The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-30 00:00:00

~
THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

(From the limes' Special Correspondent.)
RICHMOND, Nov. 21.
POSTAL UNCERTAINTY.
Circumstances have come to my knowledge which
make it almost certain that my letter from Win-
chester, dated Oct. 15, has been intercepted, and
has never reached its destination. At the risk of
wearying the reader with the repetition of a narra-
tive relating to incidents now so remote in point of
time, I will endeavour to re-write such portions of
that letter as may, even now, be not devoid of in-
terest.

My two companions and I started from Riohmond
on October 7 for Staunton, a pretty little town
situated in what is called the Valley of Virginia,
which comprises the table-land between the Blue
Ridge and the Allegheny Mountains. Staunton is
the nearest point upon the Virginia Central Rail-
road to Winchester, in the immediate neigh') mr-
hood of which town General Lee's whole army
Naas at that moment lying. Staunton is divided
from Winchester by 92 miles of road, which,
luckily for us, proved to be one of the finest ma-
cadamized highways I have ever seen in America.
We expected to have been compelled to traverse
these 92 miles on foot, but by the courtesy of the
Quartermaster-General at Staunton an ambulance
was placed at our disposal, in which we started
from Staunton on the Bth of October, and found
that no slight patience was requisite before we
could hope to come to our journey's end. The days
were intensely and oppressively hot ; tne nights (as
is usual throughout all the States of the old Union
down to the Southern boundary of Virginia in the
month of October) were cold and numbing with
heavy dews. We had no alternative but to camp
out with the other partners of our march, and the
advantage, which is universal throughout Virginia,
of being able to get abundance of wood, enabled us
to establish roaring fires, and to sleep, lightly fur-
nished as we were with wraps end blankets, in
comfortable warmth. The third night, which was
beyond expression tempestuous and wet, we suc-
ceeded, after desperate efforts, in getting under
a roof, and in escaping from our ambulance, which
was leaking through the top like a sieve. But the
first two nights gave us some idea of camp life, such
as it is in the Confederate States, and it may at once
be noticed that there are two circumstances which
make the whole of Virginia a magnificent campaign-
ing country—the first is the inexhaustible abund-
ance of firewood ; the second the frequency of the
finest springs and runlets of water. For at least
nine months out of the twelve a campaigner's life
in Virginia is pleasanter and healthier than any
other life that could be led, and the testimony of
hundreds of sickly, puny boys, who never had a
day's health before this war began, and who have
now gone through a year and a half of its trials and
have hardened into sinewy, vigorous men, might be
quoted in evidence of the healthiness of an open air
life in Virginia.

THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.

As we advanced the road was thickly crowded by
the refluent tide of sick and furloughed soldiers.
Such gaunt, wan, bony, famished skeletons, many
of them shoeless and hatless, almost all in rags, the
flame of life burnt down to the socket, and eyes
deep-sunken and lustreless, the hair matted
.and
tangled like a wild beast's, it had never been my
fortune to encounter before on earth. It is true that
I have seen waifs and strays from the Federal armies
in the North who matched in emaciation and misery
the worst of the Southern sufferers ; but the Federal
soldiers were well clothed and well shod, and had
rarely many miles to walk in their debilitated con-
dition ; but, suffering and reduced as most of these
poor fellows were, never did I hear one faint-hearted
or timid word in reference to the war escape from
their lips. Everywhere there was the most frenzied
abhorrence of the Yankee. There are persons in
England who preach that it is every man's duty,
and especially the duty of writers in the press, to
endeavour to assuage the bitterness of feeling now
existing between the two incensed sections of the
old Union, and to mitigate the animosity which has
blazed into so fierce and irresistible a flame. No man
who has passed ten days in the Confederate States
could fail to discover how hopeless would be such
an attempt. For months past the Federals have
carried on this war as though their opponents were
to be crushed under the iron heel of a despotism
which it was not worth while to conceal or mask
behind any attempts at conciliation. Plundered
houses, outraged women, stolen slaves, gutted cel-
lars, rifled libraries—these have been some of the
chosen instruments by which the Federals have
thought to draw back a dozen recalcitrant States
into the meshes of a Union which is valueless unless
representing a federation of harmonious units.
Could any Englishman justify to his own conscience
the attempt to make these Confederates look lov-
ingly and forgivingly upon their ruthless and tyran-
nical oppressors ? Could he say to the father, in
presence of the dishonoured daughter, "Forget and
forgive ?" It is not in such an atmosphere as this
that such mean-spirited advice would be for a mo-
ment tolerated.

CAMP LIFE.

As night fell and the bright bivouac fires of our
encampment sparkled like a string of rubies, it was
interesting to watch the various incidents of camp
life, and to become f.miliar with the sights and
sounds to which so large a portion of the inhabi-
tant of the Confederate States have long become
habituated. Occasionally from around some camp
fire a popular song of the hour would break the
silence of the night, and some such words as the
following would strike upon the ear:—

Ho! all ye sons of Freedom,
Come join the Southern band; •
We're going to fight the Yankees,
And drive them from our land.
Jeff. Davis is our President,
With Stephens by his side,
While Jackson leads our hosts afie'd,
With Lee his steadfast guide.
As the night deepened and sleep settled down
upon the wearied campaigners the tremulous ripple
of the stream became prominently audible, while at
intervals the shrill cry of &night bird called the
kildeer, interspersed vtith the piercing chirp of the
locust, becoming each night fainter and feebler as
the weather became colder and rawer, gave tokens
of the existence of animals belated like ourselves.
Rarely, from the dense neighbouring forest, the
whoop of the large white owl struck like an un-
earthly scream upon the ear, reminding one of the
many stories told of Western life in the early days
of Kentucky and Tennessee, when wild midnight
onslaughts of Indians burst upon encampments of
adventurous white settlers, the Indians guiding
each other through the darkness by mimicking the
scream of the screech-owl, with whose cry the woods
around in every dieection seemed to be vocal before
uleNsily savage burst upon his unsuspecting foe.
fAeaut,lllo,etnmerning approached, and the heavy dews
and thick, the least agreeable part of a
camaigt,
experience had to be gleaned. Few
penons Nplus ha
rica during th, ve not camped out in North Ame-
tell what a blesT"ths of October and November can
of day, shootingT'„g‘the presence of the glorious orb
er the eastern hills is regarded
as bringir,g, while
dampness are dissolve mists,, and exhalations, and
d
matism, chills, deicetilVoare his r-tys. Cold, rheu-
tihestantaneously for-
gotten ; the camp is all life"e
bwretched break-
Eist seems, at least for a time, t:
inviting. The
full value of a bright, sparkling, sUe
by contrastinhiti•
be estimated morning
cglf Idta with the
coil only
misery of a dlrk and overcast break
our fate lo try them both during our shortytrilptewams
Winchester; the contrast it is from
Staunton to
be..
pond any power of language that I po,
"3 ade-
quately to paint.

THE TOWN OF ITINCHESTER.I
On the morning of the fourth day we made
the
little town of Winchester, in ordinary times, before
the war, a cheerful, prosperous, agricultural town,
now filthy and hegrimed by thepasSige through it
of more than 100,000 Confederate soldiers, not to
mention the Federal forces, which have freque&tly
for months together occupied the town. After the
recent battles; which resulted in the headlong over-
throw of General Pope's forces before Washington
at the end of August, Winchester was held by a
Federal General named White. Upon hearing of
the Federal disasters he hastened to evacua;,o the
town, blowing up a large magazine on its out-
skirts, by .the explosion of 'which he shook the

little town to its foundations and applying the
torch to a large quantity of commissariat stores,
the bare,.roofless walls of which give evidence

to this day of the destroyer's presence. The town
itself as bitterly Secessionist as any pot in the
Confederate States. Here once stood he home of
Mr. Mason, for many months past the Southern
Commissioner in England. The house was an un-
pretending country residence just on the outside of
the town of Winchester, but the grounds were
filled with beautiful trees, conspicuous among
which was a picturesque row of sycamores, some
fine locust trees, and a curious mulberry. It is
hardly necessary to say that the house and grounds
have not escaped the ruthless visitings of the in-
vaders of Virginia. The house is roofless, the
doors and windows torn out, the rats running
about over heaps of rubbish, the kitchen and out-
houses, which, according to the ordinary Southern
fashion, were detached from the dwellinghouse,
levelled to the ground. It is said that Mr. Seward,
visiting the grouse and grounds after they had un-
dergone the manipulations of bis soldiers, brutally
exclaimed that he wondered that the rebel senator
did not keep his grounds better. If anything can
console Mr. Mason for the desecration of his favou-
rite home, he will find it in the obvious affection and
respect entertained for him among his neighbours.
If the reader will take a large map of Virginia he
will find a small stream running a little to the east
of Winchester in a northerly direction until it joins
the Potomac River rather to the west of Shephards-
town. It is called Opequan Creek (pronounced
Opeccan), and along this little stream, between
Winchester and Martinsburg, the whole of General
Lee's army was encamped for many weeks after its

retreat across the Potomac from Maryland, which

followed the battle of Sharpsburg, fought on the
17th of September. The extreme left was as usual
held by General J9ckson's corps, who was during

most of the time established at a little place called

Bunker.hill, about 13 miles from Winchester. Gen.
J. E. B Stuart with his cavalry was in the extreme
advance, rather nearer to Shephardstown, at a Vir-
ginian country house named the Bo s er, which I
have described in another letter, distant about 20
miles from Winchester. Gen. Longstreet, with his
powerful corps d'arnzee, made up of most efficient
fighting men, were posted about five miles from
Winchester. About a mile from Gen. Longstreet,
in about as inconvenient and uninviting a spot as
could well be found, were pitched the few unpre-
tending tents which constituted the head-quarters
of the Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Robert E. Lee.
It is difficult for the traveller who, after infinite

difficulty, wins his toilworn way into the presence

of men whom events have made so famous as Gen.
Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson to resist the ine-
vitable tendency of human nature which prompts
him to idealise and set upon a pedestal the plain,

unpretending men whom he sees before him. It is
true that he cannot be long in Go]. Lee's presence
without discovering a plain, unaffected simplicity
which would lead him to dread a newspaper pane-
gyric more than a wound, and inspires him with
the most obvious horror of being described. Gen.
Lee must pardon me if, through my agency, the
veil which shrouds him from the European pubic
is for a moment lifted. It is inevitable that he
should be called on to pay the penalty which in all
ages of the world great and good and modest men
have never been able to escape.
GENERAL LEE.

General Lee is, I believe, between 50 and 60
years of age, but wears his years well, and strikes
you as the incarnation of health and endurance, as
he rears his erect soldierlike form from his seat by
the fireside to greet courteously the stranger. His
manner is calm and stately, his presence impressive
and imposing, his dark brown eyes remarkably
direct and honest as they meet you fully and firmly,
and inspire plenary confidence. The shape and
type of the head a little resemble Garibaldi's, but
the features are those of a much handsomer man.
On the rare occasions when he smiles, and on the
still rarer occasions when he laughs heartily, dis-
closing a fine unbroken row of white, firm•set teeth,
the confidence and sympathy which he inspires are
irresistible. A child thrown among a knot of stran-
gers would be inevitably drawn to General Lee first
in the company, and would run to claim his pro-
tection. The voice is fine and deep, but slightly mo-

notonons in its tone. Altogether, the most winning
attribute of the General is his unaffected childlike
guilelessness. It is very rare that a man of his age,
conversant with important events, ad thrown to
the surface of mighty convulsions, retains the im-
press of a simple, ingenuous nature to so eminent a
degree. It is impossible to converse with him for
ten minutes without perceiving how deeply he has
meditated upon all the possible eventualities of
the campaign in Virginia, and how sound and
well-considered are the positions which he ad-
vances. It is obvious that the most entire and trust-
ing confidence is placed in Gen. Lee by his subor-
dinate officers, whose respect and affection he seems
thoroughly to have won. The General is sfill
crippled in his hands from the effects of a fall which
he sustained so long ago as the 30th of August.
At dawn of that day he rode across the historical
.
stream of Bull Run, and, observing a patch of
herbage, he dismounted and allowed his horse to
graze, recollecting that the animal had carried him
the whole preceding day almost without food. The
General himself sat down on a stump. There were
only a few cavalry pickets of Confederates between
Gen. Lee and the enemy. Suddenly a charge of a
large body of Yankee cavalry drove in the Con federate '
pickets, and came close up to the spot where Gen.
Leo was. The General ran forward to catch his
horse, and, grasping at the rein as his horse sio.ed
off, he fell heavily forward entangled in his cloak,
upon both hands, and jarred the nerves of the arms
right up to the shoulders. His horse was caught
by one of his staff, and the Yankee cavalry, not
knowing what a valuable prize was close at hand,
fell back without approaching more nearly. The
'General rode throughout the whole of that eventful
day, the 31st of August, but for many days and
nights he suffered agonising pain; and even now, on
the 21st of November, he is far from having wholly
recovered the full use of his hands, though not for
one day or hour has he permitted himself to be ab-
sent from duty.

A similar abnegation of self is visible in every
thought and act of General Lee. "If only I am
permitted to finish the work I have on hand, I
would be content to live on bread and beef for the
rest of my life." " Occasionally we have only beef,
occasionally only bread ; but if we have both to-
gether, and salt is added to them, we think our-
selves Sybarites." " Upon this occasion it was ne•
cessary to stop and procure food for some of the
younger men." These are some of the characte-
ristic utterances whieh struck me as they came from
General Lee's lips. In reference to the last, it
would seem as though the ordinary demands of
human appetite were in him subordinated and sub-
jected in presence of the imperious exactions re-
quired from his brain. In all the varied attributes
which go to make up the commander-in-chief of a
great army, it is certain that General Lee has no
superior in the Confederacy, and it may fairly be
doubted whether he has an equal.
General Lee has three sons in the army—the one
a General, under General J. E. B. Stuart; the se-
cond a Colonel; the third, a lad of 18, who is a
private attached to one of the batteries of General
Jackson's corps. In reference to the last, Gen. Lee
told me a story which seemed to me, for the first
and only time during many conversations, to have
elicited from the nlrrator faint traces of emotion.
Most certainly it was difficult to listen to the story
without one's self experiencing such emotion. It
ft_papears that at the most critical moment of the
igtrybpressing
Bingttulepoff.3harpsburg, when General Lee was order-
survivor of a bauttesse
every gun to meet the heavy masses of Fede-
ralen the centre, he observed a
Single
d end ready for action, the sole
ncl.eanss roughlye
d
in the day,
and battery which had been engaged earlier
, gun to the front. As it Fcderals.
e immediately ordered the
General
to t the handled
front, coming
close to the spot
where
he recognised in the
leading horses his postil:iaolnLee was standing,
young son. The boy
on the
turned and
smiled brightly on his father, exclaiming,
see that you are sending us in again:' "So I
It is a
"Pleasure to add that, although slightly wounded,