The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-13 00:00:00

and that he routed a party of some 50 guerillas, 1
taking five
prisoners, with a quantity of arms and
horses, on the 25th inst.
The news of President Lincoln's em- ncipation
proclamation has reached Richmond in a telegram
from Petersburg. The rebel press are n the fog as
to the movements of General Lee. It is said his
men are improving in condition, and accumulating
by daily accessions of stragglers and conscripts.
" The yellow fever is raging with unabated fury
at Wilmington, North Carolina. Letters from the
scourged city are many, calling for help. Its rapid
spread and malignity arise from the utter ignorance
of the physicians and others in their treatment of
the disease.
" In official despatches to the rebel adjutant-
general relative to the capture of IVlumfordsville,
Kentucky, Gen. Jones says that 23,000 Kentuckians
had joined Kirby Smith's corps d'armee since his
arrival in that State."
Under the heading, " When will the war end ?"
the Richmond Dispatch of the 27th Sept. publishes
an article of which the following are extracts :
" This is a question oftener asked than answered.
We have been asked the question repeatedly; but
if any one should ask us, ' when will the world
end ?' we should be just as able to give an opinion.

" The only way that the war can end is by the
exhaustion of the North, or the extermination of the
South. The North has determined to subjugate or
annihilate us. It gives us only this alternative :
The Union or death,' That, in sum and substance,
is all that its most conservative politicians propose.
It is in vain that some of them deny the cruel de-

termination that we have indicated. Is there one

of them—conservative republican or conservative

democrat—who will proclaim that he prefers the

sacrifice of ' the Union' to the extermination of the

South ? The Union is the god of all parties alike,

except the ultra-abolitionists, who, strange to say,
are the only men in the North willing to ' set it

aside.' The war has been carried on from the begin-
ning by the conservative classes, and scarcely an

abolitionist is to be found in the armies. If the

Union sentiments' which so pervade the North
were genuine patriotism we might have some
hope of its abatement, or, if it were mere fana-
ticism, the grab of passion might howl itself out ;
but it is the practical greed of gold, which will

never let go its grip as long as life remains. The
North is fighting not only for the Southern trade
and commerce, but to make the South pay the enor-
mouse debt accumulated in this war. Not only
this, but it is fighting for its very being. The idea

is common that it is the South alone which is con-

ending for national existence. But if the North

ultimately fails in this war she will fall as fast and

far as Lucifer in his descent from Heaven. The

brightest jewels of her crown wrested from her

grasp, the chief sources of her revenue withdrawn,
and a national debt, half as large as that of Eng-
land, piled on her shoulders ; her cities solitary,

her harbours deserted, her manufactories silent, her
military capacities so paralysed that she can neither
command respect abroad nor insure order in her
own incongruous population, composed of a seeth-
ing mass of the ignorant, depraved, and fanatical of
all nations, she will cling to ' the Union,' and to the
war, by which only she hopes to preserve it, as the
shipwrecked mariner clings to the last plank that
lies between him and the fathomless depth of eter-

nity. We must bear these facts in mind when we
are tempted by the syren songs of hope to look for
a speedy peace, and to relax the exertions which
alone can save our throats from the throttle of a
powerful nation, engaged in a fearful and final
struggle for life or death. We wish we could des-
cry a brighter prospect, but we see no reason for
such predictions. The unmanly expectation of
foreign intervention which so long deluded our
people has long ago proved an idle dream. Europe
not only refuses to intervene, but rejoices in her
heart over the American troubles, because they are
exhausting and rendering impotent for injury to
despotic governments that continent whose free in-
stitutions have always kept her in a nightmare of
alarm. England, the chief instrument in the dis-
ruption of the old republic, preserves rigid neutra-
lity—that is, she furnishes the North material and
the South moral aid; she permits the North to
purchase materials and munitions of war, which
the South, by reason of the blockade, is only
partially able to do; and she praises the South
for its military prowess and patriotic devotion. She
pats weapons into the hands of the Northern com-

batants, and she pats the Southern combatants
on the head, and cries, ' Brave boys, pitch into
him.' We are beginning to understand all this,
and to dismiss from our minds the monstrous delu-

sion of foreign intervention."
An explosion took place at the arsenal in Colum-
bus, Kentucky, on the 25th, destroying a large
amount of ordnance stores and cotton. No lives
were lost. 100,000 dole. worth of ammunition was
destroyed.
A despatch, dated St. Paul, Minnesota, Septem-
ber 29, published by the New York papers of the
30th, says :
" Three hundred Sioux Indians, under Little
Crow, attacked Colonel Sibley's command on the
23d inst. The battle lasted two hours, resulting in
the repulse of the Indians, with the loss of 30 killed
and a large number wounded. Four whites were
killed, and from 30 to 40 wounded."

The following general order, discountenancing
pillaging, has been issued by General Butler :
" New Orleans, Sept. 19, 1862.

"It having been made to appear to the com-
manding general that upon marches and expedi-
tions soldiers of the United States army have
entered houses and taken therefrom private pro-
perty and appropriated the same to their own use,

" It is, therefore, ordered that a copy of General
Orders, No. 107, current series, from the War De-
partment, be distributed to every commissioned
officer of this command, and that the same be read,
together with this Order, to each company in this
department three several times at different company
roll. calls.

i, It is further ordered that all complaints that
private property has been taken from peaceable
citizens in contravention of said General Orders,
No. 107, be submitted to a Board of Survey, and
that the amount of damage determined shall be de-
ducted from the pay of the officers commanding the
Command
ommt haen
do uotfliproportion to
their rank
g:j inor-General Butler,
.
troops com—mßityti
if GEO. C. STRONG, A. A. General."
The following despatch has been received at the
War Department from General M'Clellan :...
" Near Sharpsburg, Sept. 29, 1862.

General,—l have the honour to report the fol-
lowing as some of the results of the battles of South
Mountain and Antietam. At South Mountain our
loss was 433 dead, and 1,806 wounded, and 76
missing ; total, 2,325.
" At Antietam our loss was 2,010 killed, 9,416
wounded, and 1,043 missing ; total, 12,469.
" Total loss in the two battles, 14,704.
" The loss of the rebels in the two battles as near
as can be ascertained from the number of their
dead found upon the field and from other data will
not fall far short of the following estimate :
Major Davis, assistant inspector general who
superintends the burial of the dead, reports about
3,000 rebels buried upon the field of Antietam by
our troops. Previous to this, however, the rebels
had buried many of their own dead upon a distant
portion of the battle field which they occupied after
the battle—probably at least 500.
" The loss of the rebels at South Mountain can-
not be ascertained with accuracy, but as our troops
continually drove them from the commencement of
tdheeadacwtioorne,
saenedn
'torn tmuchhe fiegldretahtaenr
onfmnoubrerowonf tinheenit:
it is naturally reasonable to suppose that their loss
Was greater than ours. Estimating their killed
who Were buried by themselves at 500, the total
number of rebels killed in the two battles would be
4,000.
According to the rates of our own killed
andwounded, this would make their loss in
wounded, 18,742.
" As nearly 48 can beetermined at this
time the
number of prisonerstaken by our troops in the
battles will, at the lowest estimate, amount to
will,
l
5,000. The fall returns
no doubt, show a
larger number. Of these aboluli
1,200 are wounded.
This gives a rebel loss in killed, wounded, and pri-
soners, of 25,542.
It will be observed that this does not include