The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-18 00:00:00

CIVIL W. AR IN AMERICA.

SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY.
The North German Lloyd's steamer Bremen,
Captain We ',eels, with the mails for England,
France, and Germany, from New York on the sth,
at 6 p.m., arrived off Cowes, en route for Bremen,
at 2 p.m. to-day.
She brings 248 passengers, 140 of whom are for
Sonthampton ; also 686,210 dols. in specie, of which
472,210 dols. are for England, 208,000 for France,
and 6,000 dole. for Germany.
The Teutonia arrived out on the let inst.
We have no later news by this arival, but the
'New York journals of the 4th and sth contain
several accounts, all more or less confused and con-
tradictory, of the recent battles. The following is
the account of the correspondent of the New York
Tt we generally understood at daylight on
Saturday, thee2Bth, that the army was to evacuate
its line of entrenchments. To do this with the re-
quisite precipitancy it was necessary to move only
the most essential baggage, and leave behind every-
thing that was ponderous or bulky. The officers
were given to understand that they must discrimi-
nate between necessaries and luxuries, and the sick
told that ambulances could be granted to very few,
if any. The wounded were told nothing, but the
silence was ominous to them, as it foretold them left
on contested ground in the hands of heartless trai-
tors, while the army should be receding column by
column, towards the remote and doubtful James.
The scene on that memorable Saturday morning can
never be forgotten—White-house resigned, our sup-
ply
depot cut off, a part of our line of earthworks
deserted, and the army grouped, tentless and expec-
tant,in the open field, sleeping after the labours of
the battle. Hundreds of soldiers were limping
hither and thither, their arms in slings, asking
for their regiments. Hundreds of others started
upon painful and almost hopeless pilgrimages to
the James, where they fondly believed the Union
gunboats to be, and felt that under their watchful
ports there would be rest, safety, and shelter. The
long lines of fevered, staggering people struck out
for the river, and many a drop of blood spattered
the sand as they filed throtigh brook and wood,-
over hill and dale, nerved by the certainty that
every footfall ensured more directly their deliver-
ance. Some of the wounded hobbled ten miles the
first day, upon crutches, and we saw one man with
a ball through one hip and the other ankle broken,
that kept up with an ammunition waggon through
e even hours. The ambulances were crowded with
men until the springs bent fiat upon the axles, and
a very common matter to see was several wounded
men sitting in the tail of the waggon with bloody
feet dripping upon the steps. All day long the
waggons went out in foggy files, and the troops
sauntered towards the sareee ultima thule. Great
siege guns and grea'ear pontoons went ringing in
the cortege, and 'norsemen, teamsters, and negroes
vied with "each other in cursing and swearing.
" ery few sleptaan Saturday night, for the issues
fei the dawn came upon many with a heavy fore-
boding, and that solicitude for the army and its
general that every individual felt pressed home
with a bitter premonition of dangers to come- It
was said that the enemy had pushed a great column
between us and the James, and that when we
zeached the river itself Beauregard would be found
-there, backed by 100,000 men, to interpose between
us and the gunboats. It rained a little during the
night and moistened the dusty ground. By three
o'clock in the morning the rebel prisoners had
been marched off by Major Willard, the teams
at head-quarters were on their way, and before
five o'clock the general and suite were in the
saddle, dashing across the open country, turning
for a moment their eyes upon Richmond to fix them
again more tenaciously upon another and better
stand-point. We left a large number of wounded
in the hospital at Savage's, perhaps a thousand and
more in all, and these soon experienced a second
time the bloody greeting of the enemy.
" At daylight on Sunday our whole line of earth-
works had been deserted, and our artillery removed
a mile to the rear. Here it was judiciously dis-
posed, the batteries masked, and the infantry
covered by thicknesses of woods. The spot was
part of the battle-ground of Fair Oaks, but it is
designated as Peach Orchard Station.
" At daylight the enemy came eastward on the
Williamsburg road, one column advancing down
the railroad. They opened from two batteries on
the left; but their firing was awkward and ineffec-
tive, as likewise their musketry, which was close
and might have been more serious. When they
reached a line of march, about three hundred yards
from our front, the whole terrible fire of our cannon
burst upon them. They staggered, but before the
full effect of our discharge -was discernible the
pieces rang again and their columns were fearfully
thinned. For a half hour our fire was so close that
it seemed the perpetual echo of a single deafening
report—a continuous blaze of flame and ball, to
which the Confederates replied feebly, but with
some show of determination. General Sumner rode
in the thickest of this fight, and the gallant brigade
of Meagher was like a wall of shamrock. Indeed
Richardson's division vied with Sedgwick's, and
Heintzelman's troops were not behind hand in their
behaviour. The whole fight, though continued from
eight o'clock a.m. to twelve, was like one incident,
and it terminated with a loss on ,our side of not
more than 150 men, to the rebels of not less
than 1,500. The efforts of the enemy to over-
.
reach us on the left were made futilely, for we took
pples to cover our line of general retreat along the
• ;Williamsburg road, by deploying our lett along
that road to a creek that crosses it more than a
mile in the rear of Savage's. They endeavoured to
charge through the brigades of Burns, Dana, and
Gorman ; but the steady fire of such regiments as
• •tee.2oth Massachusetts baffled them in that regard.
He:9ing held the place until, in the judgment. of the
generals, our teams, heavy artillery, and ambal-
maces were far across White Oak Swamp, our troops
fell back leisurely to the neighbourhood of Savage's
station, and again drew up in order of action.,42,
The battle of
Savage's was more sanguinary; it
commenced about, five o'clock in the afternoon, and
lasted till eleven o'clock at night. The rebels,
when we had fallen back from Peach Orchard, filed,
reinforcements
with
as well as with severalinasdetniy ap-
sanadrons of cavalry, to-
wards Several roads leading to the
Chickahominy,
and, covered by the thick timber, were enabled to
remain concealed until they had
reached a wheat'
that stretches
from Savage's to a d
belt.of
woods in the direction of the farms of
Dr Treat and
Messrs. Mickey, Dudley and Couch.
Suddenly
peering out of the edges of the timber, they opened
with rifled cannon upon our forces, drawnup.
full view to the south of the railroad. Directly
they
ran out three batteries to commanding points in
the wheat-field, and opened a rapid enfilading fire
of shell and grape. This was at first so staggering
that our men could not form, nor our artillerymen
bring their batteries into service. The 106th P enn.
moraentary
sylvania regiment was seized with
ereice.
pan,, e, but soon recovered, and did good 5
'e first-named lost iu the beginning of t
'he fight
100 killed and wounded men, and a regiment
of rebel cavalry galloped in and drove the regie
ment off; so that the wounded had to be re-
signed. In the meantime a rebel brigade was
observed stealing down to the right, as if with the
design of flanking our troops by reaching a position
on the Williamsburg road. Captain Pettit at once
planted two guns on the railroad and swept the
column with grape and canister, until it went back_
to the woods upon a run. Some of the sharpest
infantry fighting of the war ensued, in which parts
of Sedgwick's, Richardson's, Hooker's, Kearney's,
and Steith's divisions engaged with various sue-
; cessa The rebels came determinedly across the
firing
as they advanced, until General Sumner
oielered our troupe -up at dcuble quick to a charge.
bout 4,000 of them
went off at once with a roar
thee might have drowned the musketry. The
rebels kept their position for a moment, and then
fell back to the rear of their batteries. Meagher's'
brigade, however, succeeded in charging right up
b
of a Virginianett
to the guns erY, two of which
ik
off, sped, and chopped
they hauledthe carriages
63d, and 69th participated in
to pieees.• The 86th
ft was here that the brave COL
this gallant aci• -
Pierce, of the 29th Massachusetts Regiment, for-

merly Gen. Pierce, of Big Bethel fame, lost an arm.
It was taken off by a solid shot.
Night came on, but put no end,to,th carnage.
The steady roar of cannon arid the sh rp, 'quick
ring of musketry, now bursting into N olleys, now
degenerating into that rasping
noise trade by file-
firing, filled the whole air. The dar! ness was lit
up by the fitful flashes, and) to complete the awful
picture, the woods were set on fire by bursting
shells, and conflagration painted fiery terrors on the
1 sky,

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