The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-03 00:00:00

THE WAR IN AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY.
The steamer Persia, which called at Queenstown
yesterday, arrived here at 9.50 this morning. She
brings New York journals of the 22d ult. ; and the
following summary of affairs is furnished by the
-Yew 3 ork. Times of that date :

"An executive order published this morning
directs that all persons who may actually have been
drafted into the military service, and who may claim
exemption on account of alienage, must make ap-
plication therefore directly to the Department of
State, or through their respective Ministers or Con-
suls, and an order from the War Department directs
the proper officers to make report to the Department
of State of all cases to which the order refers.
" Our despatches from the army of the Potomac
this morning inform us that our cavalry pickets
have been extended two miles, and are now some
distance beyond Walltown, which place is held by
our infantry. A balloon reconnaissance on Mon-
dAy night disclosed the fact that the rebels are
this side of Charlestown in considerable force,
and Jackson with his command is known still to be
at Bunker's Hill.

" Yesterday morning an expedition from General 1
Slocum's command started to intercept and capture
a force of rebel cavalry, known to be foraging near
Lovettsville, in London county. No particulars are
yet received, but it is announced that the expedition
was perfectly successful, captured 30 prisoners and
the rebel commander, and killed and wounded
many. Our loss was four killed and seven wounded.
"The Southern news, received by way of
Fortress Monroe, and published this morning, is
interesting. The Richmond Examiner is of the
opinion, from advices received from Northern Vir-
ginia, that Lee is about to make a movement. The
treatment of the rebel sick and wounded forms the
burden of a complaint against the authorities. A
great victory is claimed for Bragg in Kentucky.
The Dispatch, however, acknowledges a loss of
5,000 men. The danger of the capture of Mobile
by the national forces seems to be painfully im-
pressed upon the rebel mind. The Dispatch con-
cedes that its capture would give us immediate
possession of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers,
and a move into the interior of Alabama would cut
the rebel Confederacy more completely in two than
the possession of the Mississippi throughout its
entire length, as it would destroy the line of com-
munication through Montgomery, which has been
of incalculable benefit to the rebels.

" Early in 1861, when civil war seemed pending,
but had not actually broken out, General Scott
wrote two papers containing his views, professional
and political, on the crisis, and the rights and duties
which devolved on the Government in the momen-
tous conjecture. One of them has recently been
published without the writer's consent. The second
appears to-day, having been furnished to the press
by himself. It establishes, in the first place, the
patriotic anxiety of the General-in-chief to prepare
for the coming storm, and his earnest and repeated
efforts to prevail on the Government to garrison and
secure the Southern forts against every possible
attack, and discloses in the second place the causes
of his failure, which it is now evident i esulted from
the indecision of President Buchanan, who was
doubtless misled by the treachery of the Secretary
of War, if not of other members of the Cabinet, in
whom the head of the Government reposed a mis-
placed confidence.
" The Washington Star emphatically contradicts
the story started by the Washington .Republican
that there had been negro plots at Culpepper.
" The Republican's story is as follows A re-
fugee, who came into Gen. Sigel's head-quarters
from A.lnesville, Culpepper county,Virginia, reports
that there is the greatest consternation imaginable
among the whites in that section in consequence of
an apprehended negro insurrection. Seventeen
negroes, most of them free, had been hung, copies of
late Northern newspapers having been found upon
them containing President Lincoln's proclamation
to liberate the slaves. The terror of the whites is
said to be beyond description. It is said that the
negroes of the different counties around Culpepper
are all engaged in a conspiracy for a general insur-
rection.'
"On Friday night intelligence was received at
head-quarters, in St. Louis, of Lieut.-Col. Wool-
folk's expedition after the rebels in Johnson county.
His command consisted of 225 men with two pieces
of artillery. He came upon the rebels some 709 to
1,000 strong, and drove them precipitately across
Johnson county southward. The crisis has passed at
Lexington, and no reinforcements are needed there.
" Gen. Buell had telegraphed to Surgeon-Gen.
Hammond, that the whole number of wounded at
the late battle at Perrysville, Kentucky, was about
2,300. There were rumours at Cairo that Gen. Price
was gathering the remnants of the rebel army of the
southwest at Holly Springs, Mississippi, with the
intention of attacking some point on the Mobile and
Ohio railroad. Holly Springs is only about a good
day's march below Grand Junction, where Gen.
Grant's troops are stationed."
The cry for a forward movement by Gen. M'Clel-
lan was growing louder and louder. A Washington
telegram says :
" The pressure for a forward movement is be-
coming almost general. It is urged with an ear-
nestness that has never been equalled. The argu-
ment is used that a protraction of our present
inactivity will ruin the country."
The New York journals generally echo the above
cry. The Aew York herald displays the following
leader in prominent type :
"The public opinion of our loyal States expects
and demands an immediate advance by General
11PCIellan in full strength upon the great rebel
army of Virginia. The season and the roads in
that quarter are now the most favourable of all the
year for active military operations. Our troops
from the victorious fields of South Alountain and
Antietam are eager for the final settlement with
General Lee, and they are believed to be sufficiently
strong in numbers with their late reinforcements to
march upon him at once and put him to flight.
" There is a general apprehension, on the other
hand, that our army may linger at Harper's Ferry
until compelled to go into winter quarters, and that
our situation in Virginia in May, 1863, will be
pretty much as it was in 1862, when, by vigorous
action now, the great work before us may be sub-
stantially accomplished before Christmas. The re-
bels in the west have been beaten back in Missouri,
and from the line of the Ohio River, and are in full
Right from Kentucky southward. They have
been cut to pieces at Corinth and ignominiously
routed near Nashville. Their whole scheme of
operations in the west has been destroyed, and all
that our victorious troops, under their able leaders,
have now
to Gulf of do in that quarter from Kentucky to
the
Mexico, is now to gather up the frag-
ments of the
and dispersed, Renee,
which they have broken up
with the universal idea of
the superiority of Nuee'
lellan's army, the general be-
lief that a decisive' C
Virginia at this victory over the rebel army of
time
would be the death-blow to the
rebellion.

46 We are
informed that *Clellan's soldiers are
and that with shoes andsflora at
until they are supplied
ter clothing, they other
cannot essential articles of win-
adv.ance.
responsible for these dam' But who are
of the Secretary for War deficiencies; it is the business
guilty parties to account, and to"w and to call the
of our troops are at once s -Bee that these
upphed 0 wants
ple will accept no paltry excuses i Our loyal peo-
the forward movements of our armies, -the" delays in
the great advantages we have lately Ii•
thus all
the enemy are to be lost, and all preyseigitauled over
nitio for decisive action by land and sea, ePP°rtu-
,, The people of Pennsylvania, Ohio, ad Indi n
b)ve declared in favour of a vigorous prosecution
of the war—not for the negro nor the abolition
but for the Union. They have pronounced against
our abolition diserganisers and in favour of Presi-
dent Lincoln's Conservative course and in favour
of postponing the settlement of the question of
African slavery until we shall have settled with
the armies of this rebellion. And this will be the
voice of New York, and it is the general belief, too,
of our loyal states, that with an immediate advance
upon the rebel army of Virginia our secession dis-
unionists of the South and our abolition disuniowsts