The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-13 00:00:00

to his wife he spoke of a dearly bought victory and
a close pursuit. Of the latter there are no evidences;
many troops remained till next morning in Centre-
ville, not four miles from the scene of the fight, and
General Schenck's report states he withdrew his
men in good order at his leisure. It will be seen,
too, that all which has been said of the enemy out-
flanking the Federalists' left is rubbish, and that
the main contest was, as I stated, on the right of
the line. Mr. Davis returned by train to Richmond
on the 23d a conquefor. His conduct is thus de-
scribed :

" In response to the calls from the immense crowd who
congregated together to meet him, he alluded to the grand
absorbing topic of the day. The enemy, he said, with the
taxes they had been imposing on us for 20 years, had fitted
out an army on a magnificent scale. They had come over to
Virginia with plenty of arms and ammunition, and with
ambulances fitted up in such a style of luxury as though
they thought they were still taxing the South. They had
500 or 600 army waggons with them, and provisions of
every kind in abundance. In the whole campaign they had
over 50,000 men. Their finest parks of heavy and light artil-
lery are ours. They left everything behind them they could
throw away. Among the Federal officers-captured is Colonel
Carrington. Among the Confederate officers killed, unre-
ported, are Lieutenant .Colonel Johnston, of the Hampton
Legion ; Colonel Thomas, of General Johnston's Staff; and
Colonel Fisher, of the 6th North Carolina Regiment. The
wounded, unreported, are Colonel Stevens, of General Bee's
Staff; Colonel Gartrell, of Georgia ; Lieutenant-Colonel
Montgomery Gardner, of the Ist Georgia Regiment;
Colonel Nelson, of the 2d Virginia Regiment; Colonel
Jones, of the 4th Alabama Regiment; Colonel Hampton,
of the Legion. Colonel Preston, of the 28th Virginia Regi-
ment, took Colonel Wilcox, of Michigan, one captain, and
three privates prisoners with his own hands. Edmund
Fontaine, jun., son of Colonel E. Fontaine, president of the
Virginia Central Railroad, is among the slain."
The "luxury of ambulances" is a new and curious
ground of complaint, and I suspect there were not
many articles of the kind in rear of the Confederate
army. Apropos of this subject, I must remark that
one class of officers in the Federal army did their
duty nobly—the surgeons remained on the field
when all others were retiring or had left. One is
reported killed; six are prisoners in the hands of
the enemy, engaged in attending the wounded of
both sides—an invaluable aid to the scanty medical
staff of the Confederates. There is no reason to be-
lieve the treatment of wounded or prisoners was
what it was reported to have been. There may have
been some isolated act of atrocity in the heat of
battle or pursuit, and it is only too likely that a
building in which wounded men were placed was
set fire to by a shell, but it is only justice to the Con-
federate authorities to say that they seem to have
done all they could for those who fell into their
hands. Much irritation has been created by the false
statements circulated on this subject, and the soldiers
on guard over Confederate prisoners here would not
permit them to receive some little luxuries which
had been ordered by sympathising inhabitants, on
the ground that they did not deserve them after the
treatment given by their friends to the Federalists.
And as I have used the word " sympathisers," let
me add the expression of my belief that there is
scarcely a department, high or law, of the public
service of the United States in which there is not
" treason"—l mean the aiding and abetting the
enemy of information and advice. It is openly talked
in society—its work is evident on all sides., I went
into the private department of the Post-office the
other day, and found there a gentleman busily en-
gaged in sorting letters at a desk. The last time I
met him was at a dinner with the Commissioners
of the Confederate States at Washington, and I was
rather surprised to see him now in the sanctum of
the Post-office, within a few feet of Mr Blair. of the
sangre (nut of abolitionism. Said he, "I am just
looking over the letters here to pick out some for
our Southern friends, and I forward them to their
owners as I find them ;" and if the excellent and
acute gentleman did not also forward any little
scraps of news he could collect I am in error. Again,
a series of maps prepared with great care for the
use of General M'Dowell's Staff are given out to be
photographed, and are so scarce that superior offi-
cers cannot get them. Nevertheless, one is found
in a tent of a Confederate officer, in the advance of
Fairfax Courthouse, which must have been sent to
him as soon as it was ready. It is also asserted
that General Beauregard knew beforehand of
M'Dowell's advance ; but the Confederates left in
such baste that much credence cannot be given to
the statement that the -enemy were fully informed
of the fact any considerable length of time before-
' hand.

The battle having been duly fought and lost, the
Federalists are employing their minds to find out
why it was fought at all. The convulsions into
which the New York press has been thrown by the
inquiry resemble those produced on a dead frog by
the wire of Galvani. " Who cried On to Rich-
mond ?' " "Not I, 'pon my honour. It was shouted
out by some one in my house, but I don't know who.
I never gave him authority. I won't shout anything
any more." " Who urged Gen. Scott to fight the
battle, and never gave anybody any 'peace till he
was ordered to do it ?" "Nobody! " "It was that
other fellow." " Please Sir, it wasn't me." " I
never approved it." " I'll 'never say a word to a
soldier again." " Mr. President knows I didn't." It
is really a most curious study. I begin to think
that the best possible instructors may sometimes be
in the wrong at this side of the Atlantic. The Tri-
bune declares that Gen. Scott, being absolute master
of the situation, is responsible for the battle. But
the New York Times gives a statement of what
took place before the battle at the General's table,
which, therefore, is probably published with his
sanction, as it is impossible to suppose a gentleman
would print it without express permission, from
which it would certainly appear that the veteran
Commander was not, as I hinted, a free agent in the
matter. Here is the statement :

" General Scott, it is said, discussed the whole subject of
this war, in all its parts, and with the utmost clearness and
accuracy. He had a distinct and well-defined opinion on
every point connected with it, and stated what his plan
would be for bringing it to a close if the management of it
had been left in his hands.

"The main object of the war, he said, was to bring the
people of the rebellious States to feel the pressure of the
Government, to compel them to return to their obedience
and loyalty. And this must be done with the least possible
expenditure of life, compatible with the attainment of the
object. No Christian nation can be justified, he said, in
waging war in such a way as shall destroy 501 lives when
the object of the war can be attained at a cost of 500. Every
man killed beyond the number absolutely required is mur-
dered. Hence, he looked upon all shooting of pickets, all
scouting forays not required in order to advance the general
object of the war, all destruction of life, on either side,
which did not contribute to the general result, as so many
acts of unjustifiable homicide.
" If the m tiler had been left to him, he said, he would
have commenced by a perfect blockade of every Southern
port on the Atlantic and the Gulf. Then he would have col-
lected a large force at the capital for defensive purposes, and
another large one on the Mississippi for offensive operations.
The summer months, during which it is madness to take
troops south of St. Louis, should have been devoted to
tactical instruction, and with the first frost of autumn he
would have taken a column of 80,000 well-disciplined troops
down the Mississippi, and taken every important point on
that river, New Orleans included.
" It could have been done, he said, with greater ease, with
less loss of life, and with far more important results than
would attend the marching of an army to Richmond. At
eight points the river would probably have been defended,
and eight battles would have been necessary; but in every
one of them success could have been made certain for us.
The Mississippi and the Atlantic once ours, the Southern
States would have been compelled, by the natural and in-
evitable pressure of events, to seek, by a return to the
Union, escape from the ruin that would speedily overwhelm
them out of it.

" This," said he, " was my plan. But lam only a sub-
ordinate. It is my business to give advice when asked,
and to obey orders when they aro given. I shall do it.
There are gentlemen in the Cabinet who know much more
about war than I do, and who have far greater influence
than I have in determining the plan of the campaign,
There never was a more just and upright man than the
President—never one who desired more sincerely to pro-
mote the best interests of the country. But there aro men
among his advisers who consult their own resentments far
more than the dictates of wisdom and experience, and these
men will probably decide the plan of the campaign. I shall
do, or attempt, whatever I am ordered to do. But they
must not hold me responsible.
"If I am ordered to go to Richmond, I shall endeavour
to do it. But I know perfectly well that they have no con-
ception of the difficulties we shall encounter. I know the
country—how admirably adapted it is to defence, and how
resolutely and obstinately it will be defended. I should
like nothing better than to take Richmond. Now that it
has been disgraced by becoming the capital of the rebel
Confederacy, I feel a resentment towards it, and should
like nothing better than to scatter its Congress to the
winds.

46 I3ut I havo lived long enough to know that liiimall re'