The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-04 00:00:00

7HE CONFEDERATE S7A7ES OF
AMERICA.

(Front the Tames' Lbrresponclent.)
" RICHMOND, Oa. 8,

" The spirit of liberty in the Southern States is more
high and haughty than in the Northern. In the Carolinas
and Virginia they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where
this is the case in any part of the world, those who are free
are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.
Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of
rank and privilege. Not seeing there that freedom, as in
countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and
general as the air, may be united with much abject toil,
with great misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty
looks among them like something that is more noble and
liberal. I do not mean to commend the superior morality
of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue
in it ; but I cannot alter the nature of man. These people
of the Southern colonies are much more strongly and with
a higher and more stubborn spirit attached to liberty than
those to the northward. Such were all ancient Common-
wealths ; such were our Gothic ancestors ; such in our
days the Poles ; such will be all masters of slaves. In
suoh a people the haughtiness of domination combines
with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invin-
cible."

Such were the memorable words uttered on the
22d of March, 1'775, in the House of Commons
by Edmund Burke, to whom more than to any
other child of man it was given to look over the
heads of coming centuries. The stranger who wins
his way this day to Richmond will find the fullest
realisation of these prophetic words on a far
mightier field of action than was within the purview
of their inspired utterer. It is not too much to say
that the most fanatical believer in the ancient
Union, be he Mr. Seward himself, would despair of
the faith that is in him, and acknowledge himself,
is Victor Hugo's phrase, the " somnambulist of
a vanished dream," could he walk the streets of
Richmond this day, and gauge the spirit and feel-
ing of its people after nearly 19 months of such
warfare as the world never contemplated before.
The streets are crowded, the hotels refuse to con-
tain their shoals of guests ; everywhere the quiet-
ness and confidence of a people secure in its own
strength is incontestably evident. Everything ne-
cessary for life, most things requisite for its luxu-
rious enjoyment, as it is interpreted on this conti-
nent, are to be found in abundance. There is
absolutely only one commodity of which ab-
sence is gravely felt, that commodity being ice.
Does the Federal Government hope by such a frail
rudder to steer the Southern Confederacy back into
the harbour of Union ?

Of course, with many of the supplies sucked in
through the most ridiculous of blockades, and, trans-
ported over the enormous area which separates
Richmond from the cities of the Southern seaboard,
prices are high. The board and lodging in the hotels
amount to 4 dole. per day ; clothing and boots are
extremely dear, but are to be had by paying for
them ; medical supplies are scarce, but are con-
stantly being introduced in not insufficient quanti-
ties across the Potomac and through the cities of
the coast. And here, from personal experience, I
may express my conviction of the utter impossi-
lity of blockading the Potomac and the Ohio, and
shutting off the South from supplies, along a fron-
tier which from Fortress Monroe to distant Kansas
extends for some 1,500 miles. If the whole Fede-
ral navy was concentrated in the Potomac, it would
be utterly inadequate effectually to block the innu-
merable creeks and reaches of that river. Add to
this that on both aides the stream dwells a popula-
tion of which not more than five per cent. are in
favour of the Union. In several counties in Mary-
land the Provost-Marshal is described as being
the oily Union man, and it will be believed that
the life which he leads is none of the easiest. As
for the draught in Maryland, it will be much worse
than a farce. There are few able-bodied men left,
and of those who remain how many will fight for
the Union ? If any such there be, and they are ever
led into action by Federal officers, how many of
those officers will survive the first melee which they
share with their disaffected troops ? Along the
Potorriec there was, 18 months ago, a very large
propo tion of population averse to secession, reluc-
tant to embark upon it, and loyal to the old flag.
But with the war came the Federal troops, squat-
ting first upon Maryland soil and praying upon its
entrails, without offering one farthing in compensa-
tion for cattle and sheep, hogs and poultry, maize
and wheat, oats and hay, indiscriminately seized
and devoured, to say nothing of horses stolen, houses
and fences torn down and burnt, havoc and rapine
scattered broadcast over the land. Next came
Virginia's turn. Starting from Fortress Monroe,
and running westward to Winchester, scarcely a
house within 50 miles of the Potomac but bears
evidence of Yankee greed and spoliation. In nearly
every county the Court-house, in which the assizes
for each county used to be held, is rudely demo-
lished, doors and windows torn down, while within,
upon the white walls, in every phase of handwrit-
ing, are recorded the autographs of the Vandals
whose handiwork surrounds the beholder. Stories
'upon stories have reached me detailing how the
wives of Federal officers, represented by my exas-
perated informants as having usually " hailed from"
detested New England, forced their way behind the
Federal troops into the fine family mansions of the
Old Dominion, and personally superintended the
abstraction and transmission northwards of old
family china, silver, glass, pictures, books, furni-
ture, and pianofortes. A Virginian lady, who re-
monstrated with one of these Yankee hen-harriers,
engaged in packing up valued family china, was
met by the rejoinder, " You are a rebel, and have
no rights that I am bound to respect; your property,
therefore is mine !" In short, such a picture of
desolation as the northern frontier of Virginia and
the lovely Shenandoah valley, the Paradise of Ame-
rica, exhibit can be livened only to the Palatinate
after Tilly's final visit, or to Attica, as Thucydides
paints it, after the annual Lacethemonian incursion
during the Peloponnesian war.
The upshot of this system of restoring the Union
will readily suggest itself to the reader. I have
travelled far and wide through Virginia; I have
conversed with men, women, striplings, and chil-
dren in that State and in Maryland; I have seen
men, formerly substantial and thriving, whose every-
thing has been devoured by the Federals, but never
in one single instance have I heard a word of regret
to its issue, a sigh breathed over the departed Union,
a ghost of a desire expressed in favour of compro-
mise or reconstruction. On the contrary, one uni-
versal chorus echoes through the length and breadth
of the land, " The net is broken, and we are deli-
vered." Mr. Everett and his votaries, who still be-
lieve in imprisoned loyalty as existing in the South,
might as well search in the British islands for a man
who desired them to be annexed to France. So
united, so homogeneous a community as the States
of the Southern Confederacy finds no parallel in
our own annals. No war that England has waged
fora hundred years has met with such cordial, una-
nimous, undivided support. The war against the
French
against Russia its
had its Charles Fox ; the war
lts
Richard Cobden. There is no '
such character in
Federals intthhe
of the '
Southern States. The victory
not the defeat of th ls exasperated struggle means,
session ee Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, Mo-
Orleans, wlich
blle, and Nee,
to a conclusion
war
ofF the than would no more lead
Isle of Men,
the seizure of the
"71ctorY means nothing on
earth out the ex eder
term*metion and
child in the Southern annihilation of
every man, woman, and
intensity
frenzy, in
Con-
federacy. There is ne
the hate
universal language. The the
teeth, but finds
flushes the cheek and clinches the of
perceptible in
little expression in feeble words!
exuberance of animosity is more aorhing, the
flashing eyes and eager earnestness of the
the
but the settled and unconquerablefitiremawnoetsmosenitl.
the men requires nothing to be nao
The possibility of Richmond's falling is calmly
disciimsed, and preparations have long been made for
fetch a cantingency. Surprise is expressed that
ago possessed themselves
the Federals have not brig
well as New
of several other Southern cities as
Orleans. The possession of it capital city
in these
days of railrc ads is a very different thing from what
it used to be in the days of Wagram and Jena.
Great suffering
might be inflicted upon women and
children if Mobile and Charleston fell • suffering
which there is only too much reason to leer would
be most acceptable to the Federals, judging from
and
the record of their deeds during this last year

a half. But every considerable city in the South
might be reduced to ashes without chan4;ng the
mood or undermining the resolution of th' feeblest
heart, if any feeble heart there be, in the Southern
Confederacy.

It should be noticed, before leaving the subject
in referenee to the blockade, that, while four-fifths
of the smuggling vessels on the Potomac, and two-
thirds of the seagoing vessels on the coast are in-
variably successful in their entrance to and exit
from " Dixie's Land," there are occasional seizures
effected by Federal vessels, which are made the
most of by the New York press and in Mr.
Seward's despatches. As an instance, it may be
mentioned that Mr_ Vizitelly, the well-known and
popular correspondent of the Illusteated Londe";
News, has been singularly unfortunate in the de-
spatches which during the last six weeks he has
addressed to England, and which have, without ex-
ception, been subjected to moving accidents by flood
and field. But the fact remains that the South,
though sorely vexed by the blockade, is penetrated
and reached by vessels every day and night, and
that, consequently, there is no such scarcity as the
Federal journals have loved to paint. The influence
of the blockade is felt in enhanced prices, but even
here there is a compensation. The South, cut off
from external facilities, has been taught to look to
itself for a thousand commodities which it once
drew from the North, and of which it is has now no
alternative but to improvise, however lamely and
inadequately, the manufacture ana production. It
makes but little difference to a nation which is re-
ceiving little from abroad that exchange on Europe
should be at a fabulous premium. But it is a
serious and momentous circumstance for the im-
porter at New York, and still more serious for the
consumer whom he supplies, that exchange on Eng-
land should rise from par or 109 to 135 and up-
wards, when it is considered that such is the magni-
tude of the New York imports that nearly a million
and a-half of dollars are the weekly receipts from
Customs duties upon them. The South, poor in
specie and thrown on its own resources, is unable to
spend money; but there are not wanting persons who
assert that the compulsory absence of Southerners
for two summers from Newport, Saratoga, and
other Northern watering-places will save enough
money to pay not less than one quarter of the
entire cost of the war. The blockade, designed to
beggar, will in the end strengthen and consolidate
a nation which can waste nothing upon luxuries,
and is carrying on its war at a cost the aggregate
amount of which will fall far short even of the sum
which has illicitly gone into the ravenous maw of
the Nyms and Bardolphs of the North.
It remains for me to recapitulate from Southern
sources the narrative of the month's proceedings
which followed the restoration of General M'Clellan
to supreme command on the occasicn of the head-
long discomfiture of the forces commanded by
General Pope. In connection with these battles the
traveller's attention is called to a crowd eagerly sur-
rounding the store of the principal bookseller in this
town. Upon examination he will discover hanging
in the window a coat, to which is attached the fol-
lowing inscription :
" This coat was taken from the wardrobe of
Major-General John Pope, captured at Catlett's
Station by Major-General J. E. B. Stuart, and di-
rected to be placed at West and Johnston's, with
this inscription :
" Taken from the man who said he never ex-
pected to see anything but the backs of the rebels."
It will be remembered that General M'Clellan
resumed the chief command of the Federal armies
on the 2d of Sept. On the 14th of that month he
fought his first battle in Maryland, called the battle
of South Mountain, against the rearguard of the
Confederates. No one is so willing to give M'Clellan
credit for bringing his raw and demoralised troops
into action upon so early a day as the Confederates
themselves. General Lee had witnessed their panic
rout after the battles at the end of August, had seen
Pope's shattered columns driven like huddled sheep
into Washington, and it was not unreasonable to
suppose that a considerable time would elapse before
they would again leave its sheltering fortresses.
The only step by which it was possible to inspire
Iconfidence was taken, and General M'Clellan was
reappointed. To him, and to him alone, is due the
credit for reorganising and reinspiriting his broken
hosts, and it is freely accorded to him in this section
of the country.
It appears to have been General Lee's principal
design, when he crossed into Maryland, to seize
Harper's Ferry, and to test the spirit of the Mary-
landers by his temperate proclamation. In order
to be unmolested in his attack on Harper's Ferry,
he threatened Pennsylvania from Hagerstown,
throwing Governor Curtis into hysterics, and ani-
mating Baltimore with the hope that he would
emancipate her from the iron tyranny of General
Wool. He had little serious expectation of being
able to reach Pennsylvania, but if General Pope had
been continued in command, and Maryland had
been more free to act, there oan be no doubt that
Baltimore and Washington would have fallen. But
when M'Clellan took the field, and the army's con-
fidence again sprang aloft, General Lee had no other
purpose on the soil of Maryland than to capture
Harper's Ferry. General Jackson, after reaching
Hagerstown, fell suddenly and silently back upon
Harper's Ferry, and enveloped it closely upon every
side.

At this moment the fame of M'Clellan's early
approach, with the design of reinforcing Harper's
Ferry, overtook General Lee. He immediately threw
General G. Hill's division of from 12,000 to 15,000
men back to a strong position upon South Moun-
tain, where, on September the 14th, General M'Clel-
lan attacked them with not less than 70,000 men.
The Southerners fell slowly back before this im-
posing force, but not without inflicting upon it such
a loss that it was not till September the 17th that
M'Clellan forced on the momentous battle of Antie-
tam Creek. The morning of the 17th found Gene-
ral Lee strongly posted, but with not more than
45,000 men when the battle commenced, For once
the Federal papers, which are in the habit of re-
presenting that their armies are but handfuls of
men fighting against overwhelming hordes of rebels,
do not claim that their alleged victory was won
against superior numbers of their opponents. How
great the disparity was at the commencement of
the battle is probably known to General M'Clellan.
It is believed by President Davis, whose calm and
dispassionate opinion will command more respect in
England than the rhapsodies of the Federals, that
the Southerners were at first outnumbered more
than three to one.
At noon the übiquitous Jackson threw himself
and (possibly 12,000 men) upon the
right
Federals. He had previously
his
wing division
of the
forced the garrison of Harper's Ferry to surrender
to a man, taking all their arms, munitions of war,
and cannon ; and, though delayed longer than was
expected, he arrived soon enough to attack M'Clel-
lan. The ground won in the morning by theupon their
Federals, who were in tremendous force
right wing, was swiftly recovered, and held until
the end of the day. At 4in the afternoon General
a
A. P. Hill's division came up and joined the
enerl Burnside's
Con-
federate right. It was well that G
advance on the Federal left was so long delayed,
and was eventually made with overwhelming
numbers. The day closed with General Burnside
clinging closely to the bridge, beyond which he
could not advance, with General Jackson on the same
ground as the Confederates held in the morning,
upon as level and drawn a battle as history exhibits.
But it was fought for half the day with 45,000 men
on the Confederate side, and for the remaining half
with not more than an aggregate of 70,000 men,
against a host which is admitted to have consisted
of 130,000 men, and may have been much more. No
battle of the war has done more to convince the Con-
federates that it matters little what is the disparity
of numbers between themselves and their foe. The
old and insolent contempt of their enemy originally
held by the
This, then,
is
sxoperience of the last 19 months.
ratified by the
e Southerners. in this war is confirmed and
which General mnieciof the battles with respect to
own side of 15,000 mellan, admitting
deaden"; estimates his enemy's loss
at about 25,000
will bnaeileposit-on occupied by I
a loss on his
Inhded, and missing The
reader who remember:
General Lee's forces
at Gen. M'Clella
credulity. True it is that many Confederates, 111a8
have more regard for Gen. M'Clellan than is felt