The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-18 00:00:00

The Four Days' Fighting at Richmond,

Four days' fighting had forerun the evacuation
of Petersburg and Richmond. Several bloody en-
gagements had taken place during that time ; and
were, we have been told by Mr. Lincoln, charac-
terised on both sides by " unsurpassed valour."
These must, therefore, have cost the Federal army
heavy losses. That the despatches are all marked
by either reserve, or glaring dishonesty on the sub-
ject of the cost of the struggle to Grant's' army, is
exceedingly suggestive of disaster.
Sheridan was attacked and huddled back for some
miles in disorder. The losses in casualties and cap-
tives in that case must, when we recollect the large-
ness of his force, have been very considerable. The
greater part of the Fifth Corps was crushed by the
flank ; and, having been driven back for two miles
in utter rout, must, with its large masses of men,
have suffered in killed, wounded, and prisoners very
severely.

The Second Corps was engaged frequently and
heavily. That body must have sustained serious
losses. The Twenty-fourth and the Twenty-fifth
Corps repelled one or two attacks, and having in
turn been repelled in an assault upon the Confederate
breastworks, must have suffered very seriously.

On the night of the Ist the whole front raged in
furious battle. The Sixth Corps, the Ninth Corps,
the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Corps, the
Fifth Corps, and the cavalry, were all engaged in that
bloody work. A murderous skirmish fire flashed
between the lines without ceasing, save only when
silenced in the clash of heavy columns. Several
assaults were made upon the Confederate works
during that murderous night, and hundreds of those
that survived the terrible advances were stricken
down bleeding or dead in the still more terrible re-
treats of those unsuccessful attacks. Deep and wide
columns, swept thus by death going and coming,
and subjected to that appalling ordeal several times,
how shocking must have been the spectacle that
presented itself when the sun of the 2d rose in front
of the Confederate works ! How great must have
been the loss of that one night among the 70,000
or 80,000 Federal troops who marched to and fro
between the lines, their ranks torn to shreds by
hundreds of thousands of bullets !

The 2d of April was a day of battle. Furious
fighting raged, we are told, on that day, and, em-
bracing 100,000 combatants, must have resulted in
immense losses to the army of Grant.
The cost to the Confederates of the four days'
engagements which had forerun the evacuation of
theirposition, we have no means of estimating. On
the first day, the Richmond papers declare that the
losses of Lee's army were but a small fraction of
those of Grant's. On the second day the disaster to
Sheridan, and the rout of the Fifth Federal Corps,
were the result of almost all the fighting of
the day; and in these the Southern loss must clearly
have been very trifling compared with that of the
Federal troops. During the night of the Ist the
penalties of the struggle were almost all on one
side. Cold Harbour reminds us how to estimate
the Federal losses in the repeated assaults of that
bloody night upon the army of Northern Virginia
in position. The fighting of the 2d of April was
that of pursuit and retreat, and probably cost the
Confederates somewhat more heavily than it did the
Federalists. This review shows that in killed and
wounded the army of General Grant must have sus-
tained during the four days' fighting a loss out of
all proportion to that of Lee's. In prisoners, how-
ever, the Confederates must have suffered much
more, for no matter how orderly a retreat may be,
very many of its men will be captured by such a
large and active force of cavalry as that of Sheridan.
The report which sets these down at 15,000 is highly
improbable. In consideration of the leisure and
order of Lee's withdrawal from his works, we think
that even 5,000 is nearer the truth.
Lee had been long prepared to abandon his late
position. He 'determined, however, that it should
not be given up short of heavy price. The cold
policy of crippling the Federal armies by a system
of murderous defence, led him to hold his ground
for one more renewal of Grant's attacks. The attack
came : the work of decimation of the Federal ranks
carriedtaim utenoto,f and
its
cßoiscth mi o n
bn
ldo,
dh
rnags pevaaid-
wcounaaestmedagoa!rine Lee,ins as he did at the Wilderness, has now
taken up a new position : and, covered by works,
as at Cold Harbor, and again at Petersburg, stands
ready to renew his old policy of wasting the Federal
power of attack, by cutting it, day after day, into
gashes, army behind impregnable
deafsehnecse, by
s.— wriflYeosrokf anDaily News.

RAILWAY ACC IDENT.—Yesterday afternoon, whilo
the 3.25 train from Fenchchurch-street was stand-
ing in the Stratford Bridge railway station, it was run into
by the 3.23 train(North London) from Chalk Farm, which
it is stated ought to have stopped at the fog signal instead
of steaming.into the station. Both trains were filled with
Passengers, and many of them wore slightly bruised. Mr.
Pratt, the station-master, immediately took precautionary
measures against further accident, and obtained aid for the
sufferers. Messrs. Kenney and son and Mr. Elliott, sur-
geons, were soon upon the spot, and rendered valuable
assistance. The following are the persons who received
tho severest injuries :—Mr. Madden, 2, Friendly-place,
Mile-end-road, broken ribs and fracture of the arm ; Mr.
Madden's child, much shaken ; Mr. Slaughter, Plaistow-
marsh, lacerated face and scalp and contused hand ; Mr.
Boyer, 42, Nightingale-street, Marylebone, lacerated eye
and face ; Mr. Hackshall, 18, Now-road, St. George'-in-the-
East, lacerated face and eye ; Mr. George Davison, Roches-
ter-terrace, Rochester, lacerated face and eye ; Mr. Morgan,
1, Ely-place, Stratford, New Town, lacerated eye and con-
tused ankle and shoulder; Mr. Frederick Carrier, 4, Mile-
end-road, contused wrist and arm ; and Mr. Oakley,
Angel-place, Stratford, Now Town, severely bruised.
THE PRITCHARD CASE.—A few days ago we were
enabled to state that the report of the medical men
on the chemical analysis on the remains of Mrs. Taylor,
conducted here, would be received in Glasgow at the end
of the week, and would be of a tenor to show that tho de-
ceased lady did not die a natural death. The report
was sent to Glasgow on Thursday, and we understand
that it ascribes the death of Mrs. Taylor, in common
with that of Mrs. Pritchard, to the effects of antimony.—
Seoteman. •

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