The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-17 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This morning
This day al Two o'clock 6B
Barometer-22.88.
li rind—S.W. ; light, and fine.

HIGH I iATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
tilts dorning, 2h. 45m.—Afternoon, 3h. 3m.
To-moivaow.- lAlorning, 3h. 21m.—Afternoon, 3h. 40m,

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LONDON,, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1863.

The Teleg rams now showering in upon us from the
Etna come fast and thick, with tidings as hot and
fierce as tho ugh they were redhot stones and boiling
lava. They are tidings still of the fiercest fighting,
hither and t hither, at opposite extremities of that
vast and already fearfully ravaged seat of war in
America. I lere the storming by the Federals of
Port Hnds, am—yonder their persistence in the
siege of Vic ksburg—yonder, far away to the North,
the prepara Lion of General LEE at the head of his
victorious Confederates to cross the Rappahannock,
and the prep aration, on the other hand, of General
HOOKER to. prevent his crossing it—if possible.
The Battle which we now learn was raging all
through th,e 27th and the 28th ult. between the
Federal for ces, under General BANKS, and the Con-
federate de fenders of Port Hudson, proves to have
cost the for mer on the first day of the assault, that
is on the '27th, alone, from two to four thousand
men place(l ho7s de combat. And all to no purpose,
as previoinsly had befallen the Federal troops
under General GRANT before Vicksburg. All to no
purposes at any rate, up to the moment when these
last advices left the scene of conflict. The Northern
army having been withdrawn by its commander
from its advanced position—retreating in obedi-
ence to those orders along its whole line to its
original position before this attack upon Port Hud-
son had been commenced. According to the belief
prevalent in the North, when the Etna was leaving,
the Federals and General BANKS would there and
then, in that resumed original position, await the
reinforcements which had been hastily sent
for by that commander, from New Orleans. In
the meantime, so far from the Northern army
under General GRANT, resuming its inter-
rupted attack upon Vicksburg, it was stated
to be on the contrary engaged up to the very close
of May in erecting earthworks with a view to its
own protection ! The utmost show of audacity on
its part being directed to certain cautious and gin-
gerly operations in mining, to the end that some
of the Confederate forts might be safely blown up.
As to the bombardment of the beieagured city by
the fleet lying off there on the Mississippi, that

seems to have proved so utterly futile and inefftctual
from first to last, as to draw from Admiral PORTER
the naive acknowledgment that the Confederate
works in defence of Vicksburg were really and truly

stronger than he should have looked for ! What
renders the position of GRANT all the more serious
after his reiterated repulses from Vicksburg by the
Confederates, is the doubt entertained as to the pro
bable doings, as to the possible position of the most
formidable leader of the Confederates in that part of
the seat of war. It used to be thus always, it will
be remembered, during the lifetime of General
STONEWALL JACKSON in regard to his movements. It
has more than once so happened, very uotably, in the
instance of General BEAUREGARD. It is precisely
in this way falling out now in reference to General
JOHNSTONE. The Federals upon that subject seem
to be fairly bewildered. They know not in what
directionl to look for him. Now his appearance is
to
from
that,
awaited from this—now, again,
totally opposite, quarter. The likelihood
being all the
while that JOHNSTONE will eventually
" turn up"
when and
hwhere he is least expected. The
favourite notion in
accounts, appeared
to
bis
regard, accordiag to the last
30,000(rather rouDhgn e that, with from 15,000 to
these, evidently as to the
mere number of followers he had contrived to gather
together) he was making hise way steadily in between
the Bigßlack River and theYazoo,withthe design of
recapturing Haines' Bluff, and of Bo
elattQr
further Federal communication by 111 T interrupting any
river, that is the Yczoo. So much creditth
was attached to this statement as to his indeed,h
abauts and his intentions, that one corps of the Fede-
ral- army had been actually detached and Bent forth
in the direction indicated with a view to interrupt
JOHNSTONE on his march. So cheerless, however,
appeared to be the prospects in reference to this
unhappy siege of Vicksburg, that one of the New
York papers (the World) actually ovvns to a belit-A
that it will drag its slow length along all through
the summer. That is to say, of course, if the Con-
federates will hear of it. At the very time, moreover,
that this confident avowal of almost hopelessness,
in regard to the capture of Vicksburg, is
blurted out at New York—comes to the Federal
population an ugly rumour enough from the direction
of Vicksburg : one, however, that 1-,,e hardly in any
y feel disposed to credit : a rumour to the effect
that General GRANT, harin been repulsed at all
points, had fallen back upong
the line of the Big
Black River, where
pre rent the he was preparing himself to
crossing over of JOIV:it3TONE to the re-