The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-04 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the limes' tArrespowlent.)
NEW YORK, JAN. 20.
The " sixty days" and the " ninety days" so often
predicted by the sanguine Mr. Seward and other
imaginative Americans are more than sufficient to
suppr •ss the rebellion and restore the Union are
words that have lost their charm. No one believes
in them any more. - The few who still hope, rather
than believe, that the rebellion is to be crushed and
the Union re-estahliseed (minus Maesachusetts),
caleutete that nether object can he accomplished
while Mr. Lincoln sits in the Presidential chair.
Failing European intervention, a popular or mili-
tary revolution, or, better than either, the resig•
nation of Mr. Lincoln, the country must hobble
on as well as it can for two years, piling up debt and
misery as each day passes, and finding at the end of
the term that ail has been done in vain, and that
the restoration of the Union is as hopeless and the
South as hostile as ever. But while such is the
prospect as regards the relative ettitute of North
and South, there are several changes which
are certain to occur in the North in " sixty "
days, and several others which are quite as certain
to occur in "ninety." In less than sixty days the
mischievous, as well as absurd, Congress now sitting
at Washington will have outlived its legal term,
and been consigned to hietoey as the most incom-
petent, short-sighted, and reckless public body that
ever attempted to regulate the affairs of a great na-
tion. In " ninety" days, or thereabouts, the existing
army of the United States—whatever its actual
numbers may be, whether 500,000, as military men
compute, or 800,000, as Mr. Stanton asserts—will
be reduced about one-half by the expiration of the
term of enlistment of the nine-months' men, who
rushed to receive tne bounty money so liberally
promised during last summer, when Mr. Lincoln was
so " scared" at the idea of capture in his own capital
as to call for 600,000 men for his defence. As vo-
lunteering has entirely ceased, and the draught or
conscription has been abandoned in every State as
alike unjust and unpopular in itself, and dangerous
to enforce, Congress, during its short remaining
term, must either acquiesce in this ominous state of
affairs, or take means in conjuetion with the Presi-
dent to raise and pay a new army. How is the feat
to be accomplished ? This is one of the problems
that 60 days must solve, if it is to be solved at all,
or that, if left untouched for 90 days, must produce
results in conjunction with the notorious disaffection
of the Army of the Potomac, which may well cause
the most earnest and unflinching of patriots to de-
spair of the Republic.
One or two great and immediate victories of the
Federal arms would shed a cheering light upon this
dark prospect, and help to resoue the Administra-
tion from the contempt amid which it promises
to expire. Mr. Lincoln and his advisers are fully
aware of the necessity of achieving some kind of
success. They hunger and thirst for a victory,
knowing that they must perish without one. Con-
scious of impending doom, unless Fortune or Auda-
city do eomeihing for tl;em, they have grown reck-
less, and have planned and organized as well as
they are able a series of n Ival and military expedi-
tions to strike simultaneously both at the heart and
the extremities of the South, with the wild hope
that one out of the many may prove successful.
General Burnside leads the van. With a courage
not to be denied, but with a lack of discretion which
makes him an unsafe commander, he has again
crossed the Rappahannock, with the concurrence,
if not at the prompting, of the President and Mr.
Stanton, and against the remonatranees of General
Halleck and other officers. The point of crossing
originally fixed upore was 12 miles above Falmouth,
but it is probable that the actual passage has been
made both above and below that suburb. General
Lee is fully prepared to receive him, either at Fre-
dericksburg or at any other point between that city
and Richmond. People stand aghast at the teme-
rity of the movement. The army is notoriously dis-
contented and demoralised. Four months' arrears of
pay are due to it; and since it made its first on-
slaught on the impregnable heights beyond Frede-
ricksburg, it has lost at least one-third of its num-
bers by wounds, fevers, desertions, and the gradual
atrophy that usually fillete every army which loses
confidence in its commander or its cause. The re-
sult is expected with painful anxiety. No one
either publicly or privately approves it, or looks
upon it in any other light than as an act of foolhar-
diness, approaching to eriminalty.
The next movement is more hopeful. For the
last three weeks, or longer, all the iron-clads re-
cently constructed in this port as well as in Boston
and Philadelphia, together with a fleet of wooden
gunboats and war-ships, have been despatched one
after the other to rendezvous at Port Royal, to ar-
range matters for a simultaneous attack upon Wili
Wil-
mington in North and Charleston n South
Caro-
lina. A considerable military force accompanies
them. General Foster, the hero of the recent bril-
liant but bootless raids from Newborn to Kingston
and Goldsborough, is to co-operate with the naval
forces against 'Wilmington, and will bo opposed on
the part of the Confederates by Gen. Gustavus W.
Smith, formerly of New York, one of the ablest of
the many able officers in their service. Everything
portends that there wilt be a desperate struggle at
this place. Possibly the struggle for the possession or
the destruction of Charleston will be more desperate
still. General Beauregard has been in the city for
two or three months ; and no resource of engineer-
ing skill has been left untried for rendering Charles-
ton impregnable. Next to the capture of Rich-
mond, the destruction of Charleston would be the
sweetest morsel of vengeance that could fall between
the teeth of the Abolitionists and Exterminators.
To massacre its whole population and then burn or
raze it to the ground and strew the site with salt is
the very least punishment that their passion would
inflict. Even reasonable people, who are weary of
the war and inclined to sebmit with the best grace
they can assume to the inevitable necessity of a
separation, are disposed to make the capture of
Fort Sumter a sine qua non to precede all overtures
for peace. Till the " Stars and Stripes" float over
that peccant fortress all negotiation is bitterly dis-
tasteful to their minds. That act of expiation ac-
complished, they may listen to reason, but not
before.
The third expedition is that under Gen. Banks,
operating from New Orleans, and that under Gen.
M'Clernand, operating from Memphis, to clear the
rivet Mississippi. Gen. M'Clernand's part of the
business, under Gen. Sherman, at Vicksburg, has
proved a disastrous faoure. The attempt, it ap-
pears, is to be immediately renewed, in consequence
of imperative orders from the President, the painful
necessities of whose position admit
Meanwhile Gen. Banks is at Baton Rouge, oi
n o
prepar-
ing to attack Port Hudson. The friends of the
South predict that both attempts
must fail, and that
neither Banks nor M'Clernand has the least chance
of success, whatever price of human life they may
be willing to pay for it. The friends of the North,
though not very sanguine, consider that there is a
reasonable chance of victory, if the report be true
that Gen. Grant, at the head of the army of tha
Mississippi, numbering 100,000 men, has been or-
dered to co-operate.
The fourth point of collision is in Southern Ten-
nessee, where General Rosecrans is to renew the
battle with the large Confederate army which
retired, checkmated, but not subdued, at Murfrees-
borough. The Southern army has been largely
reinforced; and both are in good spirits. Rose-
crane has the prestige of success ; while the Southern
army—some what discouraged at first by the non-
result of its last encounter with the enemy--bas
been restored to its pristine enthusiasm by the ap-
pointment of General Longstreet to the command
placeis of Genera Bragg.
The
army of Rosecrans
reportedis
to be short of rations ; that of Longstreet
is fully supplied. The struggle will be undoubtedly