do no wrong, because he
through responsible Ministers, who may be
emade acts
to
pay the penalty for his misdeeds. But in this coon
try (for the present) the President can neither do