The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-08 00:00:00

ORTIIERN STATES OF ANERICA

(From the Correspondent of the Times,)
NEW YORK, MARCH 26.
The chiefs and leaders in any rebellion against
constktuted authority can urge no valid plea against
theiinstice of the maxim which declares that g, Might
nleices Right." By the very fact of their rebellion
tb
.ey try an issue of which Might can be the only
8 xbiter, and they must abide the result. That which
was treason in Louis Napoleon Bonaparte at Stras-
burg and Boulogne ceased to be treason when the
:bold adventurer vaulted into the vacant throne of a
King, and kept possession as an Emperor. Even
the great and pureminded Washington was no
better than a rebel till success covered his name
with imperishable glory. Tried by this test, what
is the preeent position of Mr. Jefferson Davis and
the flout}
ter." Confederacy ? Is Mr. Davis a rebel
or a Ps' eriot ? And is the Confederacy of which he
is the leading spirit a conspiracy or a nationality ?
-Eve' kits are rapidly deciding the question. A month
sg' a, whatever may have been the case in this
c ountry, the balance of opinion in England and
throughout Europe, inclined in favour of
Southern independence. But three weeks
have wrought a mighty change in the for-
tunes of the Republic. Victory, that for a while
hovered fitfully over the new flag, appears to have
.settled upon the old. The Confederate armies have
suffered such a rapid succession of reverses and de-
feats as to convince not only the waverers, who
always go with the winning side, but some of the
most ardent and hopeful friends of the South, that
the caeoss is all but lost. The Confederate
States, had one great opportunity after the battle of
Bull "Run,* but they failed to take advantage of it.
On the morrow of the panic that beset the undisci-
Vrined volunteers of the North the Southern corn-
:menders might easily have crossed the Potomac
and seized the capital. Fortune never again put
such a prize within heir reach; and during the
many months that have ensued they have been so
confident of victory without doing anything to de-
'erve it, that they have wasted their strength by
inaction, and slept while their enemy waited and
watched, prepared and organized. The victories of
Fort Donnelson, Newbern, Beaufort, New Madrid,
and Pea Ridge, as well as the bloodless triumphs of
Florida, have changed the aspect of the war, and
driven. Secession into a corner. The Southern
leaders will probably make a stand before Rich-
mond, to await the onslaught of M'Clellan ; but,
mom probably, will retire into the Gulf States,
lettere, in the approaching sammer, if the war last
FA) long, the armies of the North will hesitate to
Tollow them. In the meantime, Mr. Jefferson
"Davis and his Government appear to lose heart,
'while the press and people, with the ill-feeling that
in every enterprise grows with the want of success,
are quarrelling with their leaders and with one an-
other, and weakening still further by their dissen-
sions a cause which chiefly relied on the enthusiastic
unity and determination of all classes.
The battle of Pea Ridge or Sugar Creek, of which
the principal details were forwarded by the last
mail, appears to have been one of the most obstinate
of the war; and, with the single exception of the
employment by the Confederates of a large body of
scalping and tomahawking Indians, under the com-
mand of Colonel Albert Pike, reflected credit on the
bravery of both sides. The Southern journals have
discovered that Pike is not one of their people, but
a Northern man, from Massachusetts, though they
have not yet made any indignant comment on the
policy of accepting the aid of such bloodthirsty
er.vages as he commanded, but was either unable or
"unwilling to control. During the War of Indepen-
dence nothing so greatly exasperated the American
people or brought so much odium on the British
Government as the employment of the Indians
-against the colonists, as every schoolboy in England
knows who has read Lord Chatham's eloquent de-
nunciations. In this country the "remorseless
cruelty" of Great Britain on that occasion is perpe-
tuated in school-books and popular harangues, and
greatly tends to this day to embitter the intercourse
between the nations. The Southern leader, if he
be wise, will promptly disavow the acts of Colonel
Pike, and disband every Indian corps in his service,
unless the scalpers can be brought under proper
oantrol, and taught to fight like disciplined soldiers,
The latest 'victories that have rejoiced the
heart of the North are those gained under Gene-
ral Shields, at Winchester, and the abandonment
and destruction by the Secessionists of Fort Macon,
rendered untenable in consequence of the Federal
success under General Burnside at Newbern and
Beaufort. General Shields, a native of the north of
Ireland, who acquired distinction in the Mexican
war, has been but recently appointed to a command
in succession to the late General Landon He had
scarcely taken the field when he met and defeated
a wing of the retreating army of Manassas, under
General Jackson, and forced it back in utter route
and confusion upon the town of Strasburg, whither
they have been hotly pursued, and again routed,
by General N. P. Banks, a civilian commander, for-
merly Speaker of the House of Representatives, and
overnor of Massachusetts, who has now fleshed
his maiden sword, and begun to justify the high
expectations which his friends and the whole coun-
try had formed of bis ability. The latest telegrams
of this morning lead to tilt, belief that the Confe-
derates have rallied five miles beyond Strasburg to
offer battle to the combined forces of Generals
Shields and Barks,lf so their
previous rout was
not so complete as has been represented.
After the capture of Newbern) as a glance at the
map wilt chow, it was clearly impossible for the
enkderates to hold either Beaufort or Macon. Im-
ra:diately General Burnside bad taken the former
:place he despatched an expedition to Beaufort,
'which on its arrival found the town evacuated.
Macon, a strong fort, awl cue of the principal ar-
senals of the United States, was capable of resisting
almost any naval forte that could be brought
against it; but, taken in the rear by the advancing
army of Gen, Burnside, it necessarily shared the
fate of Be:aufort. Its defenders did not stop to capi-
tulate,:out blew up the fort, and destroyed all its
kw:es and ammunition. The famous steamer Nash-
fill°, so familiar to the people of Southampton, had
taken refuge under its guns, after a successful run
across the Atlantic early in February, when warned
away by the British Government, and Capt. Pegrim
to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy,
set the vessel on fire. The Tuscarora, if still afloat,
will therefore have to confine her polite attentions
to the Sumter, unless Capt. Pegrim finds another
and more powerful ship at Mobile cr New Orleans
in which to undertake a new cruise to European
waters in search of his old enemy.
There has been much premature rejoicing over
the alleged capture of Mr. Yancey, a gentleman who
is declared to be even more responsible for the Se-
cession, and the Rebellion than Mr. Jeff. Davis him-
self and Possession of whose person was looked upon
as MOYe then
set-off for the enforced release of
Mason and Slidell; but Mr. Yancey has not been
caught, having aeri T ved safely at 1\ ew Orleans, where
he has been leetur- •
lug against the Government of
Great Britain for its selfishness or folly in not lend-
ing the South a helping band. Alas, poor England !
it cannot please either
-.y Desirous only of doing
t it is declared by both
righ et them to be in the
wrong, and
might well exclaim, Si A plague
is e on both
" if it were diplow,ntieo
kas
P
your houses,
parliamentary
whole truth with ttn
to speak the etat„
Island No. 10, in tho
'eh the
specimen of the 'wpm , name is another
etex of
v,_
ingenuity and imagination which the Acne
South, display in u7sTle,
both of the North and the
e
menclature of places, in addition to that affordede,
"Pea Ridge," " Sugar Creek," "Bull Run,"_ble in the war---.
• Blijfft" and others made memora

will hereafter shed historical intereat upon the
dreary shores of the " Father of Waters." The
island has been very strongly fortified by the Confe-
derates, and has for nearly a fortnight opposed a
stubborn resistance to the Federal forces, which
have laid regular siege to it by land and water.
Last week it was reported and believed in New York
that it had been captured, with all its stores, am-
munition, and men: but. Commodore Foote, the Fe-
deral
commander, a very bluE and outspoken New
Englauaer, has written to Washington to say that,
a t hou,gh he %Rig it " a very hard nut to crack," he
expects to crack it
"in short metre." The phrase

* Not Bull's y, printed