The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 28, 1861.

THE t.IV IL WAR IN A ILERICA.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 13.
The most vital and important question of the
hour her e—perhaps o t the year—is the course which
will be taken in Kentucky. The Legislature has
decided by a large majority to demand that the Con-
federate troops be withdrawn from the State—so
we hear. It is added that the Legislature refused
to entertain the proposal that a similar demand
should he addressed to the Federal troops. General
Anderson has arrived at Frankfort, the capital, to
take command of the latter, and had been well re-
ceived by the people, and Gen. Fremont announces
that the first gun has been mounted on the Federal
redoubt which has been erected on Kentuckian soil to
protect their camp of occupation. The Confederates
retain their old position, and it would seem as if they
are now acting in defiance of the will of the majo-
rity of the State. "What course Governor Macgoffin
will take, if he consult his sympathies, can easily
be imagined, nor will he be unlikely to follow the
steps of the Governor of Missouri under similar cir-
cumstances.
The State of Kentucky contains 37,680 square
miles, and a population of about 1,200,000. It is
larger than the kingdoms of Bavaria, Denmark,
Greece, or Portugal, and twice the size of the
Swiss Republic; in fact, there are only a few
monarchies and empires in Europe which exceed it
in surface. In one year, from 1858 to 1859, the
value of taxable property increased 28,480,000 dols.,
and last year such property was estimated at
493,409,363 dols. It occupies a central and most im-
portant position in the Union, divided from Ten-
nessee by a mere line on the map ; from Missouri
by the Mississippi ; from Illinois, Indiana, and
Ohio by the Ohio River; from Virginia by the
Cumberland Mountains and by the Big Sandy
River, which is by no means a formidable boundary.
It will be seen that there is a real physical bound ary
between Kentucky and the Free States which still ad-
here to the Union, while the Slave and seceded State
of Tennessee stretches along her southern frontier
without any perceptible natural line, and Virginia
touches on the east with far less defined boundaries
than exist between the Free States and the neutral
power. It is much to be feared that nothing can
save the State from civil war. There is a strong
party for peace and neutrality, but its efforts will
be crushed by armed force on both sides; and the
guerilla of Western Virginia will be extended to
Kentucky unless something of a nature little less
than miraculous intervenes.
The Confederates seem to be clearly to blame for

the result in this instance, at all events, and to have
produced the state of things which renders conflict
unavoidable. The various State conventions are
now in activity, and by watching the proceedings a
juster opinion will be formed than I can give of the
probable action of parties at the elections. In the
North the war sentiment seems to prevail over
everything else, and the cry for the " Union" drowns
every other sound. The expedition to Hatteras has
to some extent demonstrated the non-exis'enee of
any considerable number of Unionists in that part
of North Carolina, unless they be held by terror
from coming ever. Very few of the thousands
spoken of have yet come in.

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, the Maryland State Peace
Convention nominated Mr. Howard, a strong peace
man, for Governor, and appointed committee to draw
up an address to the people of the State. The meet-
ing greatly approved one sentiment of Professor
Smith, who said " Peace and union go together ;
war and union never." All this means States' rights
and Southern sympathies. The Union delegates
from the wards of the city of Baltimore have also
nominated their candidates for the State Legisla-
ture. General Dix has commanded the Mayor of
Baltimore to cease payments to the men of the old
police force who were superseded by the military
authorities ; and the mayor, after a solemn protest
against the interference, informs General Dix that
his order shall be respected. The war against seces-
sion emblems and colours is carried on rigor?usly
by the police.
I may as well warn Englishmen who intend
coming over here to visit the South, that they will
not be permitted to do so. Their passports, with-
out which they cannot travel in the States, are
countersigned by Mr. Seward in these words, "It
is expected that the bearer will not enter any of
the insurrectionary States." Major J. F. De Courcey,
who formerly held a commission in the Turkish
Contingent during the Crimean war, has tendered
his services to the Government, which has accepted
them, but it must be understood that English offi-
cers generally cannot expect the promotion and
high place they look for in Washington. They
must know, also, that they act in opposition to the
Queen's proclamation in accepting service on either
side. There are, however, a number of English
subjects engaged as officers on both sides, and the
Irish may be counted by myriads (in its proper
sense) in both armies.

Passes to visit the lines are given with reluctance,
and sometimes are refused altogether. Permits to
go South' are refused on the ground that the Presi-
dent's proclamation forbids all intercourse between
the United States and those in revolt ; and now the
road through Kentucky, hitherto open to thole who
were not bound by the terms of their passports to
remain in the United States, will be closed. How.
our Consuls are to act it is not easy to say. They
cannot communicate with Lord Lyons or with their
chief at home, and they cannot get their salaries
unless a ship of war be sent to communicate with
their ports. The utmost delicacy and caution must
be observed in the preservation of our neutrality.
It would be well if our American cousins could un-
derstand that there is a difference between the neu-
trality of a nation and neutrality of sentiment on
the part of the persons composing it. A nation may
preserve neutrality, and the sympathies of its
people may be nevertheless all on one side.
Professor Way, of London, has been here for some
days exhibiting his electric light to the savans and
military and naval officers at the Smithsonian.

Lord Lyons sends despatches to England by the
Arago, which sails on Saturday (September 14).
SEPTEMBER 12.
The city of Washington, which is the great centre
of military interest, has considerable natural claims
to such a doubtful favour. It was the seat of the
Federal Government, and certain members of the
Confederate Government when the civil war began
threatened to take it ; therefore a force was assem-
bled for its defence. But as that force was augmented
the federal leaders announced that it had an ulti-
mate offensive object. Thence it became necessary
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to cover the lines of communication as far as possi-
ble, the Confederate Government removed to Rich-
mond. The North, irritated and indignant, began to
sound its battle cry and clamour for the conduct of
the army against the Confederate capital. Each of
the belligerents threatened the other with the loss
of the seat of their Government. The consequences
of the success of the South, however, would have
been much more important than those of the success
of the North. Washington is the national capital,
and, whatever distinctions the Americans of the
Union party might have drawn as to its possession
by either a foreign or internal foe, the effect on the
n Along of Europe of finding Mr. Jefferson Davis in
the White House and the Confederate Senate in the
Capitol must have led to something more decided
than mere neutrality and non-recognition. It has
been suggested to me that Washington himself was
influenced in the selection of the site by considera-
tions of a military character, which related to an
absolute defensive power in the position itself. It
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the ground was chosen well, especially in view of
that which is now taking place. The success of the
British expedition is no proof that the place was badly
selected as regards naval operations and foreign
enemies, inasmuch as there were no defensive works
on the river at the time, and this very day the " de-
fenders," as they are calied, of Baltimore, which is
more exposed than Washington, are preparing to
celebrate the anniversary of the repulse of a British
force in an attack on the place similar to that we
made with greater success on the capital itself. It
is a curious reflection that Fort M‘Henry, which is
now the Bastile of Maryland and the political prison
of the people arrested under the United States'lettres
de cachet, was the work from which floated " the
star-spangled banner," made famous here at least
by the spirited words of a young American confined
in one of the British men of-war during the bom-
bardment, and who wrote the song, tradition has it,
on the very morning of the action. The "star-
spangled banner" which flies there at present by no
means indicates " the land of the free," though it
may certainly mark "the home" for the time "of
the brave." There are whole acres of that handsome
flag, however, floating over miles of earthworks,
and redoubts and camps around Washington on
both sides of the Potomac. It is not possible that
the Confederate Generals can be meditating a direct
front attack on the place, unless they are satisfied
that the Federalists will not stand inside their
works. But common sense must teach the latter
that, with a deep river behind them, crossed by two
narrow bridges, discretion and valour would unite
in prompting them to make a most vigorous resist-
ance. The Confederates have still their screws and
flat boats in the creeks below the city ; but the
Potomac flotilla for ever moves up and down before
the watery dells in which they lie hid, and an
attempt to throw troops over to the Maryland side
now would be far less likely to succeed than it would
have been a month ago. The movements of Beau-
regard in our front seem to show that he is taking
ground. more to his left, and it is probable that his
centre is nearly opposite Smith's force, which is
thrown across the Chain bridge five miles above
Washington. The packing up of his tents and bag-
gage along a considerable portion of his front may
be for the execution of the various movements con-
nected with the massing of the troops, or they may
be interpreted to mean either that there is a plan
to make an attempt to get into Maryland as I have
indicated, or that the General wishes to be in a
position to manoeuvre freely if, deceived by false re-
ports, he supposes General M'Clellanis moving out
to attack him. The path of the Confederate Gene-
rals is beset with difficulties, the greater part of
which have arisen from the want physically
of transport, and morally of enterprise and
ibriatttlheeof torporwhich came over
Manassas. They have now
an immense body of armed men to oppose any
tdhaermingaftearntdhe
movements they may make, where eight weeks
ago they would have met only mutinous mobs.
Acting on the larger arc, from the outer circle,
they are exposed to the operations of the Federal-
ists, who can move on infinitely shorter lines ; and,
though the Pennsylvanians may think it necessary
to begin to fortify Philadelphia, there is at present
little likelihood, indeed, of any enemy approaching
their commercial centre. The Potomac is an im
mense wet ditch, only to be approached at three
places for 40 miles, unless roads are made over the
mountains and masses of rock covered with forest
which form its banks from Harper's Ferry to Wash-
ington almost uninterruptedly. On all the points
where an army could be thrown across there arc
corps of observation posted, except at Harper's
Ferry, where the bridge is destroyed, and the Mary-
land shore easily commanded and reached by the
troops, which could be transported thither before
an enemy could establish himself in force. The
Confederates are suffering much from sickness;
but the worst part of the season is yet to come, and

the South rings with applications for warm cloth-
ingonedicines, shoes, and similar necessaries for her
froopr. Here, where the Federalists have supplies
close at hand, there is a good deal of sickness, and
it is increasing. Buildings are added to the number
of those hired as hospitals, and fill up as fast as they
are ready. Indeed, what can be expected when
men, often ill clad, are obliged to lie out at
night; on their arms, under the semi-tropical rains
at this season of the South, and are baked in the
day by a broiling sun ? Any one who rides along the
Canal banks, or the margin of any sheet of water
which affords facilities for bathing, will not fail to
perceive that, though the men are not indifferent to
cleanliness, shirts and clothing require much inves-
tigation aid pursuit of insect life on the part of the
wearers hifore they can be put on; and some of the
regimen*, -such as the 2d Wisconsin, whom I saw
marehipop day, exhibit a great number of siekly-
looking faces and debilitated frames—far different
from their appearance when I first saw them. The
Confederates, I think, must suffer in a still greater
degree, and though the Southern gentleman may
come North in summer to recruit his strength at the
watering-places, the men in camp will not find
exposure to cold nights and hot suns and the ad-
vancing rigours of autumnal and winter weather at
all conducive to health in Northern Virginia. What-
ever the military value of Washington may be,
there can be no question that those who are happy
enough to live in it are exposed to some disadvan-
tages at the same time, in consequence of the alarms
of war to which they are subject. Every gun-fire
sends a thrill through the city. The people run out
to the door steps and to the windows—others get
on the roofs of their houses—some cluster on the
front of the public buildings and gather on the lefty
rising grounds. Soon Rumour comes with a tre-
mendous twanging long bow and lets off awful
squibs and crackers among the men and women,
along the avenues, and up the by-streets and nar-
row lanes. Sometimes he is disguised as a gentle-
man of the press, and does a little bit of " local
news" for a second edition ; occasionally he is an
officer from just round the corner who knows all
about the fight, and can tell the exact number of the
killed and wounded ; and anon he is a " highest
authority"—a clerk in a warfaring department, or
a respectable-looking old citizen, or one who bas

"this moment come in from the vicinity of the
slaughter." It is no joke to be living in the way
of this universal toxophilite practice ; but the
excitement subsides as soon as it is created. I often
wonder what state of things in the Great Republic
will those little children live to see whose memories
of childhood will be filled with the thunder of can-
non, the blast of trumpets, the march of armed men,
the flint and steel, waving of flags, and clink of
spur and sabre—all those tiny Zouaves and pretty
Union maidens, with their red, white, and blue
sashes and ribands, who are now passing thought-
lessly and happily through the most fearful periods
enb know.ly hav e
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policemen for wearing treasonable
beau knots on their aprons, and sporting Secession
and Confederate colours round their necks.
To day there were two alarms, the first about 2
o'clock. One was created by firing across the river,
which died away, and proved to be from the guns
in the works, which it was deemed desirable to re-
load. About four o'clock th 3 noise of a cannonade up
the river towards the Chain-bridge roused every
one again, and, in spite of the rain and threatening
weather, the people got on the house tops. Gen.
M'Clellan and his Staff rode at full speed to the
bridge, which is about five miles distant, but before
they arrived the affair was over, and the General
arrived only itf time to hear the cheers of the troops
,returning from the field. I never heard in Ame-
rica more entb usiastic and vigorous cheering than
marked their return to camp, and their reception of
the General, who has evidently become most popu•
lar with the men in spite, or in consequence of, his
strictness. -The particulars of the affair will be
found in the American papers—in brief, General.
M'Clellan, anxious to find out what force the Con-

federates were in before the Chain-bridge, directed
a reconnaissance partly for that purpose and partly
tb enable the engineers to take a sketch of the
ground in front. Accordingly, a force of 1,900 men,
with four guns and two troops of cavalry, moved
cut from their camp on the south side of the Poto-
mac at seven o'clock fI.M., and marched to Lewins-
vine, a village four miles out on the road, W:ICLC2
roads proceed towards Fairfax, Falls Church and
Leesburgh, seeing merely a few cavalry videttes on
their way. Having posted the men so as to cover
the reconnoissance, Lieut. Poe, United States' To-
pographical Engineer, and Lieut. West, United
States' Coast Survey, made a careful sketch of the
ground, with a view to an advance at some future
time. They were not interrupted, although the
enemy's cavalry could be seen in the distance. The
survey over the pickets were recalled, and the force
at three o'clock was marching towards camp on its
way back, when the enemy, who had succeeded
unperceived in moving down a battery on the
flank of the column, within 1,500 yards of it,
opened on it with a shell, and, at the same time,
commenced a fusilade from concealed skirmishers.
The United States' guns returned the fire ; a
32-pounder and reinforcements poured towards the
spot from General Smith's camp, and the
Confederate guns were silenced after a brisk
exchange of rifled shot and shell, The at-
tempt to cut off the reconnaissance was completely
foiled, and the Federalists returned to camp with
the loss of two officers wounded, five men killed, and
12 wounded. General M'Ulellan in his sho-t offizial
despatch says, " We shall have no more Bull Run
affairs." There might have been a general action
very readily created out of this affair, but I cannot
see how the Federalists could have failed to inflict a
defeat on their opponents. As I was returning, two
batteries of artillery and seven battalions of infan-
try were advancing rapidly under General :tip Call
towards the bridge from the camp at Tinnally town,
in order to support General Smith's force, which is
now strongly entrenched at the Virginia side, and
has also thrown up a powerful fieldwork on a site
commanding the surrounding country. The orders
here are not to do anything to bring on a general
engagement at present.

FRIDAY MORNING, Sept. 13.
There are reports in the journals this morning of
a defeat and rout of Floyd, the Secessionist General,
by Rosencranz, near Summerville, in Western Vir-
ginia, on the 11th of September, and the affair is
called, as usual, " a brilliant victory ;" but the victo-
rious General makes no such assertion, and his mo-
dest despatch would rather imply that he received a
check in his attack on the enemy, who retired dur-
ing the night, and crossed the Gauley without mo-
lestation in the face of a superior force, who were
not aware of his movements till informed of it by a
runaway contraband next morning. The Confede-
rates must, however, have been in a bad position
and have suffered considerably,otherwise they would
not have abandoned their camp equipage, two stands
of colours, and a quantity of military stores, and it
is probable they were inferior in force to the Fede-
ralists. From 3 o'clock till nightfall the latter en-
deavoured to find their way to the Confederate
position, but as they had marched 17 miles before
they attacked they were completely exhausted just
as they were about to assault; and at last General
Rosencranz withdrew and fell back, re infecta, with a
loss of 120 killed and wounded. As the enemy have
carried off their guns and their wounded at leisure
they may be considered as a dangerous element in

Western Virginia at the other side of the Gaul,
ready, perhaps, to be troublesome on the frontier
of Kentucky. Here is another of those battles or
slow skirmishes which are only great in consequence
of the number of men engaged in them, which are
characteristic of this war. Rosener Inz is an officer
of very good reputation. Floyd is well known as
the Secretary of War under the last Administra-

ion. The latter takes ground amid woods and in-

trenches himself, with a river rushing through a
deep gorge in his rear, for the mere purpose, it
would appear, of fighting, because he 'could have
crossed if he liked, inasmuch as he had the means
of making a bridge, which he used in retiring next
night, and had a ferry at his disposal also. The
attack fails. Then Floyd crosses by the bridge and
the ferry, and destroys the former and the boats of
the latter. Rosencranz, though his men had been
resting all night, refuses to follow, the "troops
being still much fatigued," and there being " no
material for immediately replacing the bridge," and
he therefore thought it "prudent to encamp."
Neither Federalist nor Confederate will gain much
at this rate. Nor is the retreat of General Green, of
the Secessionist army, before General Pope of the
Union army,in Missouri, of much more consequence
in reference to the ultimate objects of the war. All
such operations are in the interests of the Peace
party. It may be true that there are 300,000 men
under arms on both sides in a small area, but as yet

they are immobile, and have only a sort of vis inertue
which enables them to resist attack. When the
news of Rosencranz having defeated Floyd came in

last night there was a gloom over the "best houses"
here, for, despite arrests, oath•taking, dismissals,
and various forms of purgation, there is still a very
strong air of Southern " disloyalty" left among the
Washingtonians. Indeed, so strong is it that a paper
published here in the interests of the Government
finds it necessary to rebuke and denounce the fair
traitor in the following strain, and if imprisonment
cannot convert them perhaps a course of leaders
will have a better effect :

" No one Who is not residing here, and con-
vincing himself with his own eyes and ears, will
believe that one-half of the women of Washington
clap their hands over every rebel success, predict
Beauregard's speedy occupation of the capital,
and are preparing to illuminate their windows on
the occasion. Yet this is the truth. A portion of
them act thus because they have relatives or lovers
in the Southern army; the remainder because
secession has a certain sneaking fashionableness
among the women ; because Southerners in Wash-
ington have for years worn great diamonds, given
great parties, gambled greatly, and been generally
and magnificently vicious. The odour of the reck-
less dissipation, so long the false and feverish life of
Washington, still taints and corrupts all places.
Impurity, treachery, scorn of virtue, still flaunt
through the capital, and it will take many years'
influx of healthy Northern sentiment to drive them
out of sight."
Suppose your own correspondent had written such
an eloquent little sketch of American ladies—the
belles of the capital of the United States ! The

Anglo-Saxon is very much the same all over the
world in some respects, His peculiarities are, per-
haps, intensified in this continent. The American
muse, refusing absolutely to provide anything good
or new as a national anthem, even though invoked

in the name of Dollar the Omnipotent, has taken to

a good deal of writing anent Bull's Run, and one
4, poem" this morning, in describing the retreat,

breaks into this fashion :
" Backward rolls the living tide,
" Surging like the Stygian wave,
" Horse and rider terrified—
" Lost is honour, home, and grave. _
G
" Backward sweeping—backward sweeping—
" Des) and dying left behind,
" Madly shrieking, wildly weeping,
" Friend nor foe can mercy find."
It would be a curious but not a grateful task to
cull the flowers of rhetoric in the wide-spread garden
of abuse, accmation, and invective, that spring bp
all over the States in reference to that same retreat.
from Manassas. When the stain is to be effaced it

is not possible to say, but I am disposed to think
General M'Clellan will do it when he does move,
_ _

if his troops axe properly led by their regimental
officers.

The officers of the regular army, however Much
they may love the Uoicop, , do, not, as a body, love
the present Government. On the contrary, they

regard the greater number of the Cabinet with
aversion and detest their principles. It is hard for
men to fight for a cause with good heart, and at the

same time hold in contempt those who have that
cause in hand at the moment. I was talking to au