The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-05 00:00:00

THE SOUTHERN C

'EDERACY.

(From the Times' Special Correspondent.)

RICHMOND, March 4.
It is impossible to be blind to the fact that the
personal character of General Sherman, seemingly
destined within the next few weeks to be the
greatest power upon this distracted continent,
is at this moment well worth studying, as likely
to furnish a key to the future, and to indi-
cate the attitude and policy of the victorious 20
millions who, after unparalleled efforts, seem at
length about to triumph over the first stage of re-
sistance so long and so heroically offered by their
sturdy and still unsubdued antagonist. It can
scarcely be denied that up to the present time the
Northern Generals who have tried conclusions with
Robert M. Lee have had no occasion to boast of the
encounter. At a moment of such Northern intexicar
tion as the present it is necessary to repeat that
neither M'Clellan„ Pope, Burnside, nor Hooker can
point with much pride to the record of the past ;
nor can it be claimed even by the most rabid parti-
sans of the North that any other Federal Generals
than Grant and Meade have met Gen. Lee withmet
disgrace. I have reason to know that Gen. Lee has
always entertained a very favourable opinion of the
character and ability of Gen. 'Wade, and that neither
by Meade nor Grant have the loathsome cruelties
which have disgraced Hunter, Milroy, Sheridan, and
most of the Federal Generals in the Shenandoah
Valley been encouraged or stimulated. Nevertheless,
if Grant and Meade are to be judged by the Pro-
crustean military code which European critics of the
American war, knowing nothing of the difficulties
and makeshifts with which Lee has had to contend,
insist always upon applying to him, it seems to me
that the fact of the Federals having been held in
check for nine months before Petersburg and Rich-
mond by Lee's vastly inferior army is a sufficient
indication that Grant and Meade are no match for
Lee in military ability. It must never be forgotten
that Lee's army, during almost the whole of its
existence, and especially during the last 12 months,
has been scantily fed from hand to mouth, gene-
rally destitute of such stimulants as coffee or
spirits ; that it has usually been outnumbered in the
ratio of three to one ; that it has endured all that
can test the persistency of man ; and that the force
which it has so steadfastly opposed has been pam-
pered by an abundance of food to stimulate its
courage, coaxed by luxuries such as have hitherto
been unknown to armies in the field, and inflated
by the ceaseless gasconades of such a daily press as
never constituted a material element in the history
of any previous war. It is difficult for one who
during these long months of agony and suspense has
watched the career of Robert E. Lee, has been cog-
nizant of his stately simplicity, his unostentatious
self-abnegation, his ceaseless and ever active un-
selfishness, his lofty courage, his uncomplaining per-
sistency, to speak of him otherwise than in the lan-
guage of extravagant enthusiasm. To measure such
a man by the cold standard of military criticism, to
weigh him in the balance with, hien who conducted
war under vastly different circumstances, seems
little less than treason to those who live under his
influence and example, and recognise that he has
been to this great struggle more than Washington
was to the Revolutionary War, more than Laroche-
jacquelin to La Vendee, more than Kosciusko to
Poland, or Garibaldi to Italy. But there will be
little dispute in Europe about his rank as a great
captain, if, while
ystill holding with vastly inferior
numbers the lines around Petersburg and Richmond,
he is able to detach a large force to the South
and to hull Sherman back to the sea coast. Such,
believe, will be his effort. About the result I should
have no misgiving if the spirit of Secessia generally
in 1865 were as good as it was in 1864. . But noble,
without example noble, as has been the attitude of
Virginia throughout the war, the tenacity of the
Cotton States, and especially of.. South Carolina
and Georgia, has partaken of the passionate tem-
perament of men who live " under the sun,"
and who lack the patient endurance and bulldog
persistency which Ken sprung from the same
blood but living in a colder clime axe wont to claim
as the proudest elements of British valour. I
dare not speak with confilence about the future at
a moment when so many of the best and noblest of
the Confederates have fallen, when politicians have
shown more energy in undermining their own Go-
vernment and sapping General Lee's strength than
in breasting the enemy, when the vastly superior
forces of the Federals in men and (and what is still
more important) in water-carriage facilities, are be-
ginning to be more felt than at an earlier stage of
the war. It is necessary, while still retaining un-
bounded faith in General Lee, and much confidence
in the men who follow such divisional and corps
commanders as Longstreet, Mahone, Wade Hamp-
ton, and Gordon, to contemplate as possibilities
circumstances which may be upon us almost before
these words have met the eyes of your readers. The
long arrest of Grant before Richmond will be
hardly compensated by his capture of that city if
Lee should eventually be forced to evacuate it, for
it will be attributed more to the strategy of Sherman
than to the coercion of Grant. Sherman, within a
few weeks of this time, may by possibility be auto-
crat of this continent,but no conceivable concatena-
tion of circumstances can, in my judgment, place
the crown upon the head of Grant. It will, there-
fore, as I have said, be profitable to study the cha-
racter of Sherman, as our best guide to the possible
shape of the future. Not forgetting that there is a
possibility of Sherman, when brought into collision
with Lee, although fighting with every conceivable
advantage upon his side, suffering such an eclipse as
has overtaken all of his predecessors, let me proceed
to the task which I have proposed for myself.
The record, it must be confessed, is not alto-
gether unexceptionable. During my recent visit to
Charleston I was told that when Sherman, some 20
years ago, was a young lieutenant in the United
States' army, he was long quartered near that city
upon Sullivan's Island. Such was then his character
for steadiness that no objection was ever made by
• ladies in Charleston to permitting their daughters to
join parties given by the officers at which it was known
that Lieut. Sherman was to be present. We lose
sight of him until he quitted the United States army
and established himself as a banker or broker (in
this country usually the twins are almost identical)
in California. In tiiia business he failed, and some
few years before the war repaired to New Orleans,
in:a condition, if not of destitution, at any rate ur-
gently needing assistance and advancement at the
hands of his former friends or fellow soldiers. This
assistance he was not slow in finding. Gen. Beaure-
gard was one of the most popular men inNewOrlea.ns,
of which city (I think subsequently to the time of
which I am speaking) he became mayor; and Gen.
Bragg had a large plantation in Louisiana. By the
influence of his two former associates in the United
States' army, Sherman, whose worth, steadiness of
character, and raittary ability were well known to
both, gained the appointment of President to the
Louisiana Military State Academy. This office he
held with much dignity and propriety for some years.
In January, 1861, when the war between the two
sections was manifestly coming, Sherman resigned
his office in Louisiana, and approached Gen. Bragg
with a view to taking leave of him. He said to Gen.
Bragg, " I see plainly that war is at hand. Edu-
cated
.as a soldier, I cannot remain in the South
without taking up arms, and I do not see my
way to fighting against my own kinsmen from
Ohio. But come what may, no human consi-
deration—no human cosideration " (General
Bragg told me that Sherman repeated these words
twice)—" will ever induce me to take up arms
against the South. The South has, I know, many
grievances to complain of, and I shall go to Ohio
with a view to instructing my countrymen about
them." It was not without considerable astonish-
ment that after this speech General Bragg read the
name of Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman figuring
as a prominent actor in the battle of Bull Run. But
I must add thnt General Bragg (who told me this
story a few weeks ago) seemed little disposed upon
reflection to censure General Sherman harshly for his
change of opinion. The Strange, enthusiastic temper
of Sherman seemed to be fully known to Bragg, and
the latter gave the former credit for sincerity on the
occasion of their conversation in January, 1861, and
for sincerity on the occasion of Sherman's acting at
Bull Run in a manner diametrically opposed to his
professions at the commencement of the same year

Ever since Bull Run Sherman has been one of the
most earnest, impetuous prosecutors of the war that
the Federals have ever had in the field. For a long
time, and especially in connexion with his operations
against Vicksburg at the end of 1862, he met with
very little success, and he attained very little cele-
brity until after the defeat of Rosecrans at Chicka-
mauga, and his own appointment as Rosecrans' suc-
cessor at the end of 1863. Since the commencement
of the campaign which he opened in May, 1864, at
Dalton, in Georgia, and which he has not yet closed,
Shermaa has met wait one unbroken career of pros-
perity. History will, I think, hereafter have a good
deal to say about General Johnston's conduct of the
campaign which drove the Confederates, without
any pitched battle, out of the hill country of Georgia
into the flat plain around Atlanta, and which, more
than any other event duringnearlyfour years of war-
fare, hd.sled to the present crisis in Confederate affairs.
But without reverting to a question which already
provokes sufficient heartburnings in Secessia without,
my adding fuel to it, let me state that perhaps no
military commander ever attained such fame as
Sherman's without fighting ten battles where Sher-
man has fought but one. It is impossible that Sher-
man can plead armed resistance and the hot blood
of exasperated soldiers in extenuation of the horrors
and excesses of which his army has been guilty in
South Carolina. Armed resistance, since the battle
of Jonesborough, which led to the fall of Atlanta at
the end of Augast, he has met with none. It is
impossible to know how far these excesses, which
rival the sack of Magdeburg & San Sebastian, have
been connived at by Sherman ; but there is arising
a general conviction inSecessia that verylittle effort
is made by Sherman and his officers to repress them.
It is remembered that in a recent conversation which
Sherman held in Georgia with' Mrs. Elliot—the
daughter-in-law of the Episcopal Bishop of Georgia
—he said to her, on her expressing a wish to return
to South Carolina, " You will be going, madam,
out of the fryingpan into the fire. My army is
composed of some of the most lawless ruffians upon
earth. Here in Georgia I can with difficulty control
them, but when I enter South Carolina I shall
neither be able nor desirous to do so. You have
heard of the horrors of war ; wait until my army
gets into South Carolina and you will see their
reality." Read by the light of this speech the re-
cent incendiarism of Columbia—a town over which,
as it once existed, richly garnished with magnolias
and japonicas, and surrounded by dense groves of
ilex or the beautiful live oak of the South, a South-
ern poet might have written verses which, if worthy
of their inspiring theme, would have lived as long as
those which celebrate the beauties of Sweet Auburn,
is a passage in Sherman's history which will not
soon be forgotten. But, reverting once more
to Sherman, I may remark that his long
residence in the South has taught him to
disclaim any intention of carrying on war on be-
half of the " poor lashed, degraded slave," out of
whom Mrs.lStowe has manufactured a melodramatic
fame of which the incidents of this war are already
making her countrymen ashamed. Possibly, in
common with every other intelligent man, Sherman
may think that the abolition of slavery would be a
great boon to the South, but he does not seem to
think that it would be a boon to the slave. At
any rate, Sherman has always shown great disin-
clination to admitting negro soldiers to his ranks,
whatever allegations to the contrary may be made
by journals, to which he gives little heed. lam
informed that he forbad recently any junction be-
tween his own troops and these which Gen. Foster
commands on the South Carolina coast, and which
consist principally of negroes. If in the Armageddon
which seems now approaching, Gen. SlArman once
gets the South down it may confidently predicted
that his politics will be more in harmony with those
of Gen. Lee than those of President Lincoln. Mr.
Lincoln has found him hitherto a very valuable
friend—it is possible that before the end comes he
will find him a still more dangerous enemy. During
this war I have seen no man who seemed to me to
possess so much of the temper of Cromwell as
Sherman. Vain, eager, enthusiastic, fanatical, at
times gloomy and reticent, at others iglpul-
sive and talkative, some regarded as half mad
when the fit is on him, General Sherman pos-
sesses a character which, unless I am mistaken,
is of the stuff of which great and mysterious actors
in history are often made. It is possible that,
profiting by his supposed knowledge of General
Johnston's strategy, he may try to flank him out
of his strong position, wherever it is established—be
it on the Neuse, or be it on the Roanoke River—as
he flanked him out of Kennesaw Mountain, or the
Buzzard's Roost, between Dalton and Atlanta. But
in addition to General Johnston's knowledge that
the present is his last chance of establishing the
military reputation to which some of his coun-
trymen still think him entitled, and which no one
more desires to see him establish than the writer of
these words, he has behind him an adviser before
whom every antagonist has hitherto recoiled, and a
touch of whose wand—little hopeful as the sur-
rounding circumstances appear—may even, at this
eleventh hour, crumble into dust the towering fabric
of Sherman's success and fame.
Naval and Military Intelligence.

Her Majesty's paddle yacht Elfin, Staff-Com-
mander Balliston, has been placed in dock at Ports-
mouth to make good defects, preparatory for further
duties in the service of her Majesty and the Royal
family, and to replace her present experimental
screw .blade wheels with her ordinary feathering
floats. The trial of the new apparatus, which con-
sists of a number of ordinary screw blades fixed
round the periphery of the wheel of a side-wheel
steamer, fixed, and at a certain angle, in lieu of the
complicated machinery of the feathering float, has
been attended with sufficient success to warrant

further experiments. The principle is entirely new,
and the figures appended will show that, although
the trials have as yet been made in a very crude
form, some very important results may be arrived
at by further trials. This will be especially the caso
if they are carried out with a vessel of a rather
larger Glass than the Elfin. To show what has
really been accomplished, the plainest and most in-
telligible course will be to give a comparative return
of the results obtained with the Royal paddle yacht
next in size to the Elfin, the Osborne, with both
eommonand feathering floats, and also with the Elfin
with her feathering float wheels and her screw blade
wheels. On the 11th of February, 1863, the Osborne
was tried over the measured mile in Stokes Bay with
common floats to her wheels, when the mean revo-
lutions of her engines were found to be 15, the
indicated power of her engines 981-horse, and the
speed of the ship 10.695 knots, very great vibration
pervading the ship's hull during the trial. On the
16th of July, 1863, the Osborne in the meantime
having been fitted, at great cost, with new wheels
carrying feathering floats, the ship made a second
trial over the course of the measured mile ; and on
this occasion the revolutions of the engines were
found to he 22, the indicated horse-power of the
engines 1,550, and the speed of the ship 12.406
knots, the vibration not being so great as with the
common float to her wheels. On the 20th of
September, 1864, the Elfin was tried at the mea-
sured mile with feathering floats to her wheels, the
immersed float surface being 60 square feet ; when
the revolutions of the engines were 46.91; the in-
dicated horse-power of the engines, 191.80 ; and
the speed of the ship, 11.237 knots. On the 28th
of March, 1865, the Elfin made her trial trip with
the screw-blade wheel at the measured mile, the
immersed screw-blade surface being 32.72 square
feet of the feathering float, the revolutions of the
engines 46, their indicated horse-power 186.558,
and the speed of the vessel 10.012 knots. There
was a moderate swell on during the time the Elfin
was under trial with tier screw-bladed wheels, but
no vibration whatever was experienced on board.
The screw-bladed wheel promises much greater re-
sults than the foregoing, although those are suffi-
ciently remarkable to invest the principle with con-
siderable interest. The inventor is Dr. J. M'Grigor
Croft, late staff surgeon in her Majesty's army.
Iler Majesty's screw steam gun-vessel Plover, 5,
Commander the Hon. Armar L. Corry, from Port
Royal, February 12, arrived in Plymouth Sound on
Sunday night; after coaling she proceeded to
Chatham.

Lieut.-Col. J. W. Lovell, C. 8., the head of the