The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-08 00:00:00

S TAMPED sd.

The Royal Artillery Gold C bp, value 100 soya, added to a
Sweepstakes of 5 sous ea eh, for horses the property of,
and ridden by, officers of the Royal Artillery; 12st each,
with pea'alties. Three miles. 18 subs, 10 of whom paid
3 soya each.
Captain Hunt's Jim Crow, aged, 12st 71b (inc 71b extra)
(M
Captain Worthan.i's Oldcastle r. Callow) 1
, 12st (Mr. Griffiths) 2
Lieut. Hutchinson, R.A.'s Saracen's Head, aged, 12st 71b
r)
Major Green's View (Owne 3
12st (Mr. Slade) 4
Contralto a."id Vesta also ran.
Betting-2 to 1 agst Contralto, sto 2 agst Jim Crow.
Oldcastle took a slight lead, and passing the Stand Vesta
was lying second, View Hallo well up. At the brook
Vesta fell, and was not furtherp,lrsevered with. At the
two suaceeding fences Contralto u:ishipped Mr. Stirling,
and war then stopped. Oldcastle increased his lead till
within a mile and a half from home, when Jim Crow
(who had been lying second) gradually drew up and
won in a canter by 20 lengths ; the same distance sepa-
rated the second and third ; and View Holloa, beaten off,
was fourth.

A Steeplechase of 10 sovs clan, h ft, with 60 added; for
horses the property of, and to be ridden by, officers of
the army or navy, 12st each.
Contralto walked over for the forfeits.
The Hunt Stakes of 30 sovs, added to a sweepstakes of 3
sovs each ; for horses that have been regularly hunted
by officers of the Royal Artillery ; gentlemen riders, 12st
each. Gold Cup Course.
Mr. Magenis's Vesta, aged ....(Mr. R. Head) 1
Mr. Brook's Grafton, aged ..(Mr. Anderson) 2
Capt. Boyle's Grey Peter, aged .,(Mr. Turnbull) 3
Major Hay, B.A.'s, Landlord (Mr. Clare) 4
The following also ran :—Nosey, Best Man, Beechnut,
Sportsman, Duchess, and Underwriter.
Betting-2 to 1 agst Beechnut, 4to 1 agst Duchess, sto
1 agst Grafton.

Grafton made play with a slight lead to the brook, where
Beechnut upon landing fell, and brought down Duchess
and Nosey ; they were, however, remounted and went on
in pursuit. Grafton, still leading, was followed by Under-
writer, who refused at the next fence, and left second place
to Vesta, followed by Landlord, Beechnut, and Peter Grey;
the latter, however, gradually improved his position, and
when within a quarter of a mile from home joined Vesta,
who had assumed the lead ; but upon clearing the last fence
Grey Peter being cannonedagainst, allowed Grafton to take
second place, but never reaching Vesta, was beaten by two
lengths ; Grey Peter third, was beaten eight lengths from
the second; Landlorda bad fourth. Underwriter walked in.
A Sweepstakes of 5 sous each, with 60 added, for horses the
property of and ridden by officers in the Royal Artillery ;
11st each ; penalties. Gold Cup Course.
Mr. Hutchinson's Best Man, aged, list 71b(Hon. R. Hal 1
Capt. Hunt's Jim Crow, aged, 12st(in141b ex)(Mr. Callow 2
Mr. Hutchinson's Saracen's Head, Ilst 71b (car list 111 b

(Mr. Turnbullj 3

Sunbeam and Lemon Oliver also ran.
Betting--5 to 4on Jim Crow, 4to 1 agst Lemon Oliver.
Lemon Oliver made play, but refusing at the brook, to-
gether with Sunbeam, Jim Crow went on with the running,
Saracen's Head and Best Man next ; the latter, however,
soon refused, and Saracen's Head increased his advantage
till within five furlongs of home, where he gradually gave
way, and was passed by Jim Crow, who, after clearing the
last fence into the straight, held a lead of a dozen lengths.
Within the distance Saracen's Head was passed by Best
Man, and Mr. Callow easing Jim Crow within 20 strides of
the post, Mr. Hare set to vigorously on Best Man, who won
cleverly by a short head ; Saracen's Head a bad third; the
others did not pass the post.

THE CONFEDERATE S SATES

(From the Times' Special Correspondent)
CHARLESTON, Jan. 23.
There seemed little reason to think, when I re-
ported four weeks ago the important conclusion of
the bombardment which the forts of Wilmington
sustained on the 24th and 25th of December, that
before 21 days had flown the attack would be re-
newed more seriously than before, both by land and
water, and that Fort Fisher would succumb to the
only danger which, as I theh pointed out, it had to
fear—to an attack by land. Two years' experience
of Secession have taught me that it is vain for any
one to attempt truthfully to record any important
passage of this war unless he is on the spot at the
time of its occurrence and witnesses its main fea-
tures himself. In addition to the vigilance at all
times imposed upon a public writer lest he should
during the continuance of war disclose facts or sta-
tistics which are injurious to and may be employed
to the prejudice of the weaker belligerent, it is im-
possible, either from public journals, written pas-
sionately and under great excitement, or from pri-
vate sources, which reveal only that insignificant
part of the action in which the narrator participated,
to gather more than a glimpse of what has passed.
Premising that my sketch of the second attack on
Wilmington, unlike that which I attempted of the
first, is derived only from participants in the:action
who escaped from the fort just before its capture
and spoke with limited knowledge and under strong
excitement, and that it is impossible to arrive at a
more accurate narrative, inasmuch as General Whit-
ing, Colonel Lamb, and their associates are almost
without exception prisoners, I will proceed to state
what is here believed to have happened at Wil-
mington on the 13th, 14th, and 15th inst.
Late upon the evening of the 12th information
reached General Whiting, in Wilmington, that the
fleet of the enemy was again drawing up towards
Fort Fisher, and that a second attack seemed immi-
nent. It may confidently be asserted that upon
this occasion the feeling in Wilmington in reference
to such an attack was satisfaction, and anticipated
triumph rather than alarm or misgiving. Everyone
believed, and believed rightly, that Fort Fisher had
little to fear from a bombardment by sea, and the
presence in the neighbourhood of Wilmington of
one of the finest divisions of General Lee'a army
afforded substantial grounds for thinking that the
landing of Federal troops and their anticipated effort
to attack the fort by land would be neither easy nor
safe proceedings. Upon the morning of Friday, the
13th, four ironclad vessels, of which one was the
new Ironsides, and the other three were turreted
monitors, occupied the same position as they held
in the Christmas-day attack, and drew near to the
land face of Fort Fisher; but upon this occasion,
instead of lying at from 1,600 to 1,800 yards from
the guns of the land face, they approached within
1,200 yards. Your readers will perhaps remember
that in my account of the last bombardment I stated
that Fort Fisher mounted no very heavy guns on
the land face, the largest being an 8-inch smooth-
bore or 68-pounder, and a 42-pounder rifled gun.
Profiting by his experience of the feebleness of Fort
Fisher's fire from the land face on the 24th and 25th

-- - -- --
December Admiral Porter ordered his ironclad_ves

sell to stand much closer in on January the 13th
and to open fire at not much over 1,000 yards. And
here I may remark that the commentary made by
Gen. Sherman, when conversing with a lady in the

interior of Georgia some weeks ago, upon the offi

cers of the Northern and thoseof the Southern
armies, seems every day to become truer and truer.

Gen. Sherman said, " There is no comparison be

tween the valour of the rank and file of the two
armies; and as an evidence, the Southern army has
held us back for nearly four years, when the odds
have often been five to one against it. But the
Federals far surpass the Confederates in the industry
and perseverance of their officers. Our generals out-
wit and outmanoeuvre yours because they work ten
times harder than yours. We spare neither time
nor trouble to give effect to our schemes. Your
generals, on the contrary, trust to little more than
naked unassisted valour." It is impossible to doubt
that if Fort Fisher had been a Federal and not a
Confederate fort, there would upon the 13th of
February have been two or three large rifled guns
on the land face, which would have made it impos-
sible for any vessel possessed by the Federals to
have lain within 1,200 yards of their muzzles. But
the interval between Christmas-day and the 13th of
January was spent in a jubilee over the past triumph,
rather than in active preparations for securing ano-
ther. Those Englishmen who still maintain that
the 68-pounder is the best gun afloat would perhaps
reconsider their opinion had they seen how impotent
it proved itself upon this occasion to produce any
effect upon Monitors at 1,200 yards. It is not
doubted by anybody that at 200 or 300 yards the
68-pounder smooth-bore is equal to any rifled gun ;

but the man who thinks that future actions at sea*

will be decided by tactics e sor Coning-
wood's, and that it will be possible for an English
ship to get within 200 yards of her antagonist, seems
to be reckoning without his adversary. The large
swivel gun carried by all Federal ships on their
upper decks, which is never less than a 100-pounder
Parrott or rifled gun, and which is frequently a
200-pounder gun of the same family would play
upon an English ship "at long taw," and decide
the action long before the ships got within 200 yards
of each other. It is obvious that what our ships re-
quire is fewer guns, some rifled and some smooth-
bore, and those of the heaviest calibre. In a future
letter I hope to draw attention to the different sys-
tems of armament which prevail in the English and
American navies, and which, I may here mention,
are determined upon the following principles :
The Americans take for their models the arma-
ment of English ships, and make it their study
to exceed it ; the English think they have no occa-
sion to learn from anybody, because they have
ruled the waves for 60 years, and seldom give
heed to any experience other than that obtained
within the British waters or by her Majesty's
vessels on foreign service. The time seems not
far distant when we shall be forced to remember
those distressing precedents so little heeded by the
majority of Englishmen, in which the Guerriere, the
Macedonian, and the Java went down before the
superior weight of metal thrown by the Constitution,
United States, and other American frigates in the
war of 1812. And it cannot be denied that many
Englishmen, who are best acquainted at this moment
with the Federal navy, assert it will be found, when
war between America and England breaks out, that
the equality between American and English ships of
the same class will be found to be apparent rather
than real, that the 8-inch or 68-pound smooth bore
will find itself confronted by the 9-inch Dahlgren
smooth bore, throwing a projectile of about 90
pounds ; that the 100-pounder Armstrong will find
itself opposed to the 200-pounder Parrot, and so
forth in regard to smaller calibres.
The four ironsided vessels which I have men-
tioned kept up a steady fire on the land face of Fort
Fisher during the-whole of the 13th, and about half
past 4 in the afternoon of the same day the entire
Federal fleet steamed very leisurely and slowly past
the sea face of the fort, and threw a feu d'enfer for
about an hour into its open embrasures. In the
meantime the Federal infantry was being landed,
during the whole of the 13th, about Gatlin's battery,
or about five miles to the north of Fort Fisher. No
opposition or molestation was offered, as they slowly
effected a landing under circumstances singularly
favourable to them, and with the sea as smooth as a
mill-dam. During the whole night of the 13th and
14th the Monitors kept up a steady though not
rapid fire on the land faces, which was continued
with more spirit on the. morning of the 14th,
and in which two large frigates stationed off
the sea face, took part upon this day. Upon Sun-
day, the 15th, the whole fleet resumed the lunette
attitude which they wore on Christmas-day, and
pejed the fort mercilessly until about 2 o'clock,
when the troops which the Federals had now
thrown across from the sea to the river drew near
along the river bank. At this point the Fort is en-
tered by a road or causeway, leading from Colonel
Lamb's house. There is a proverb in this country
to the effect that no earthwork is ever completely
finished, and long as the preparations for defending
Fort Fisher have been continued, there was no de-
fensive work, or tete de pont, at the spot where this
causeway enters the Fort. The Federals threw about
2,500 men upon the Fort at this point, and effected
an entrance there about 3 o'clock. It was in vain
that Gen. Whiting and Col. Lamb threw themselves
at the head of such troops as they could rally with
the most determined gallantry against the assailants.
Gen. Whiting with his own hand, as lam informed,
tore down the Federal flag several times until he
was severely wounded. By his side fell Col. Lamb,
after displaying the valour which all who are ac-
quainted with him and witnessed his exertions at
the close of last month, would have expected him to
exhibit. I understand that the wounds of both are
serious, but not dangerous. After their fall the re-
sistance seems to have assumed no organised shape.
The Federals advanced along the inside of the land
face until they had possessed themselves of eight
merlons, or the embrasures in which eight guns
were mounted. Here they halted for the rest of
the afternoon, and did not proceed to accomplish
their task until after darkness had fallen. Then
they advanced once more, and driving the garrison
of the Fort beyond Lamb's Mound, they took the
survivors prisoners at the extreme end of Con-
federate Point. I believe that there were in-
side the Fort about 2,200 men when the 2,500
Federals advanced upon it. lam also under the
impression that the Federal attack was made
without artillery, and that their soldiers gallantly
approached a work which mounted not only some
50 heavy guns, but was also defended by seve-
ral 12-pounder howitzers and light field pieces,
with nothing but muskets in their hands. The result
might have been different if General Whiting and
Colonel Lamb had not been wounded at the outset,
but it must be confessed that the general sensation
here is that the fight was not one which is creditable
to the Confederate arms. It must be remembered
that most of the garrison had never been under a
serious fire before last Christmas day, and that they
were for the first time under a heavy musketry fire
upon the 15th inst. The reinforcements hastily
thrown into the Fort when the attack commenced
were, for the most part, raw troops ; the aggregate
was composed of heterogenous bodies of men without
concert ; the only two commanding officers of mark
and character who were well acquainted with the
locale were wounded at an early stage of the fight

Publicopinion,anywherep
whichuon earth, an
is in
wcaeh invariably
more censorious
than
selects one individual as the mark for its shafts, has
in this instance fixed upon General Bragg, and
animadverted severely upon his want of enterprise
in not attacking the Federals as they landed at Bat-
tery Gatlin, and as they approached to take the Fort
en revers. lam unable, from want of full and accu-
rate information, to say whether General Bragg,
who had previously done much to regain public
favour, is deserving of censure or not. But it must
be confessed that General Bragg has hitherto, to an
extraordinary extent, been a lightning conductor for
bad luck.
It seems that Fort Fisher fell because the guns on
its land face were too light to cope with iron-clad
vessels, because its two ablest leading officers were
wounded at the outset, and because its garrison was
inexperienced, incoherent, and loosely coupled, and
finally, - because the Confederates in 1865 do not
fight with the vigour and Ilan of 1862 and 1863,
There is no reason to think that the fort as a de
~ .

.ensive work was materially injured by the bom-
bardment from the sea, although that bombardment
was m aintained by ships at comparatively short
range. The official reports of both Confederate and
Federal officers should be anxiously watched for
information on this head. But it is fair to deduce
from the experience of Fort Fisher, and still more
from the experience of Fort Sumter, Sullivan's
Island, and (most of all) Battery Wagner before
Morris Island was evacuated by the Confederates,
that sand forts are the only works which can long
resist the tremendous projectiles of modern times,
and especially the huge 2001 b. or 3001 b. shells from
rifled guns which constitute so prominent a feature
of this war. It seems to me still an open question
whether it would not be possible to casemate the
embrasures of such a work at Fort Fisher ; but Gen.
Whiting seemed to be of opinion that such casemates,
if rivetted with wood, would not last more than
from 9 to 12 months before the wood rotted
allowed the superincumbent mass of sand to ,and
drop
into the gun chamber. In addition, if any other
wood than palmetto logs were used, the splinters,
when the revertment was struck by a shot, would
do more damage than any amount of hostile missiles