The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-26 00:00:00

h`"11.•..

reports that he had broached the subject again to,
Earl Russell, representing this time that if England
would only declare that the war is not war it would
"accelerate the re-opening of the customary trade
between the two countries." A denial t at the sun
is on the meridian at noon would have b en as likely
to produce the dissolution of the Southern Confede-
racy. Earl Russell said that France had made no
reference of the question to the English Govern-
ment, and there the matter seems to have ended.
Next to the attempt to fix the responsibility of
protracting the war on a country that has not a
man, a gun, or a dollar engaged in it, the subject
that occupies the most space in this correspondence
is the possible mediation, or interference of France
and England. Mr. Seward expresses a constant ap-
prehension that these Powers would attempt to put
an end to the struggle, or, at least, to break the
blockade of the Southern ports. He points out that
if the want of cotton precipitated an European in-
tervention, the only result would be to embitter the
strife and ensure the destruction of the system of
slave labour, by which alone cotton could be pro-
duced. On the 19th of May Mr. Seward writes :
"I observe that speculations concerning foreign interven-
tion were again rising in Europe at the date of our last ad-
vices thence, and certain remarks made by one of the Min -
istry at Manchester have been thought here indicative of a
despotism of that kind growing up in Great Britain. It is
regretted that such incidents should occur just at the mo-
ment when this country is so manifestly about to return to
a condition of repose and peace. Nevertheless, they may
exert a salutary influence by inducing Congress to put the
land and naval forces of the country upon a footing which
will not permit it to be agitated again by intrigues to intro-
duce foreign enemies to settle domestic strife."
It was a "lost fear;" but Mr. Seward persisted
in treating dictation from Europe as an ever impend-
ing peril to the Western Continent. He wastes much
elaborate argument to show that such interference
is needless, rebellion being so nearly dead; and
that if forced on America the cotton supply would
be more precarious than ever. On the 28th of May
Mr. Seward writes thus to Mr. Adams :—,
,4 The President arks foreign nations to consider that we
are only at the end of one year now, and yet the whole
effective mass of the insurrectionary region has been brought
into the field by conscription. The credit of the revolution
is dead before the first dollar has been raised by taxation to
support it, and the territory which must bear taxation is
at once reduced to the narrowest limits and is exhausted of
its wealth and supplies. The power of losing faction, under
any circumstances, must continually grow less; but that
of the disunionists is abating under the operations of a
cause peculiar to themselves, which is now my duty to bring
forward—l mean the practice of African slavery.
He then enters into a long argument to show that
if the conflict is indefinitely prolonged, it must
eff9ct a general emancipation,—" Every slave will
become not only a freeman, but an absentee." If
their masters attempt to prevent their escape, it will
produce a servile war. Indeed, Mr. Seward be-
lieves, if the struggle continues, that a servile war
is only a question of time. The problem, then, is
" how to save the Union and rescue society from
that fearful catastrophe." The Federal Government
has adopted a policy calculated to do both. To that
policy foreign intervention would be fatal :
" Let, us now suppose that any one or more European
States should think it right or expedient to intervene by
force to oblige the United States to accept a compromise of
their sovereignty. What other effect could it produce than
to render inevitable, and even hurry on that servile war so
completely destructive of all European interests in this
country, which this Government so studiously strives to
avoid ?"
In a despatch of the 18th of July Mr. Seward
returns to the subject:—
" The correspondence which has just taken place between
the President of the United States and the representatives
of the so-called Border States is herewith transmitted. It
will show you that the revolution is already successfully
arrested by the separation of those States from the company
of the so-called Confederate States. It needs only any real
or seeming danger of foreign intervention in the conflict to
revive and renew devotion to the Union, even with the
sacrifice of slavery, throughout the whole of the United
States. Europe will not intervene or appeal to us except
for cotton. Cotton, perhaps, could be furnished in answer
to such an appeal only by saving the existence of slavery
here to produce it. Intervention will end the exportation
of cotton by extinguishing the slavery which produces it."
The position of the Federal army at the date of
this despatch would not have led an ordinary ob-
server to the conclusion that the revolution had
been successfully arrested. But Mr. Seward's dis-
position to underrate the importance of adverse
incidents has been as remarkable during the pro-
gress of the war as at its commencement. From

the same tendency, perhaps, he is perplexed by

discovering that facts have such a powerful influence
on the opinions of others. At the end of July the
retreat of M'Clellan and the descriptions of the
condition of his army published by the American
journals began to have their natural consequence in
Europe, on which Mr. Adams (July 31) remarks
" progressive consolidation of the popular prejudice
against America," by which is meant increasing
doubt of the power of the Federal Government to
cope with the armed resistance of the South. This
growing opinion Mr. Adams ascribes wholly to the
" continuous denunciations of the English Press."
If defeats are discouragements to a cause, the army
and generals who lose the battles are rather the
cause of the depression than the journal that describes
them. But, passing over this minor point, Mr. Adams

bought at the close of July that the English Govern-
ment was not in a condition long to resist any popular
outcry for interference, " prompted by the concen-
trated passions of an agitated community." As the
resisting power of the Government was not tested
by any popular pressure, Mr. Adams's anxiety on
the subject had the slightest possible foundation.
Bat at Washington the events of July had produced
a hasty conclusion in Mr. Seward's mind that must
have totally upset its balance. On the 2d of August
he wrote the following extraordinary despatch. The
idea with which it opens is certainly one that never
occurred to any sane subject of this realm :
" But what warrant have the British Government for ex-
pecting to conquer the United States, and to subjugate and
desolate them, or dictate to them terms of peace. A war
waged against us by Great Britain could not fail to reunite
our people. Every sacrifice that their independence could
require would be cheerfully and instantly made, and every
force and every resource which has hitherto been held in
reserve in a civil war, because the necessity for immediately'
using it has not been felt, would be brought into requisition
I shall not willingly believe that Great Britain deliberately
desires such a war, as I am sure that every honourable and
generous effort will be made by the United States to avoid
it. . . I shall not here add to the explanation which I
have made on other occasions of our means and resources for
meeting a final trial of the national strength and the national
virtue. Rather than do this, I willingly turn away from
the spectacle of servile war and war abroad—of military de-
vastation on land, and a carnival of public and private cu-
pidity on the seas, which has been presented to me—to set
down with calmness some reflections calculated to overt an
issue so unnecessary and so fatal, which you may possibly
find suitable occasion for suggesting to the rulers of Great
Britain."

Again, on Aug. 13, he states that " sentiments un-
favourable to our cause and country are gaining
more favour (in England) under the inculcations of
a hostile press." Mr. Adams echoes the complaint,
and, on nearly the same date, speaks of the " gradu-
ally spreading antipathy to us among the people of
this ci,y and kingdom, as it has been shown by the
reception of General Pope's announcement that we
have gained a victory. Here it is viewed in the
light of a disaster, and great efforts are made to dis-

credit it." The suspicion and doubt alluded to were
based on the known character of the commander,

the language of the despatch itself, and the inci-
dental evidence that accompanied it. And a disaster
it proved to have been. The military courts of
inquiry at present sitting at Washington fully jus-
tify the conclusion drawn in England when the
operations took place.

down
toe
s the e
fbeerg beginning
it th)g
of November, and the last d
e
President's decree of emancipation that was to take
effect from the Ist JAn. last. Mr. Seward advocates
it on the ground of exigency. He says"
What h
been discussed so earnestly at home and abroad,
as
s
a CitieSti" of morals or humanity, has all the while
benb Practically only a military question, depending
time circumstances:, As the proclamation has now been
of purchase modified by the more gradual scheme
cottained in the President's Message,
the references to the earlier document are deprived
of interest. Only a small part of the correspondence
is devoted to real business. The great mass of the
t hes read more like a series of lectures and
des etches
essays on
lieve in
be-
despite what the people of Europe ought to of all facts and evidence leading to
different conclusions.
to the ° -In the following passage, in
reference
d üb4's expressed in France and
.

.~

• „
041:1N. Lo
.„
4

Englafad of the possibility of :reconstructing the
Union, Mr. Seward employs an illustration of sin-
gular bad taste. He says—
" The account of public opinion and public felling in
England concerning our affairs which it contains harmonises
in all respects with Mr. Dayton's report that the statesmen
of France, including the Emperor, are no less sceptical than
the restoration of the 'Union since the capture of New Or-
leans than they were before. You tell me that in England
they still point to the delays at Richmond and Corinth, and
they enlarge upon the absence of displays of Union feeling
in New Orleans and Norfolk. Ah, well l scepticism must
be expected in this world in regard to new political systems,
insomuch as even Divine revelation needs the aid of miracles
to make converts to a new religious faith."
Had Mr. Seward consulted his own reputation, he
would not have published many of these private
letters, as they essentially are, though they take the
form of official communications.

THE CAP7U RE OF 1 REDERICKSBURG.

The following account of the bombardment and
capture of Fredericksburg is from a correspondent
of the New York, Herald, who writes under date of
the llth inst. from the headquarters of the army of
the Potomac :
To-day has witnessed one of those rare, grand
spectacles of war—the bombardment of a city. For
days the attack had been looked for with feverish
anxiety, and with each successive evening the mor-
row was prophesied as the inaugural occasion of the
much-talked-of winter campaign; but weeks slipped
by and and yet we rested in our camps, while all
along the ridges just across the river batteries
nightly sprang from the earth, as if by magic, and
the increasing smoke of the enemy's camp fires
wrapped hill and vale in undistinguishable gloom.
Wild, exciting rumours were greedily accepted for
facts, and a thousand statements, as ridiculous as
they were contradictory, flew like wildfire from
camp to camp.
Throughout the week there had been indications
that the crisis was rapidly approaching, and each
night the troops retired at tattoo fully confident
that the roar of artillery would be their reveille.
Last evening, at sundown, the movement com-
menced. Batteries hastened to the front, waggon
trains were removed from the vicinity of the anti-
cipated battle, the ponderous pontoons joined the
current hurrying river-ward, and light closed down
upon us bright and beautiful, with our pulses
throbbing quick with eager expectations. Artil-
lery never seemed to rumble noisily before, and
the sharp cluck of the iron axles echoed far
and near, as if in league with the enemy. Down
by the river everything was as quiet as peace. Oar
pickets, composed of the 51st Pennsylvania regiment,
sat listlessly about their fires, watching the rebel
sentries and crunching hard tack. The river swept
smoothly by, placid as the sky above, and just over
there, so close one almost wished to tell them of
their error, stood the rebel sentries, while a sooth-
ing movement of rushing waters in the rapids up
stream swelled softly down the valley. From the
thresholds of the city the sharp yelp of curs ran
now and then discordantly upon the ear; but, with
the batteries in position, the cause of their outcry
would be removed, and silence again settles down
upon the town, broken only by the tones of the
town clock tolling the midnight hours. And sa the
time slipped along. The moon climbed higher up,
and the falling dew whitened into frost upon eur
ponchos, while the horses, restless in the chill night
air, moved to and fro uneasily in their harness.
At two o'clock our pickets were withdrawn, and
at three the pontoon train drove down to the water.
Lumber was noiselessly piled upon the ground, and
the huge boats slid from off their trucks. Then we
hear a splashing in the river—a dark pathway
lengthens out upon the silver surface, shadows flit
here and there along its track, the lusty blows of
the hammer re-echo from side to side. And yet no
sound comes from the enemy, " Have they evacu-
ated the place ?" " Are we not to fight here after
all ?" is asked. Suddenly, Crack ! crack ! crack ! from
a hundred muskets tell us the ball is opened. A
cry of pain comes up the bank from the gallant
engineers, mules dash off, with pontoons thunder-
ing after, across the plot ; the musketry grows
louder, and the whiz of bullets more frequent ;
frightened teamsters fly, panic-striken, and the
artillery horses plunge at the caissons. Suddenly,
boom ! goes a gun—another and another, until
thirty pieces are pouring shot and shell upon the
devoted city. Graham, who did so generously at
Antietam ; Kirby, with Ricketts' old Bull Run
battery; Miller, Durell, Tayler, Smith, Hazard,
Kinsey, and Kickson, all join in the uproar, and
musketry is lost to the ear in the mighty roar that
re-echoes again and again from hill to hill. Gradu-
ally the fire slackens, and the engineers again at-
tempt the completion of the bridge, but in vain ;
and after a third trial they fell back, bearing in
their arms their wounded, dead, and dying,
It was designed to lay down two bridges at once,
one at the lower and the other at the upper end of
the city. The enemy, posted in the houses and
cellars, upon the banks of the river, were safe
from our infantry, and maintained a continuous fire.
Our infantry returned the fire spiritedly, but find-

iog it impossible to drive the rebels from their
cover, finally ;withdrew, leaving the disposition of
the enemy to our artillery.

By this time it was sunrise. The engineers (60th
New York) and the 57th and 66th New York regi-
ments had suffered heavily, and the wounded soon
began to crowd the floors of the Lacey House. Other
regiments had also suffered, though much less, and
the surgeons soon had work enough.
About 8 o'clock the artillery fire ceased. The fog
was so dense that objects were invisible 100 yards
from the guns. Fredericksburg was as silent as
before. Again the engineers advance, and again the
enemy drive them back ; orderlies gallop to the dif-
ferent batteries with instructions ; a message orders
from Aquia a special train with solid shot: and again
the thunder breaks out anew. For a time the roar
is indescribably awful. The city from its walls of
brick hurls back a thousand echoes, which beat up
against the Falmouth bluff, roll back again beyond
the town, and then from the distant hills once more
swell over to us, as though the heavens were rent
asunder. At General Sumner's headquarters, half
a mile distant, it becomes difficult to converse in a
low tone, while at the batteries orders must be sig-
nalised. By and by the firing ceases, and one is
almost awe-stricken with the profound silence. The
mist still clings to the river, the sun struggles up
red and fiery, and the air is suffocating with the
odour of gunpowder. Presently the bank of fog
begins to lift a little. the glistening roofs gleam
faintly through the veil, then the sunbeams scatter
the clouds that intervene, and Fredericksburg, ut-
terly desolate, stands out before. A huge column
of dense black smoke towers like a monument above
the livid flames, and leap and hiss and crackle, lick-
ing up the snow upon the roofs with lambent
tongues, and stretching like a giant. The guns re-
new their roar, and we see the solid shot plunge
through the masonry as though it were pasteboard;
other buildings are fired, and before sundown a
score of houses are in ashes, while not one seems
to have escaped the pitiless storm of iron. A less
number have been fired than was anticipated ; but
the damage done by solid shot is terrible, and will
require years to repair. Among the sufferers is Mr.
Garland, a loyal iefugee, who witnessed the bom-
bardment from the head-quarters of Gen. Sumner,
of whose staff his son is a member. The residence
of Mr. Slaughter, father of the mayor, Dr. Wallace's,

Mrs. Hayes', and Timberlake's auction and com-

mission store, are among the buildings burned. An
English ensign hung conspicuous'y from one of the

houses, which, fortunately for the inmates, was less

exposed to our fire. Females could be seen darting
through the streets, negroes carrying furniture from

burning houses, and now and then a rebel gliding
from one hiding place to another. Our artillery
would drive the enemy from their cover upon the

bank of the river, but when compelled to cease, in

order not to endanger the lives of the regiment, the
rebels would immediately steal back and pick off our

men with the rifle.

In the meantime our own troops lined the hills
upon this side as far as the eye could reach, all in-
tensely watching the operations. Artillery, cavalry,
and infantry, in solid columns, covered every pla-
teau, and every csmp in the vicinity was well
nigh abandoned in the desire to witness the born-
bardment. A number of females appeared at the
windows in the city from time to time, waving white

'DAY EVENINg

flags and shouting to us that they wished to come
over. As we were in the same predicament, the dis-
appointment was mutual, and the affrighted females
were left to the undisturbed enjoyment of our sym-
pathy. Whenever such signals were displayed,
however, the buildings were spared by our artil-
lerists, so that the inmates were but little less safe
than they would have been upon this side.

As night approached it was found that the enemy
had no idea of yielding to us a free passage across
the river. With their facilities for shielding them-
selves, our artillery could not permanently dislodge
them, and Companies C and G, of the Seventh
Michigan regiment, gallantly volunteered to cross
in boats and drive them out of the town. Reedy-
ing assent to their proposition, they sprang into
a couple of pontoon boats, rowed briskly across,
dashed up into the city at double quick, broke open
the houses, and captured 36 prisoners, including a
staff officer. This gallant act secured to us the
opposite side until the bridge could be completed,
and our troops are now in possession of the city.
Immediately after taking possession of the place,
the enemy opened upon it with artillery from the
hills beyond, but without effect, and at this hour (9
o'clock p.m.) everything is perfectly quiet. Not a
shot was fired by the rebels from their batteries
during the entire day, with the exception of the
few shots just at night. Some of our own men
suffered trot. our own guns, however, a few shells
having exploded this side of the river.

Our loss in killed and wounded is not large. The
rebels, owing to their sheltered positions, have
probably suffered less than we, though at times our
shells seemed to burst among them with consider-
able effect.

General Burnside remained at General Sumner's
headquarters during the bombardment, in plain
view of the whole scene.

Subjoined is another account of the capture of
Fredericksburg, written on the 11th inst. by the
correspondent of the New York Times :-
1 localise this letter Fredericksburg, but it is most
assuredly " living" Fredericksburg "no more." A
city soulless, rent by wrack of war, and shooting
up in flames athwart night's sky, is the pretty little
antique spot by the Rappahannock, erewhile the
peculiaeocene of dignified ease and retirement,
The advance of the right grand division of the
army of she Potomac rests here to-night, after a
series of operations which are certainly among the
most extraordinary of the war. To those who re-
tired to rest uninformed of what night was destined
to bring forth, the spectacle this morning must have
seemed strange enough to be the improvisation of the
magician's art. One hundred and fifty pieces of
cannon covered the circular sweep of the heights of
Fredericksburg : 150,000 men in battle array had
sprung from the earth, and lay, ready for the
advance, behind those heights. But to theinitiated,
who spent the night in vigils and knew what
work crowded its busy hours, it was all intelligible
enough. All night artillery came, and came with
its ceaseless, heavy rumble, and as each battery
arrived from the rear it was pcsted in the place
selected for it by the chief of artillery. All night
the perpetual tramp of men moving to the front
filled the air. Pontoon trains unwound their long,
snake-like forms, and were drawn, each boat by its
team, down to the river's brink.
It had been determined, in council of war, held
on Wednesday, instead of extending our lines of
operations along the river from Falmouth to Port
Con way, the entire army should be crossed at or near
Fredericksburg.
Five pontoon bridges were to be thrown across
the river, the first at the Lacey House, which lies
directly opposite the end of the main street
of Fredericksburg, half a mile below Falmouth ;
the second and third within a few hundred yards
from the first. The remaining two were to be
thrown over a mile and a half or two miles further
down the stream, and on these the grand division of
Gen, Franklin—the left—would cross, while Sum-
ner's and Hooker's grand divisions—right and cen-
tre—would use the three upper ones.
It was about 3 o'clock this morning when the
boats were unshipped from the teams at the river's
brink. Swiftly and silently the engineer corps pro-
ceeded to their work. A dense fog filled the val-
leys and water margin, through which the bridge-
builders appeared as spectral forms. The recital of
the limes special correspondent with the left will
inform you of the details of the construction of the
two lower—Franklin's—bridges. Work there was
performed with perfect success—the engineers being
allowed to complete the first without any interrup-
tion whatever, while the construction of the other
was but slightly interrupted by the fire of the rebel
sharpshooters.

We were not so fortunate with the upper bridges.
The artificers had but got fairly to work, when at
5 o'clock the firing of two guns from one of the ene-
my's batteries announced that We were discovered.
They were signal guns. Rapid volleys of mus-
ketry, discharged at our bridge builders, immedi-
ately followed. This was promptly responded to on
our side by the opening of several batteries. The
fog, however, still hung densely over the river. It
was still quite dark, and the practice of the artil-
lerists
engineer
was
corps
necessarily
suffered
very
severely
from the fire of the
sharpshooters concealed in the town. The little
band was being murderously thinned, and presently
the work on the bridges slackened, and then ceased.
en,was
Meanwhile the firing from our batteries, posted
about a mile from the river, was kept up vigorously.
Theto
ff
believet‘ct h wast
not a phantas-
magoria. It was still quite dark, the horizon
ethat singular
the whole affairoug h
around being lit only by tho flash of projectiles,
which reappeared in explosive flame on the other
side of the river.

Daylight came, but with it came not clearness of
vision for on looks: s. The mist and smoke not only
did not lighten, but grew more opaque and heavy,
closlealunych their missiles at a
Our gunners, how-
ever,hugg entgulthcontinuedto
venture. The rebel batteries hardly returned our
fire, and this chariness of their ammunition they
preserved all day—not a dozen rounds being fired
during the whole forenoon.

To wards eight o'clock a large party of general
officers, among them General Burnside, the corps
commanders, and many others of high rank, had
congregated in front of and on the balcony of
General Sumner's headquarters, Phillips'-house,
situated about a mile directly back of the Lacey-
house. The performance could be heard, but not
seen—the stage was obstinately hidden from view,
and ell were impatient that the curtain should rise.
Aids and couriers came and went with messages to
and from the batteries and bridges.
At half past nine o'clock official notification was
received that the two bridges on the extreme left
were completed, and General Franklin sent to
General Burnside to know if he should cross his
force at once. The reply was that be should wait
until the upper bridges also were completed.
Meantime, with the latter but little progress was
made. During the next couple of hours half-a-
I dozen attempts were made to complete the bridges,
but each time the party was repulsed with severe
loss. On the occasion of one essay, Captain Brai-
nerd, of the 50th New York Volunteer Engineers,
went out on the bridge with eleven men. Five im-
mediately fell by the balls of the rebel sharpshooters.
Captain Perkins led another party, and was shot
through the mek, and the 66th and 67th New York
Regiments, which were supporting the 50th and
15th New York Volunteer Engineers—General
Woodbury's brigade—suffered severely. It was a
hopeless task, and we made little or no pro-
gress. The rebel sharpshooters, posted in the
cellars of the houses of the front street, not fifty
yards from the river, behind stone walls and in rifle
pits, were able to rick off with damnable accuracy
any party of engineers venturing en the half-com-
pleted bridges.
The case was perfectly clear. Nothing can be
done till they are dislodged from their lurking
places. There is but one way of doing this effectu-
ally—shell the town. At ten o'clock General Burn-

side gives the order, " Concentrate the fire of all
your guns on the city, and batter it down." You
may believe they were not loth to obey. The artil-
lery of the right—eight batteries—was commanded

by Colonel Hays ; Colonel Tomkins, right centre
—eleven batteries; Colonel Tyler, left centre—seven