The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-19 00:00:00

THE FEDERAL DEFEAT.

The Army Correspondent of the New York Tri-
bune, writing from " Camp near Chain-bridge" on
the 3d, says :
" Slowly and sullenly the two armies of the Re-
public, outgeneraled and defeated, have fallen back
from the battlefield to Centreville, from Centreville
to Fairfax, from Fairfax to the Potomac. The
latest experiment in generalship is the most imme •
diate and disastrous failure. Once more the national
army gather about the national capital, and the de-
fence:of. Washington is the strategic signal of the
Peninsular advance upon Richmond.
" The retreat from Centreville to Fairfax was
complete on Monday night. Sumner, Sigel, and
Porter held the hill during the day. Heintzelman,
M'Dowell, and the rest were already gone. All
Monday night the three rearward corps struggled
along the crowded road to Fairfax, Porter covering
the retreat. On Tuesday morning the rebels once
more held the sweeping line of forts that pointed to
the east all winter long, and defied our advance.
" Last night the whole army retreated, and this
morning the western bank of the Potomac is the
only Virginian camp of the national troops. Heint-
zelman and Franklin went back on the Alexandria
road, -Al'llowell by Fall Church, Sumner and Sigel
and Porter by Vienna and Lewinsville. We may
bitterly announce once more that the army of the
Potomac and the army of Virginia, crouching be-
neath the 30 forts that girdle the capital, are be-
lieved to be safe.

" I suppose no future hope can be hazarded if the
details of an accomplished retreat aye given to the
world. I record, therefore, very briefly and incom.
pletely what I have seen and heard in the three
nights and two days just past—nights and days of
sleepless activity which can scarcely have brought
to any one who shared the gloomy experience a
single cheerful thought, or a moment of repose.
" When I left Washington on Sunday night,
although it was known that Pope had been defeated
and driven back to Centreville, none or very few
supposed that he was to abandon that position,
famous for its strength, without a fight. A battle
was expected the next day at the furthest, and
no one certainly knew whether there had not already
been another during the day. I passed through
Alexandria and out on the Fairfax road at seven in
the evening. Not half a mile beyond the town I
met a train of heavily loadel waggons, and hailed
a driver—' Where are you from ?" Centreville.'
The whole story was told in a word. The army was
retreating.

" For the next 10 miles the road was filled with
the trains of every corps in the army everywhere
crowded and frequently halting. Mingled with the
waggons were great numbers of ambulances and
carriages, filled with wounded and dying men.
They had been all day on the road, a day of con-
finement, privation, discomfort, and torture. Many
must have remained all night on the road—many
also in the waggons, which as
conveyances for
wounded
men arc only one degree worse than am-
bulances.

"Near Alexandria, and at intervals for some miles I
beyond, the bivouac 17s of many camps blazed
along the road and glimmered in distant fields.
Guards for the trains, straggling
cowards from the
front, sections of batteries, squadrons of cavalry,
and, further on towards Fairfax, regiments and
shattered brigades moving to the rear, and finally
the last division of reinforcements marching for the
front, streamed along the road, and wound in and
out of the endless trains. It was impossible to ride
faster than a walk. I reached Fairfax at 11.
The town was quiet—only a guard at the fur-
ther end, none of whose officers knew where
head-quarters were, whether at Centreville or to
the rear. So I spent what was left of the night
at Fairfax, and rode on next morning to Cen.
treville.
" It is
needless now to explain the constantly
changing dispesiti• •
on of forces during the days which
r
I followed thedefeat i of Saturday. Three corps at
elopes of
least remained at Centreville on Monday,thehill aonndeiNtvheere
scattered over the broad
side of the road in utimilitary disorder. They had
never been in order—n,
more had the rest of the
army f inco the retreat. There
was no head to put
them in order. '1 here was no order in any depart-
ment of the service. There Was not ammunition in
the batteries or in the cartridge-boxes of the in- ,
Pantry enough for another battle, yet no
One knew
where the ammunition trains were to be found. In
the first five minutes I wet three ordnance officers
riding in search of these trains. No fault of theirs
that the trains could not be found. They are able
officers, but no control was in their hands—no means ,
of doing their duty. Orderlies had just been sent
in all directions in search of the waggons—and it
was already 10 o'clock, and a battle hourly expected
since daylight.
" Tile camp were inextricably entangled—not