The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-27 00:00:00

1351
1201

THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

(From the 2 imes' Special Correspondent.)
CULPEPPER COURT-HOUSE, VIRGINIA,
Nov. 14.
This little village is at this moment the centre
of attraction for all to whom the Confederacy is
dear, for in its immediate neighbourhood are
situated the head quarters of General Lee, General
Longstreet, and General J. E. B. Stuart. It is the
nearest point to Washington reached by the trains
running from the South along the Orange and
Alexandria Railroad ; and the transportation which
was for months laboriously sustained over 90 miles
of road to supply General Lee's army when it
was stationed beyond Winchester is now effected
entirely by the railroad, upon which he has since
fallen back. Culpepper Court-house—that is, the
Court-house and country seat of the county of
Culpepper—ought, strictly speaking, to be called
Fairfax, but, in the common parlance of the country
side, the name of Fairfax has dropped entirely out
of use. The Court-house and the gaol, plentifully
filled in general with escaped negroes, tell their own
tale. Here, as in so many other places, the old con
nexion between Virginia and England is again ap-
parent. A grant in Virginia was made by Charles
11. to an English nobleman, Lord Culpepper, and
here, hundreds of years after all trace of Lord Cul-
pepper has passed away, and with the fact that such
a man ever exist( d known to very few, the county
still takes its name from him. It would be inte-
resting, if it were possible, to disinter the short and
simple annals of some of these early Virginian set-
tlements, and to learn what manner of men com-
posed them. It would seem that two epochs during
the last century were specially conspicuous as
having furnished emigrants who settled north and
south of the Potomac—the first, the days of good
Queen Anne ; the second, the period during which
Prince Frederick only son of George 11. was therising
sun of England. We recognise the emigration
under Queen Anne in such names as the Rapid
Anne River, the North Anna River, Annapolis, and
a dozen more; while fancy suggests that in the
rude log settlements along the Potomac the echo of
the great Duke of Marlborough's victories was
loyally caught up, many months after they were
gained, and his fame perpetuated in the still 'mist-
ing hamlets of Marlborough and Blenheim. The
emigration under Prince Frederick seems to have
been also considerable. Frederick County and City
in Maryland, Frederick County and Fredericks-
burg lin Virginia, are among the evidences of it,
and it is safe to assert that Virginia has done more
than the mother country to keep alive the memory
of a Prince who lives for Englishmen only as he is
gibbetted in the memoirs of Lord Hervey.
Culpepper Court-house lies half-way between the
rivers siapietan an Rappahannock. In the woods
around it lies the whole of General Longstreet's
corps, which, with some slight additions, furnishes
an army whose strength is not far from double the
strength of that Confederate army which fought
the battle of Sharpsburg. General T. E. B. Stuart
is at hand, incessantly scouting, reconnoitring,
making dashes, taking prisoners. Since he fell back
hither from his former headquarters at the Bower
he has been perpetually skirmishing with the enemy,
impeding or delaying his advance, and harassing
him by imposing the necessity of constant vigilance.
in one of these recent skirmishes the lock of hair
above his ear was clipped off by a bullet. So many
similar escapes are narrated by nearly every
officer to whom ono speaks that it seems
almost absurd to repeat this one. What scents to
be considered much more serious by the General
is that several of his men's horses have been at_
tacked by lameness, arising from a kind of fancy, or
grease in the heels. It is presumed that this is
caused by their having been fed chiefly on green
corn for many months past, and it is understood
that a similar lameness prevails among the Federal
horses. But where, in the meantime, is General
Stonewall Jackson ? Who can say ! All that is
known about him is that he has not crossed the
Blue Ridge ; that he rarely sleeps twice in the
same camp, and that if he can be said to have
any head-quarters, they must lee loosely defined
as being in the neighbourhood of Front Royal.
But since General Longstreet's corps fell back to
Culpepper, General Jackson has advanced to the
extreme end of the valley, close to the Potomac ;
and, appearing one morning in one of the Gaps of
the Blue Ridge, impending over Loudoun County,
he put his hand upon an outpost of 104 Federals,
and retired with them in his grasp over the moun-
tains. From that moment up to the hour of the
suspension of his command, Gen. M'Clellan seems
to have known little rest or peace by reason of the
Puritan general impending over his flank and rear.
Even before Gen. M'Clellan was recalled to Wash-
ington he had commenced his retreat, which has
been continued ever since, until the Federal army
has put the Rappahannock between itself and its
enemy. Indeed, so guarded and cautious has from
the commencement been Gen. 111‘Clellan's advance,
that many Confederate officers have always held
that he had no real design of advancing in that
direction upon Richmond, but that he was merely
making feints and engaging attention, and satis-
fying the Nemesis of the Northern press, while a
more formidable blow wasbeing prepared elsewhere.
How far this may be true it is impossible for us
in the Confederate States to say. It is known
he re e o are
s t,
a
that a large force is still at
rumours of operations on the North Suffolk,
Carolinaand
and of Weldon, or some adjoining station, being
t
threatened from the South. There seems such
universal expectation in the Confederacy that the
next serious attack upon Richmond will be made to
the south of the James River, be it through Suffolk
or throuth North Carolina, that Geaeral M'Clel-
lan's recent advance has excited very little interest,
because it was not believed to have been in earnest.
Now that he has for several days been falling
back, languid speculation is aroused as to whether
he will drop down the Potomac.to Fredericksburg,
or carry his men to the North Carolina
coast; for I should add that in the Confederacy
General M'Clellan's suspension is not for a moment
believed in. This opinion I own that Ido not my-
self share, but there is hardly a Confederate officer
but is aware how much more formidable a Federal
army is commanded by General M'Clellan than it
commanded by any other Federal General, and
therefore the Confederates cannot be made to believe
that this fact is not equally patent to the Federals.
My own impression is that the day which deposes
General M'Clellan and puts General Burnside in
his place is the brightest for the Confederates since
the commencement of this weary struggle. Dis-
likes, the Federals, as fighting ma-
terial, i
l, at wrenhoot to be compared to their opponents.
No one has for months past been better advised of
this than General M'Clellan, and it is generally
believed here that since the battle of Sharpsburg
he has said that he would not again fight General
Lee unless he was certain he had four times Gene-
ral Lee's force. But if a brave and rash officer,