The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-29 00:00:00

THE SMYTH ERN CONFEDERACY.

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(From the Spoie Correspondent. of the Times.)

HEADQUAP.TF,ES OF GEN. LEE, NEAR CHAT
BERSBIJIS.G, PENNSYLVANIA, June 29.
Up to the pree'rit time nothing can exceed the
'success which has attended the onward march of
Gen. Lee across the boxder of Virginia and the heel
of Maryland, up the :rich Cumberland Valley, and
deep into the bowel's of the State of Pennsylvania.
If my recent letter from Berryville has ever reached
England your re:aders will understand with what
admirable dexteeity the large army of the Confede-
rates has moved from Fredericksburg into the
Northern States, snapping up the force of Gen Mil-
roy at Winchester en route, and masking its ex-
tended lines behind the gaps of the Blue Ridge,
firmly held as they were by Gen. Lee. This advan-
tage hes been gained without striking a blow, ex-
cepting -.hose which have been interchanged in the
brisk cavalry skirmishes between Gen. Stuart and
Gen. Pleasanton. In my last letter I alluded to the
serious wound which Major Von Bereke, the chief
of Gen Stuart's Staff, contracted in one of these
skirmishes. It will be a matter of interest to those
Englishmen who have lately visited the Confede-
racy, and who have most of them carried away agree-
able recollections of Major Von Borcke, to learn that
this gallant Prussian cffieer, who has likewise 611 C..
ceeded in gaining the affections and admiration of
the whole of Gen, Stuart's command, has hitherto
progressed favourably, and that he has not en-
countered the danger which I apprehended for him
when last I wrote—the danger, namely, of his being
taken prisoner, although two Federal officers actu-
ally entered the house in which he lay wounded.
The bullet is still, I fear, buried in the muscles at
the back of his neck; but I understand that no
danger to his life is apprehended, unless the slough-
ing of the wound subsequently injures an artery.
The movement of an enoimous army like Gen.
Lee's, with its vast ammunition or ordnance trains,
infinite
stores weary length of waggons, laden with the
stores of the Quartermaster-General's and Commis-
sary-General's departments, its interminable bat-
teries of artillery, to say nothing of brigade after
brigade of infantry, and squadron after squadron of
cavalry, can be compared to nothing but the action
of mighty forces in the laboratory of nature, the
bursting of the St. Lawrence at the commencement
of each May through the penthouse of ice which has
for seven months controlled its limbs, the upheaval
of strata among the -volcanic summits of the Andes.
Any time during these last 10 days a traveller might
sit by the wayside in the Valley of Virginia, or on
the edge of the Potomac--that Rubicon which the
Confederates have at length crossed to teach their
pertinacious enemy some of the anguish which Vir-
ginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina, and
Mississippi have in different degrees so long en-
dured--and at Hagerstown in Maryland, or at
Greencastle in Pennsylvania, and wonder at the
endless files of footmen and horsemen, accompanied
by troops of negro camp-followers which passed
before him, the men still ragged and unkempt, but
hardly one without good substantial shoes; the mules
and horses for the most part sleek and fat, the army
altogether in infinitely better case than I ever saw
it before. It is not likely that any such traveller
would occupy his post long without being subjected
to any amount of " chaff," all the more so if his
dress or appearance offered any salient points of
attack. With jest and song and banter for each
and all that they met, with saucy cheers as they
tramped through Pennsylvanian hamlets to th 6
tune of " Dixie" villainously interpreted by a Con-
federate field band, heedless of the half-cowed,
half-menacing looks of the groups of Yankee men and
women, the ragged rebels press insolently forward,as
though defeat and discomfiture were possibilities not
dreamt of in their philosophy. Within the county
of Franklin, of which Chatabersburg is the county
town, hardly a horse, or mule, or head of cattle has
escaped the Confederates; and it is hard to see,
even if the Confederate army was withdrawn to-
morrow, how the harvest, which lies thick and pro-
mising in many a fair field, could be saved or gar-
nered. The farmers gather ruefully in the streets,
emboldened by the impunity which they have
learnt from the experience of the last fortnight is

everywhere exteaaed to them by the Confederates,
and moodily discuss the future and anathematise
President Lincoln and Governor Curtin and General
Hooker. But it a strange commentary upon this
war, especially in the eyes of one who has during
these last four months visited hundreds of
Southern towns, and encountered hardly a soul but
old men and. young boys and women, to see thou-
sands of young and middle-aged stalwart men
standingidle in the marketplace, glaring as fiercely

as they dare at their ragged invaders,• but declar-
ing that "it i none of their business to fight.'
Surely, if the men of Chambersburg are not goaded
into rising by the presence of their foe, by the
seizure of all their horses and cattle, and by Brie.
vious exactions in the shape of any number of
rations, paid for, it is true, in Confederate scrip,but
demanded at their hands by the Southern army, it

is hard to say what amount of pressure will con-
strain the men. of Pennsylvania to acquit themselves
like men. Hitherto, though I have conversed with
many of them, and have heard the measure of their
irritation against the Confederates expressed in
various keys, there seems, so far as I can discern,
no sense of individual responsibility among the
men, no consciousness that the tread of an invader
on their soil is the worst of pollutions. There
has been, it is true, some little " bushwhacking',
as the Confederates advanced, but it has been
chec'ed by the capture of the offenders, some 15 or
20 in number, and their dismissal as prisoners to
Richmond. When General Ewell first occupied
this town some five days ago he immediately caused
a search for muskets to be made, and discovered
some 500 or 600 of them, which, as he had no wag-
- gons to spare to carry them to the rear, and as ail
his own men were armed, he caused to be destroyed.
It is safo to say that there is no town throughout
the length and breadth of the Confederacy which
would not have sent each of these muskets into the
field against an army of Yankee invaders, in the
hands possibly of old men and boys, in the hope
that some Federal straggler might be picked off
and their advance arrested until a sufficient forco of
men might be gathered to meet them face to face.
If any proof werewanting of the inferior earnest-
ness with which the North .8 fighting as compared
with the
South, it
is to be found in the aspect of
the streets of Chambersburg this day. It is hardly
conceivable that this degrading apathy should con-
tinue, or that if arms are promised to them by Go-
vernor Curtin, or any other authority, the men of
Chambersburg and other little
neigh-
bourhood would refuse to
repair towns in this
spot, and to strike pro axis
et to any designated
present time, I am bound to record f"4B.
But, up to the
cin that, except by
vague threats of what
the
army is going to do, and by
femalevin denunciations
invincible Northern
of the Confederates, comparing them
army marching to the Red Sea, Pennsylvania "e Pharaoh's
borne the presence, first of the BYlvania has
army of E
no wof that of General Lee, like Iss well, and
Eicher crouching
down between two burdens.

It must not be supposed that when General Lee
gets deeper into Pennsylvania, and, above a
should ever cross the Susquehannah river, itl he
hie
intention to keep open his long lines of communi-
cation with Virginia. Hitherto, although arenearly 30 miles from the Potomac at Williamsport,
the line of communication, though exposed to much
hazard, is open, and couriers with despatches pass
to and fro, But it is certain that the time is at hand
when the movements of Gen. Lee and his army will
become known to Richmond only through the jour-
nals of the North. Your readers will imagine with
what difficulties I am beset in my attempt to get
communications to England, intercepted as I am
about to be from Richmond, and in the heart of the
enemy's country. It will doubtless be pronounced by
military critics in England that Gen. Lee is sinning
against the orthodox rules which guide the art of
war when it is known that he has turned his army
adrift in a hostile country, with no open base, no
line of communication. The authority of Napoleon
will perhaps be invoked against him, and specially
will the Emperor's famous letter to his brother,
King Jcseph, be quoted, in which the opinion is re-
corded that a general who aeis without keeping open '
communication with his base deserves to lose his
head. This is not the moment to enter into disqui-