The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER' 5, 1861,

TIIE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the 'Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, OCT. 19.

In my last letter, in the hurry of closing the en-
velope, a copy of Mr. Seward's circular and some
remarks upon it were omitted ; but the omission is of
little consequence, as the mail must have taken over
the document, and the news of the effect produced
by it in New York and other cities of the United
States. The immediate impression in every one's
mind was, " Mr. Seward is aware of some actio.a on
the part of England which must result in war." Then
followed another course of thought,—" The Secre-
tary is bent on doing something which will lead to a
war with England." I infer these reflections from the
words of many people I met last week. It has been
the favourite dream of a party in the United States
to get up a war with some foreign Power, in the
hope that the sentiment of regard for the common
continent and of enmity to Europe which exists in
America would weld the North and South together
for the purposes of defence, and, in spite of failure
and repudiation, the politicians go on with their
work, and are never tired of inventing "Reinforce-
ments for Canada !"—" 25,000 Men Ordered out !"
—" Aggressive Insolence of England !" and such
like. But no one pays any heed to them. There-
fore it was that Mr. Seward's circular caused
alarm, as it seemed to give support to the
rumours which have been so sedulously set afloat
week after week, that England was going to break
the blockade, or to do something else which would
lead to a declaration of hostilities. Any way the
effect was startling and unpleasant. Either Mr.
Seward—we must beg his pardon, for the President
is alone responsible—either the President was reck-
less or timid, or he knew more than the rest of the
world, and he did not care to speak openly of the
danger, but by precautions against it indicated that
it might be at hand. It is vain to argue the point
with some people here. It may be shown that it
would never pay us to drag cotton out by force and
bring on a war with our best customer, that our
neutrality has been most distinctly proclaimed and
most honourably maintained. There is a fixed
principle in the head of every American North
and South, that the British empire rests on a
bale of cotton, just as the Lord Chancellor sits
on a sack of wool, and the speeches of some of our
foolish speechmakers now and then afford sup-
port to their hallucination. War would destroy
our trade, but then it is supposed that the British
people have a morbid taste for spinning cotton, re-
gardless of profit, and that, like silkworms, they
must spin as a condition of existence. And so some
of my friends shook their heads, and said sorrow-
, fully, —" Is it not dreadful to think that Engand
can be capable of so much baseness ? But she will
be.too late. Before she can act we shall have trod-
den rebellion under foot." Well, this very day,
the papers contain, as a communique no doubt,
another despatch of Mr. Seaward's, but it is ad-
dressed to Lord Lyons, and it is thought to be so
useful in doing away with any bad impressions that
it is published at once. The correspondence which
I enclose tolls its own story, and one cannot refuse
to admire the rapidity of Mr. Seward's pen, who,
in answer to Lord Lyons' despatch of the 14th of
October, on the same day writes a most voluminous
and elaborate article as an expose of the whole ques-
tion of suspension of habeas corpus, arbitrary
arrests, and the rights of foreigners, and replies to
the points, we must admit, with as much brusque
strength as celerity. The whole American people
will, I doubt not, sustain Mr. Seward's tone and
positions, and certainly the despatch to which he
had to reply was not a very remarkable paper, nor
quite worthy, verhaps, of the Foreign-office. The
effect of these arguments will be best treated at the
other side of the Atlantic, but it may be remarked
that the cases selected for remonstrance were far
from being the strongest that could have been
found. Every word -that comes from Great Bri-
tain, every act that is done by her, is closely—
nay, unjustly—construed by Americans, , She
may not look over the hedge, while France can
steal a horse if she pleases. The suspicious, jealous,
shrewish young lady detects foul play in every move-
ment of her mother-in-law, and will " have none of
that." I actually heard an officer find fault with
Lieut. Grant, of her Majesty's ship Steady, because
he was not quite pleased with the captain of the
United States ship Vandalia, off Charleston, for firing
a round shot across his bows to bring him to. Thus
one reads continually of the good faith of France in
her neutrality and of the perfidy of England. When
the French officers in the Crimea snubbed General
M'Clellan and his brother Commissioners, not a
word was said of it aloud, nor was there, on the
other hand, the least expression of satisfaction at
the cordial reception of the Commissioners by the
English authorities, and but for Colonel Delafield's
report nothing would have been known of the facts.
Had the case been reversed, we should have been
threatened with nothing
_short of war —a menace,
by the by, which might almost be stereotyped in
some of the most widely read, and therefore least
influential, of the American journals. Since
my last letter up to this date little has oc-
curred of interest or importance. Reconnaissances
have pushed out carefully from the front of the
Federal army, and have discovered, as far as Fairfax
and Vienna—oven to creeks below Alexandria and
along the road to Draineville—that the enemy are
not in force and do not hold the ground, but that
they are in observation, and have their troops well
thrown back towards the old position at Manassas.
It is believed that the. Confederates know every
move of their opponents, who are not at all
so fortunate, and have to grope their way
in the dark. The negro population are thought to
act for their masters with zeal and fidelity. We
hear of regiments and guards of coloured people
down South, and when the enemy were at Munson's
Hill one of their most forward skirmishers—an in-
defatigable fellow, always loading and firing—was
a black man. There have been no great reinforce-
ments received by this army lately, in consequence
of the diversion of Ohio and Illinois and Indiana
troops to the State of Kentucky and to the West,
and the largest estimate of the forces in the field
does not raise it much above the number given in
one of my recent letters. It is the New England
States, and the emigration from them in the West,
which have put forth their Strength in this war
for the Union, and the Puritan and Quaker element
of the other States has been animated by a similar
spirit.m
eet In
ings, regimentsthandeprea in c
chings,a
nda camp he r
ev
itvalrse a ,
anr e prayer
d Young
Men's Christian Associations ; the colonels give
aein
g on;
benedictions, the majors preach, the sergeants pray,
and the battalions march, singing sternly,—
" Old John Brown lies a mouldering in his grave,
Buti
jahloli
hse
hallelujah,
hlr sw marching
lies rhamouldering in his grave,
Hallelujah,
Ilallelujah, Hallelujah;
Old
IB.mayt hwisassouelviesrmasrochwinegll onp.;
0'
vid, in quantity
at a
at all events, with chaplains, and in some men's
minds the war for the Union is a crusade for all
that is good and holy in the world. The gulf that
separated Christian Knight from Saracen Emir was
not wider than that which divides the Northern
volunteer from the Southern chivalry, Tho contest
over, new political relations may be established,
but Franco and England will not be more
distinct. There seem to be no apprehen-
sions that this great mass of armed men can-
not be disposed of by a few circulars. They are
an immense power
- in the State and of the State,
and they can determine issues not only with their
votes, but with their bayonets. The regular army,
unteer associates with feel-
of course, views its vol
ings it dares not
express. But each is a check upon
ile the former would gladly re-
the other, and, wh
form some of the mischiefs, as they conceive, of de-
mocracy as it exists here, and would resist any
attempt to turn this into an abolition war, the
latter are determined to keep the power they him

g at, and are leavened by a strong anti-slavery
fe elieg, which, in some regiments, is nearly unani-
ous. It is scarcely possible to imagine any call-
in g in life for which a man will be as well fitted
al.ter three years' absence as he was when he left it.
Airhat a rift three years can make in the purposes
of a life l To suppose that the immense mass of
men collected here can ever return to their usual
avocations is to give them credit for more tenacity
in civil pursuits than human nature exhibits gene-
' rally elsewhere. What will be their humour at
the end of the war if it last three years ? They will
be entitled to their discharge, but long before that
the farm must have found some other superinten-
dence, the trade and the profession must have gone
to the dogs, and to tens of thousands 11 dollars a
,month and food and clothes must be a better thing
in the present than anything in the future can offer
to them. They have pay, subsistence, clothing,
pensions, " bounty lands," just the same as the re-
gulars. They have, however, the, privilege of elect-
ing their OW I/ officers to a great extent, which is
open to many G bjections. Law or custom induces
the Governors o f the States to leave to the men of
the companies of the State Volunteers the nomina-
tion of their captains and subalterns, and the habit
of acting so as to please the men becomes inveterate
in any officer who has.once gained a certain amount
of favour and hope's to procufe higher advancement.
It will be a very glorious proof of the patriotism
and purity of the American people if they over-
come all temptations which usually beset men in
power, and lay down that which they have had
conferred on them for a special object as soon as
it shall
of Faith
shallhave
thatbeen aeeomplished. To all but the
eye object
is
still far off indeed.
Matters in Missouri are no better. What would be
thought in London if an enemy's battery were
playing on the shipping below Bla ckwall ? In
Kentucky the Federalists do not appear to have
gained much, if anything, and the Union party there
confess they must have the aid of troops from the
other States, or they cannot hold their own against
the bold and enterprising Confederates. The money
ig flowing now to the extent of 1,400,000 dols. a day
or more—that is, the notes are, for Mr. Chase, to the
immense delight of the New York bankers, has left
several millions of the loan in their vaults, on which
they have been drawing their interest since the date
of the first instalment. The Treasury notes are now
regularly in circulation, and are rather liked than
otherwise, and, as General Scott pointed out, they
are found to be convenient by the soldiers, who were
formerly paid in gold exclusively, and had difficulty
in transmitting their pay to their friends at home,
as there is no system of money-orders known to the
post-offices in this country.

OCTOBER 20.

General M'Clellan—in some perplexity probably
in reference to the course to be adopted towards
such an elastic enemy, who gives way before pressure
only to spring out when it is removed, or to spread
out into some new quarter—ordered a reconnais-
sance yesterday morning in the direction of Fairfax
Court House and Flint-hill, and the creek called
Difficult. As the good Virginians never made any
map of their country of value for military purposes,
or, in other words, of accuracy and minuteness of
detail, it was essential to procure an idea of this
part of the theatre of operations, and the topogra-
phical engineers who have been busy at work lay-
ing down authentic plans of hill, dale, ravine, and
bypath were in requisition once more. General
M'Dowell had no such advantages. He was shoved
" on to Richmond" without knowing anything of
the country except what he could learn from ill-
disposed natives and his own cps as he advanced,
for the engineers could do little to assist him, and
their efforts to reconnoitre on the Thursday before
Bull's Run served oply to show they were dangerous
and futile. General M'Clellan left his quarters in
Washington on Friday, and spent nearly all Satur-
day in examining the front of the position along
which he is slowly pushing his battalions ; and his
unusual absence from the city gave rise to many of
tho queer eccentricities of expression called rumours.
It must be pleasant to get away some times from
Cabinet Ministers and statesmen, though, truth to
tell, the General is not much concerned about keep-
ing them waiting, for as yet he feels his legs very
strong under him. He is standing on the supports
of all the United States, but one step may make
him know that his feet are of clay—that soft and
yielding stuff which is only to be hardened in the
fire of victorious battle. His quarters are in a
pleasant house at the corner of a square—not unlike
that of Gordon or Euston. By day the door and
windows are open; a sentry in blue tunic, blue cap,
blue trousers, all without what are called facings,
brass buttons, with a distracted eagle thereupon, and
a waistbelt with a brass buckle inscribed "U.S.,'
walks up and down, generally with a pipe or cigar
in his mouth and his firelock carried horizontally
over his shoulder, so as to bring the bayonet on a
level with any eye of which the unwary owner may
be coming round the corner. Several Dragoon
horses are hitched up by the rail and the trees along
the pavement, standing patiently and goodnaturedly
as:American horses are wont to do, or, at most,
stamping and flicking off the flies which in the
United States try patience and good temper so
hardly. At the door are ready orderlies, two quick
intelligent young men, who are civil, without being
servile, and who, in being so, afford some contrast
to the various very independent soldiers lounging
or sitting on the steps reading newspapers, and
waiting for answers to their messages. There is a
sort of " Open Sesame" air about the place which
does not prevent the secrets inside from being well
kept. In the parlours are seated officers and visi-
tors smoking or talking. The tables are covered
with a litter of papers and journals and torn en-
velopes, and the clacking tongue of the telegraph
instrument resounds through the building. The
General is generally -upstairs, and sundry gentle
Cerberi bar the entrance to his presence, nor is he
destitute of the art of making himself invisible when
he pleases. His staff arc excellent men, Jam told, and
most courteous and gentlemanly I know, so far as
my personal experience goes, nor could any
commander be served more efficiently than the
General is by such men as Brigadier-General
Vanvliet, or Col, Hudson, notwitstanding the ab-
sence of a good deal of the stiffness which marks the
approaches to some of the 1 ead-quarters, as Gen.
M'Clellan found when he and his brother Commis-
sioners sought in vain to obtain access to Marshal
Pelissier in the Crimea. The General, a short time
ago an employe on the Central Illinois Railway, but
still with so much of the old spirit in him that he•
studied closely all the movements of that short
Italian campaign of which he is not doomed to give
a counterpart in this part of the world, is a noc-
turne, and at the close of long laborious days works
hard and fast late into the night till sleep pur-
sues and overtakes him, when he surrenders readily,
for he has one of those natures which need a fair
share of rest, capable though they be of great
exertion without it on the occasion. He works
hard, too, in the saddle, and when the business of
the morning has been despatched, off he goes,
attended by a few officers and a small escort of
orderlies and troops, across the Potomac, visiting
the camps, examining positions, eating where for-
tune spreads the board, and returning, generally
after nightfall, to look over • the reports, to issue
orders, to baffle little politicians, and to stand on the
defensive against those of larger dimensions. Here
he is natural, but vigilant—candid, but prudent—
tobacco ruminant or fumant, full of life, and yet
contemplative—of a temper, indeed, which seems
to take some of its colour from that of the accidents
of its surroundings in time and place. Extraordi-
nary acts are ascribed to him of which he knows
journalists.sisnasi
tuomottarehpes
mil
stores and
eagn 4n.gtd.
volunteer,
mtHAh
Aaene
ktoii
ncions
ung
he
hleepit eti
practical
ceoes:
encountered
atolr
aUr experiments
visitingee nrd Aatbshle reeaar
vsc; ct.
voh an
Isi ndgr
Commissariat
da'
niti
eons
rbsf:araiet
hhaa
bread
tend as r vidette, or

starts out of a wood with erabrowned face as a
abea n
vd and before before t he week is over ha has
don
?thing except' the thing he has been engaged en. Oh, " Young Napoleon,"
t re:r
what a drea:lful hundred days are in store
for you. 0,10 can fancy even now the
soldier sighing the wulus rite in the palatial
building devoted
ibr math
to 14;bours of Central Illinois
officials at Chic .go.

OCTOBER 22.

The council held' at Ger:Kral 7+l‘Clellan's quarters
last night was attended by the President, the mem-
bars of the Cabinet, and t.'se majority of the divi-
sional generals who are wits'in reach of the capital.
In the afternoon " tl 'sa Commencler-in-Chief of the
Army of the Potomac!" visited tiiae Navy-yard and
had a long interview with Captain .Dahlgren in re-
ference to the measures which must he adopted to
clear the river. The United States' arsenals are
destitute of the materiel which would now be in-
valuable. From all sides come cries to the Navy
Department for heavy guns and sea-service mor-
tars. The Department has not got them, but all
hands are working away to supply them, and in
Mr. Fox, the Assistant-Secretary, the Government
has an officer of ability, good sense, vigour, and re-
solution, who can. do anything but improvise heavy
artillery. So it is that the want of sea-service mor-
tars offers at this time an impediment to the esta-
blishment of batteries on the Maryland side of the
river, to shell the Confederates out of their works,
which could be done easily. The range is not long
for 10-inch and 13-inch mortars, being from 2,000
to 4,000 yards, and as yet the Confederates have
used only guns of small calibre, rifled, indeed, but
not adapted to do much damage by their shot and
shell to shipping. But the batteries are to be made,
and the expedition which sailed from Annapolis
yesterday will probably find a diversion in store for
it about Accotink and I'ohick, which are to be
seen, I trust, on the maps a few miles below Alex-
andria and Fort Vernon—creeks of the Potomac.
It will :have been observed that although the
policy of the Federalist Government is necessarily
aggressive, seeking to recover that which has been
lost, their measures have been nearly all dictated
by the movements of the Confederates from the
time they stood on the defensive at Sumter, rallied
around Washington, and concentrated at St.
Louis, down to this moment, when it occurs to
them that it would be rather a desirable thing to
prevent the Potomac being quite closed up, the
danger and the probability of which must have
struck any one, as they did me, when I wrote long
ago on the subject. And here it may be said that
the Confederates have not exhibited much wisdom
or vigour in their proceedings. Had they estab-
lished the works and armed them with heavy guns
two months ago the difficulties of getting the Fede-
ralist army in order would have proved much
greater, and the inconvenience to the capital would
have been most serious. Now stores have been ac-
cumulated of certain kinds, the army is in such
force that a corps can be spared down there for land
operations; above all, the navy is now in a state to
afford a few gunboats and steam sloops to resist the
attempt to close up the river, which could have been
effected, supposing the Confederates had the means,
a few weeks ago with ease and impunity. Light
rifled guns are not the articles for such work. Per-
haps the Confederates have no heavy guns to spare.
At all events, the firing as yet proves there is little
or no harm to shipping in those fine rifled bolts, for
they cut through without shattering what is op-
posed to their flight, and " nobody is hurt" on board.
The Confederates rarely fire on vessels going down
the river. Therefore, when the safe passage of a
flotilla of schooners is reported, the papers set up
a cry of joy and declare the river is not closed. It
is the policy of the enemy to let all ships go down
it they are not vessels of war, for Washington can
send out little just now. But vessels coming up are
obstructed as far as possible, and though a small
craft now and then runs the fire, or is tugged up,
the effect of the batteries, at this moment, actually
is to bring up a whole armada, laden with coal, fuel,
fish, vegetables, hay, and corn and provision in the
various broad bends of the lower part of the river.
When the Pensacola, which is now lying off Alex-
andria, is ready to go down, we may hear of a
severe encounter with the batteries on shore; but
it will rejoice our own naval authorities to know
that the engines of that fine vessel have proved a
complete failure, and that it will be a fortnight
before she can move her powerful armament to
meet the Whitworths or other rifled ordnance of
the Secessionists. While the Generals were as-
sembled last night the report of Col. Baker's death
reached the city, accompanied by stories of a great
reverse or success, as the case might be, at Edward's
Ferry, a point on the Potomac, opposite Goose
Creek. On the Virginia side a road leads from the
Ferry to Leesburg. On the Maryland shore there
are roads to Poolesville, where Brigadiet Stone's
column is lying, and up to Darnstown, which is
the head-quarters of Gen. Banks' force. Early yes-
terday morning, before dawn, a detachment of 400
men of the 15th Massachusett's Regiment crossed
over and proceeded on the road to Leesburg, with-
out encountering the enemy till they got within a
mile or so of the town. At the same time a small
force of cavalry marched on their flank towards the
left. Both were met at last by the Confederates,
under Gen. Evans, and were driven back to the
river, where the infantry made a stand, reinforced
by the remaining companies of their regiment, by
the 20th, and apparently by Baker's Californians.
As the islands in the river had been occupied by the
Federalists, it seems to me as if General Banks had
been ordered to advance and occupy Leesburg, in
the expectation that it was lightly held ; but the
Confederates were somewhere in the neighbourhood,
and, as far as I can make out, they succeeded in
forcing the whole column to the verge of the river
on the Virginian side, which is said to be in posses-
sion of Gen. Banks. In heading a movement of his
regiment, Brigadier-General Baker, who was con-
sidered a very meritorious officer, was killed; and
from the tone of the Washington papers this morn-
ing, it would appear as if the ill-repressed impa-
tience of the public must soon break forth. Hitherto
the mutterings have been only audible in New
York, but now at Gen. M'Clellan's very door we
hear, a propos of the death of the above-mentioned
Brigadier—

" We trust in Heaven were will be no more sacrifices like
this, but that, if anything in earnest is to be done, it will
be done quickly. We have had reverses enough, and the
whole country is beginning to demand something more."

I The action must have been important if all Stone's
force moved out, and if it was afterwards obliged to
seek assistance from General Banks; but it is so
near post hour I cannot spare time to ascertain the
particulars. If Leesburg be held by the enemy, it
is obvious that the calculations of the Federalists
must be recast. It was supposed that no great force
would be left there, and that the Confederates would
retire, as soon as an advance took place, towards
Vienna. Wherever the Federalists go there appears
to be a force ready to meet them. The news from
Missouri is not encouraging. It is known that one
of the best officers—some say the first of the old
United States' army—General Albert Johnston, is
opposed to General Fremont, who is not, strictly
speaking, a soldier. Price had halted at Osceola,
where he was taking measures to fortify his posi-
tion, and partisan bands were moving on Fremont's
flanks. The recapture of Lexington by the Fede-
ralists is scarcely a counterpoise to the reverse
sustained by them at Pilot Knob. The Union
sentiment" in Missouri evidently requires a good
deal of stirring up with bayonets, and demands an
immense amount of protection—quite a hothouse
plant in the way of warmth and softer. The hope
of the North is in the fleet just now. How long
General M'Clellan can resist pressure from his own
side remains to be seen ; but the politicians are
active, not seeing as well as he does, perhaps, that
with another great repulse and rout the cause of the
Unionists is indeed in a bad way. He wishes to