The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-17 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28.

New York exhibits no outward signs of the war
and desolation that afflict the land. Washington,
on the contrary, betrays them at every turn. The
long straggling Avenues, planned in a spirit of mag-
nificence, but so meanly executed, swarm with sol-
diers, camp followers, forage waggons, ambulances,
and all the aids, instruments, and paraphernalia of
strife. Thousands of young men, in gray -blue
uniforms, swagger about the streecs or lounge at
the doors of the hotels, with the fresh jauntiness of
the inexperience that has never yet confronted a
foe ; while mingled among them, at intervals pain-
fully frequent, are to be seen the luckless veterans
of the struggle—the men who can fight no more,
the maimed and mutilated victims of " glory" and
" patriotism," limping along on crutches, and turn-
ing their sunken eyes towards the by-passers with a
piteous expression of countenance, as if to crave the
sympathy of all who are still in the enjoyment of
their limbs and faculties. The mud in all the main
Avenues is ankle-deep, for there has been a heavy
fall of snow, six inches thick, that only lay one day
upin the ground before it began to yield to the
fervid rays of a summer-like sun and the breath of a
wind as warm, if not as balmy, as that of an Eng-
lish June. Through the rivers and lakes of slush
pass and repass at all hours of the day and night
immense droves of cattle, as many as 4,000 or 5,000
at a time, some going into Virginia for the use of
the Army of the Potomac, and some destined for the
consumption of the 60,000 men retained for the de-
fence of the capital, together with an almost con-
tinuous procession of supply and forage waggons,
each drawn by six mules, and driven by a negro or
an Irish teamster, shouting and swearing as he goes.
On any ordinary roads in England or in Europe,
two mules would be amply sufficient for any vehi-
cle of the kind, however heavily laden, but in the
deep, greasy, tenacious mud of this region, six
are none too many for the task they have to
perform. Never, perhaps, in any city of the world
was so much horse and mule flesh to be seen
as in Washington at this moment, and such
miserable horseflesh never before enriched a mob of
contractors or impoverished a nation. The soldiers
are for the most part as rough and shaggy as the
mules. Raw lads of 18 and 20 form the bulk of the
army that defends Washington against the immi-
nent aggression of General Lee. These youths revel
and riot in their premature manhood, and exhibit
their exuberant strength and insolence in drunken
and other orgies that seem to have no limits but
their purses. To inveigle the " greenbacks" out of
their pockets and those of their officers a whole
army of brazen courtesans and " painted Jezebels"
has invaded the city, who ply their trade by adver-
tisement in the newspapers and by public exhibition
in the streets after a fashion so gross that it would
shame even the Haymarket. The places where they
have congregated have received the name new to
American slang, and peculiar to Washington, of
" Ranches," a word that in Texas signifies an en-
closure for cattle. The " Ranches" of Madame This
or That are as openly conducted as the hotels or
boarding-houses, and the Provost Marshal and his
officials make little or no effort to interfere with
them. At every street, corner, and place of public
resort are to be seen printed notices, warning
simple-minded strangers against the multitudinous
thieves who have congregrated here from all parts
of the world. In those " howling caravanserais" the
leading hotels, where the utmost possible discomfort
is paid for at the highest possible price, and where
the bad cookery and the bad wine are only equalled
by the bad accommodation and the bad attendance,
are posted up at every angle of the vestibules, cor-
ridors, and reception rooms conspicuous warnings
against the hotel thieves who have come hither
from England and France, as well as from New
York, to break into ladies' bedrooms at the dinner
hour and decamp with their jewelry. Three days
ago one of them succeeded in making off with the
money and private papers of Mr. Ex-Secretary
Cameron, while that unsuspecting diplomatist was
quietly dining at Willard's. Another class of thieves,
not so designated in polite society, but worthy of
the name—the people who sell the Government
rotten and unworthy steamboats for the con-
veyance of troops and stores; shoes for the army,
that wear out in one day's march ; and shoddy gar-
ments, nether and upper, that rot like blotting paper
in a shower of rain ; the " respectable" people who
plunder under form of law and with the decent ob-
servances of trade, feed daily at Willard's and other
public places, and make themselves conspicuous by
the magnums of claret and champagne which they
consume, and by the general loudness of their talk
and behaviour. Then there are the " wire-pullers"
and " log-rollers ;" that is to say, men who have
schemes before Congress, and who " engineer" their
bills through both houses by the vulgarest agencies
of dinner and drink, as well as by other means not
so visible to spectators, though perhaps more satis-
factory to such members of the Legislature as are
neither too honest nor too proud to be purchased.
But the roguery and rascality of Washington are
equalled by its misery. There are estimated to be
no less than 40,000 sick, wounded, and mutilated
soldiers within the district of Columbia, receiving
such poor relief and consolation as circumstances
will allow, not one twentieth part of whom will
ever again be in a condition to fight the battles of
the North. In addition to these are the negroes,
or "contrabands," as they are called in the slang
which General Butler originated and made popular,
who have escaped from Maryland and Virginia
into the Federal lines, and are maintained by the
Government at a heavy cost. Many of these poor
creatures are able-bodied men, for whom no work is
to be found even as teamsters—an occupation for
which they are well fitted ; but a large proportion
are aged and infirm persons and young children.
All of them are huddled together in wretched
shanties at a remote corner of the town. Smallpox
is making fearful havoc among them, and thence
extending its ravages among the white population.
Washington, though an immense city upon the map,
is not sufficiently built up to accommodate the
250,000 people who have been drawn within its
focus by the necessities of the war and the Govern-
ment. Its drainage is so miserably defective that
the wonder ought to be that it has not long ago
been the theatre of pestilence as well as of war, and
thus suffered the second as well as the first scourge
of humanity.
Add to this that at the hotels accommodation is
scarcely to be had—that travellers are often com-
pelled to sleep six in a room; that everything to
eat, drink, or wear is as dear as it is bad, and some
idea may be formed of the outward aspects of the
national capital in this closing week of the 37th
Congress. Congress itself offers an animated scene
as its term draws to an end. The galleries of the
House of Representatives, which are capable of ac-
commodating about 800 or 1,000 spectators, are
daily and nightly filled with attentive audiences of
men and women, who loudly express their dissent
or assent to the utterances of the representatives
below. The sympathy of this crowd seems to go
almost entirely with the Republicans and Extermi-
nators. They applaud every encroachment upon
the liberties of the people which is proposed by Mr.
Thaddeus Stevens—the dreary Robespiere who
rules in that assembly—and justify every unusual
and unconstitutional power which is vested in the
President. The fact may perhaps be explained by
another fact, which is that the resident public of
Washington is a public of officials and hangers-on
of the Government, and that large numbers of
strangers from every part of the Union are here in-
triguing for places and contracts, and that these
classes would cheer Mr. Jefferson Davis as lustily
as they cheer Mr. Lincoln if the fortune of war
should instal the Southern President in the White
House and place the destinies of the North at his
disposal. The debates during the week have been
animated and interesting, but all the fire and elo-
quence have come from the Democratic side of the
house. The Republicans have not an orator among
them. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means, who by virtue of
that position is the Ministerial leader, is clear-
headed, methodical, and logical ; but he drawls and
drones, and is utterly without animation of manner
or elegance of diction. He speaks like a cold
and callous theorist, who would carry out, if he
could, his idea of Southern extermination with as
little compunction as he would erase a wrong
word in a sentence. This gentleman, an
attorney from Pennsylvania, is only ardent in one
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ner quite unusual among Northern white men, espe-
cially when, like him, they have passed the middle
age. The other members of his party who address
the House may be less wearisome, but they are not
more eloquent than their leader. They are simply
dictatorial and offensive ; they sneer at the writ of
habeas corpus, as if it were some new fangled notion,
invented for no other purpose than to impede the
prosecution of the war, and with scarcely the form
or show of debate they vote into the hands of the
President powers which if proposed to be given to