The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-01 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

The departure of M. Mercier for Richmond, an-
nounced by telegraph, may well affect the Northern
world with strong emotion, if he has really gone
there. The Minister of France is a gentleman who
has never for a moment concealed his belief that
the North cannot succeed in the object it proposes
to itself, and, who naturally regards the loss and in-
convenience caused to France by the prolongation
of this strife as very useless concessions to the pride
and lust of power of the people of the Northern
States, who are neither grateful nor just towards
those who maintain a strict neutrality regardless of
their material interests. M. Mercier has always
acted with the most perfect good feeling and cor-
diality in his relations with Lord Lyons, although
he may not share the English Minister's kindly
sympathies for the country to which he is accredited.
There has been no Trent affair to stir up the
passions of the unbridled democracy of the United
States, or to turn the fulsome eulogiums of France
in which their press indulged into rabid abuse, but
the Minister of France has not been without evi-
dence of the shallowness of friendship which once
nearly astonished the world with a display of its
ingratitude, nor can he have quite forgotten that in
one of his Buncombe proclamations Mr. Stanton
insulted his country by calling her "infidel France."
Nevertheless, if M. Mercier has gone to Richmond
to open negotiations—and it may be remembered
that our correspondent in his last letter stated that
the Confederate Congress was reported to be sitting
in secret session to consider the propriety of sending
another envoy to Paris—it will be said, in all pro-
bability, that England has instigated the Emperor
to interfere, and France will at the same time be
threatened with destruction if she attempts to act
as mediator. As yet the story is improbable, but is
not so much so as the report that France was about
to revoke her concession of belligerent rights to the
South in consequence of the recent defeats of the
Confederates. The real nature of the battle at Pitts-
burgh is more clearly developed by recent confes-
eiuuz and correspondence. Still more clearly will
it be admitted as a Federal defeat if that trouble.
some and utterly useless body, the Congressional
Committee on the Conduct of the War, take it into
their heads, as reported, to make an investigation
into the causes of the Federal "surprise" on Sunday
morning. An army which carries off from 8,000 to
10,000 prisoners and 36 pieces of artillery from the
battle-field, and awaits the enemy in its intrench-
ments, cannot be called " routed and pursued," no
matter what General Grant's instructions may
have been. If General Grant, or any other
General, were prevented by " previous orders,"
which must have been issued in ignorance of the
future, from following a routed enemy, retaking his
guns and prisoners, and occupying his intreneh-
ments, the sooner he is sent about his business the
better for the Federal Government. Until the fact
is demonstrated by precise indications it will be well
to withhold belief from the assertion that the Con.
federates are " shut up" in Corinth. There is no
place where they can be so confined, nor any force
capable of effecting it, but it is not improbable their
communications may be threatened very seriously,
and the intelligence that the bridges by which the
railroad from Memphis to the East is carried over
Bear Creek have been destroyed by a Federal expe-
dition, is in all probability correct. It is stated that
the Union gunboats ascended the Tennessee river
from Pittsburgh at night to a place called East-
port, and landed a party of men, who proceeded
across country and destroyed the bridges across the
swampy river which bears the above name. The
interruption may be only temporary ; if it be per-
manent it will cut off the Confederates from any
communication except with Mobile and New
Orleans.

There is little additional information in the Ame-
rican papers respecting the battle, but General
Be4uregard's despatch may be accepted as an accu-
rate account of what occurred up to the date of the
morning of the second day. His second despatch
declares he merely retired to Corinth, which he in-,
tends to hold at his discretion. He has certainly
struck the Federal army advancing into Mississippi
a tremendous blow in the face, and has staggered
them for the time. The Federals admit their ene-
mies won a victory on Sunday, and are reduced to
weak logic to show they were beaten on Monday.
It is now confessed that Van Dorn did not reach
Pittsburgh in time to take part in the action. A
paragraph, dated St. Louis, April 14, states that
the Confederates had 123 battalions, or 75,000 men,
engaged ; the Federals, reinforced by Buell, must
have had at least equal numbers. The same
authority estimates the Federal loss at 8,000.
Several of the Federal regiments are- openly named
by the New York papers -as conspicuous for cowar-
dice, and are branded by name, number, and State.
Some had only 200, 40, and 17 effectives on Mon-
day, but there are no means of knowing whether
the absentees were hors de combat by their own
exertions or by those of the enemy. An attempt
to carry the position of Corinth in the present
state of the Federals would not be very wise. On
the whole, the effect of the gallant and well-
conceived attack of Generals Johnston and Beau-
regard has, for the time, paralysed the Federals,
but it would not be fair to conceal that the loss
admitted by the Confederates is very consider-
able, and that their Congress has been fain to
mingle with congratulations on its victory natural
expressions :of regret for the loss of such an able
and gallant leader as he who had nearly gained a
most signal success by-a movement only retarded
by unexpected bad weather. The North is taught
to believe that General Halleck, who has taken
command of the troops, will soon attack the Con-
federates, and " no doubt" will " give them a pretty
severe whipping."
The arrest at Yorktown affords time fcr histori-
cal research, and it is discovered that the position
of the present belligerents very nearly resembles
that of the French and Americans on the one side,
and of Lord Cornwallis on the other, in 1781. Not
a bit of it. There is no parallel on either side, and
no resemblance, except in so far as the ground mu-
pied by the belligerents may be identical in some
`places along the lines, The French under &chain-