The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-26 00:00:00

The long expected mails from America have
reached us at last. They are both exciting and
disappointing. It is easy to see that MCLELLAN
and the Confederates have met, have marched, and
perhaps countermarched; but whether there has I
been a really decisive battle, and what are the exact
positions occupied, is by no means clear. The last
account is a " private telegram" to Mr. INMAN,
dated the 17th, from New York, via Cape Race.
The regular telegram, via the same place, is
dated the 16th. This last telegram says that
11/PCLELLAN had occupied Hagerstown, and men -
dons a battle at Sharpsburg, considerably nearer the
Potomac and Washington, too. While it describes
the Federals as surrounded by the Confederates at
Harper's Ferry, which is en the Washington side
of Sharpsburg. The private telegram of the 17th
speaks of a terrible battle at Hagerstown between
the two commanders-in-chief, M'CLELLAN and
LEE.

All these accounts may possibly be true, yet they
do not harmonise conveniently with each other ;
the dash and vigour of the Confederates are such,
that positions are quite possible, which yet do not
seem easy to be accounted for. The Potomac runs
northwest from Washington past Harper's Ferry,
separating a long narrow strip of Maryland from
Virginia. Chiefly in this narrower portion of the
State, which lies immediately south of Pennsylvania,
the operations we now read of are carried on.
Hagerstown is the furthest from Washington, yet
M`ULELLAN seems to have gone thither after LEE,
who had arrived before him, Frederick city, nearer
Washington, having been evacuated by the Confe-
derates. Yet but a day or two before LEE had been
reported on the south of the Potomac, at Leesburg,
with a large force. We gather, however, from the
whole that the Confederates had retreated westward
from Frederick city to Hagerstown, and that the
Federals and they had had some sharp en-
counters there. Whether the statements of the
private telegram be true we cannot know
for some days yet. If they are, the Confederates
have been obliged to recross the Potomac ; and
M'CLELLAN has fairly beaten LEE in the field.
Such a victory would somewhat revive the Federal

courage.
The entrance of the Confederates into Maryland
has threatened not only that State, but Pennsyl-
vania also. We hear repeatedly of movements in
that direction, and of the orders of the Pennsyl-
vanian authorities to call out the militia and to
make preparations for defence. As to Maryland it-
self, the Confederates are pretty sure that that State
will throw in its lot with the South. They treat the
inhabitants therefore well, and offer to liberate them
from Federal rule. They tell them, however, that
the decision lies with the Marylanders themselves.
The South will receive them into the confederation
by their own free act only. The South is disposed
to conquer the goodwill of a State three-fourths of
the inhibitants of which, we fear, are already warm
though a large proportion. of the
intelligent deeply regret the breaking-up of
mproor-eslavery men,
the Union' Indeed the Border States, which prac-
ticallyunite the worst Slave States to the North,
have naturally strong sympathies with both. They
have slaves, though few comparatively—they have
whites predominating numbers. Tradi-
tionwith them the South, progress to the
in largely
North. ooks to

Operations in other parts lose much of their
interest in the great struggle in Maryland. In
Kentucky the Confederates continue active, but