The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-26 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN iIMERICA.

"Thus far" writes General George B. M'Clellan
—page 8 of his Military Commission to Europe—
" the allied generals displayed none of the qualities
of great commanders—their measures were hay-way
measures, slow and blundering—they failed to keep
constantly in view the object of the expelition, and
to press rapidly and unceasingly toy-sards it." This
criticism refers to the period when on the 27th of
September the allied genereis had got to Sebastopol,
having landed their ariiy on an open beach on the
14th of September., fought and defeated the enemy
at the Alma, sevat their sick and wounded away,
buried their dead, and taken up a position never
afterwards abandoned till their object was achieved.
Although (he says, page 5) fully aware that it is
much easier to criticise operations after the result is
known than to direct them at the time, I shall not
hesitate to invite attention to what appear the evi-
dent mistakes on either side. This not for the pur-
pose of finding fault or of insinuating comparisons"
(though the very next sentence contains a compa-
rison between the petty operation of landing near
Vera Cruz and the disembarkation of the allies in
the Crimea), " but with the hope that it may ~'"erve
to draw the attention of our officers to the same
points, and perhaps assist in preventing similar
errors on our own part hereafter." It is almost
cruel to the young officer tom,, proceed with these quo-
tations, and we shall oily add one more :—" If a de-
ficiency of men aria means is assigned as a reason
for the early operations of the allies, it is but another
proof that in undertaking this affair they ne-
glected, one of the clearest rules of war,--that is,
to undertake no important operation without full
end reliable information as to the obstacles to be
overcome and the means of resistance in the hands of
the enemy." "We cannot afford," he says, "a Mos-
cow campaign.." How little when he wrote these lines
. _

in January, 1857, did the American officer imagine
that he should be at the head of an enormous army
levied for the purpose of invading a State once in-
torporated in the country he served, and of destroy-
ing the city in which his enemies, once his own
countrymen, were assembled to defend their homes
and their liberties. The deduCtions ho draws from
hits observations in the Crimea are applied to the
effect of a foreign invasion of the United States,
and he remarks that, though a small army could be
crushed by the superior numbers of the people, a
force of one hundred thousand disciplined men
would be quite invincible, because the mul-
titude brought to bear against them work their
own destruction, for " if without discipline and in-
struction they cannot be handled, and are in their
own way." There is a sort of analogy between
Sebastopol and Richmond. Neither Williamsburg
nor White Oaks was quite equal in results to the
Alma, it is true, but the covering force was obliged
to retire. The enemy blocked up the wate en-
trance to their city ; the Federals command the sea
as the allies did, and they have not been able to
force the water batteries. The Confederates are
said to be as strong as the Russians were. Their
Gortschakoff is in the field outside. The Federals,
too, have been attacked on their right before the
place. Are they quite as Proud of their Inkerman ?
Does General M'Clellan stand the test of his stric-
tures on those who were in a position somewhat
like his own ? We make the Americans a present
of the comparison. The latest news we have
from his army is that it is moving somewhere
or other, having made a fiasco in the advance
to Malvern-hill. M'Clellan has now been more
than a month in his place of refuge at Harri-
son's Landing. At last he prepared for a great
battle." On Tuesday, August 5, he moved out and
took possession of Malvern-hill, and sent back for
the greater part of his army, but the messengers
took the wrong road and the troops did not come up
till it was too late. " The enemy were not asleep,"
but came out in force. Gen. M'Clellan went back
to his camps again, and the Confederates took pos-
session of Malvern-hill, and are, we suppose, there
now. All that comes from the Federal army is the
same intelligence of great sickness, aggravated by
intense heat, and certified by boat loads of sick sol-
diers, and promises of something going to happen.
We must wait with patience for the march of events,
which move more rapidly than the reaeral arms, as
it is nearly always the case that the initiative is
taken by the Confederates.
Leaving M'Clellan's grand army to itself, let us
see what can be gathered from the accounts of the
recent action to the north-west of Richmond. On the
same day that M'Clellan made his abortive march
to Malvern, the Federals, under Pope, showed a
disposition to move down towards Richmond from
the north-west, and pushed to Madison Court-house,
which is about 14 miles from Gordonsville and 10
from the Rapidan river, where they found the coun-
- try full of the enemy, who must have crossed the
Rapidan, and advanced towards the Federal line,
extending from Washington near Blue Ridge, and
covering the Manassas Gap Railroad and the Orange
and Alexandria Railroad, down to Fredericksburg
by Warrenton. Skirmishes took place on the 7th
and Bth, the result of which was that the Federals
fell back to Culpepper, in safety before the rebels,
who were advancing in every direction," on Monday
night, August 11. It is not to be understood why
this movement was not met by the Federal generals,
for the retreat of the cavalry on the right of their
line took place on the very morning that Jackson
attacked Banks, and it was very fortunate the whole
force was not cut off. On Friday morning, the Bth,
Gen. Ewell, under the orders of General 6' Stone -
'wall" Jackson, crossed the Rapidan and advanced
rapidly towards the centre of the Federal lines,
which he probably expected to cut through with
ease, as Jackson had made a feint with a force to-
wards Madison and Springville, on the right, with
a view to induce the Federals to weaken their cen-
tre by reinforcing the right of their position. The
.ss edes
41 accounts state that the enemy consisted of
35'000 and came by way of Orange Court-
house, 'which is 16 miles distant on the railway to
Fairfax and Culpepper Court. house. Banks had,
they say, 7,500 men, and, if so, General Pope must
have been deceived by Stonewall's movements, or is
• very unfit for his Post, or has not got 60,000 men,
as was asserted. It is supposed that Jackson came
from the country north-west of Richmond, and used
the Virginia Central Railroad in massing his troops,
and had he quite succeeded he might have destroyed
Sigel's corps and Pope's scattered divisions in detail,
turned on Burnside, and made a march for Wash-
ington, which would have been nearly at his mercy.
"Whether that was his object or not, he has unques-
tionably given Pope a heavy blow, which will stag-
_
ger him and his arrangements, and postpone "com-
bined movements" for some time to come. It was
another stroke on a coil of the boa constrictor. But
a whether Stonewall suffered so severely as alleged,
and was unwilling to await a further concentration
of the enemy, or had done all he desired, it appears
certain that he did not press the retreating Federals,
but fell back the day after their concentration
across Robertson's Creek, near Madison, and
thence across the Rapidan. It would appear
from one rather circumstantial account that Banks
had under him the divisions of General Augur
and General Williams, or 16 battalions, with two
regiments of regulars, arid, we presume, a battery
to each brigade, or 24 guns—cne a battery of
regulars. They were advancing in the after-
noon towards the Rapidan, in pursuance of
Pope's orders, and had crossed Cedar Creek, a
small tributary, when the enemy suddenly ap
peered on the wooded slopes of Cedar Mountain
above and before them This was the force they
were to check. An artillery duel took place, but at
5 30 p.m. the fighting-became very severe, and the
Federals gave ground, losing one gun and retreat-
ieg with some rapidity till they were brought up
after dusk by the advancing columns of the corps
of both General M‘Dowell and General Sigel, under
Pope in person. Here they halted, and were rest•
in:; from their flight, when the Confederate guns
suddenly opened upon them by the light of the fires
at which I hey sat, and a regular stampede" and
" eke& d dat once took place, which was only
'Provosts guard
stopped by the , a pretty strong
force apparently, and which arrested " the fright-
mod soldiers who crowded the reads. and the " re-
giments wl ich took to their heels to get out of
range"—Pen nester sermo. While the army was
retreating in this way a dash of Confederate cavalry
was directed upon them, and nearly carried off