The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1861.

THE CIVIL WAR IN AM.E.RIC.I.

something more than distinctions without diffe-

( From the Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, AUG. 20.
The anxiety which existed to learn the effect on
Europe, and especially on England, of Bull's Run,
has at least been appeased by the receipt of the
mails. Why there was any such intense feeling on
the point it is not easy to see, as any person could
have foretold what the effect would be. Bat, never-
theless, there is an expression of anger and disap-
pointment at the result. Although the language used
by the Americans in their own journals was far
stronger than any which has appeared in the English
papers, and although Congressmen and editors wrote
in terms of the utmost contempt and sarcastic indig-
nation respecting the behaviour of the troops at the
close of the day and in the rout, it is taken in ill
part that any such freedom of expression should be
exhibited by foreigners. It will be remembered that
in the account I wrote of the panic I expressly
stated that my letter did not refer to the behaviour
of the troops in action, and that I left the Americans
to give their own account of the fight, merely adding
that I had been informed their behaviour in the
advance and in the early part of the day had been
exceedingly creditable. The battle was fought on
the 21st of July, and it was midnight before I reached
my quarters in Washirrgtou, after a very long and
harassing day, and a distressing ride on a horse
which had gone over 60 and odd miles of ground in
17 or 18 hours. On Monday night I was obliged to
close my despatch in order to send it off by the 4
a.m. train on Tuesday morning by special courier to
catch the steamer for England, which left Boston
on Wednesday. It was obviously impossible to do
more than record my impressions, nor could I correct
any errors on my part or that of others. The reports
of the generals since published give an excellent
account in detail of all the different views of the
action along the whole line, and they do not appear
to be much at variance with anything I felt it my
duty to state. Now, it would be well if in giving
accounts of warlike operations the writers were to
make themselves acquainted with the meaning of
plain military terms. We should then hear less
of " charges," and " masked batteries," And such
stuff. It is not at all likely that " desperate con-
flicts," in which two men are killed on one side and
a horse is captured on the other, will disappear
from print, or that similar exaggerations will cease
to entrap the unwary when appearing in large type
in the sensation headings of the journals; but there
is a considerable chance that a people so high-
spirited, so sensitive of ridicule, and so proud as the
Americans, will gradually correct the tendency to
deal in language which exposes them to that which
they most dislike. It is not to be supposed for one
moment that the American people cannot furnish
the materials of as fine an army as the world could
produce. No one questions the gallantry of their
race. They combine the " furia Francese" with
the cold courage of the Anglo-Saxon. But in their
contests they have been made to feel that no de-
pendence can be placed on mere personal bravery,
in which most men are equal in a military sense, as
spoken of by Jornini and other writers, and that
bravery plus discipline cannot ever fail to prove
more than an equation for the same quality minus
discipline. The history of their great struggle with
England is full of examples of panics and flights
alternating will desperate and steady fighting.
The Connecticut Militia were now to blame; at
another time it was the troops of North Carolina;
again it was the men of Pennsylvania who fled ;
and Washington had once at least the mortifica-
tion of seeing the troops of the latter State march
off home on the eve of a fight, and from the face of
an enemy, just as M'Dowell was abandoned by the
men of the 4th Pennsylvanian Regiment and the
gunners and officers of various batteries on the night
and morning preceding Bull's Run. At a later
period the Reces of Bladensburg took place, and in
the Mexican war more than once the Volunteers
justified by their conduct the exclamation of an
officer of ranl. who said to me, "For my sins I com-
manded Vol mteers in Mexico, and—God help me !
—I shall ha4e to do it again." It is the same story all
over the world when civilians are called into action
without miitary discipline. There can be no de-
pendence ;laced on ill-drilled and badly-officered
Volunteersin line of battle. Sedgemoor, Vinegar-
hill, Culloeen, and the early fights of the French
Revolutiorists on the frontier tell the same story
without asparagement to Englishman, Irishman,
Seotehmaa, or Frenchman.
But it will be said the South ought to show the
influence of the same defects as the North. The
defects do not exist in anything like the same de-
gree. The Southern armies contain a larger propor-
tion of men who have been accustomed to command
and to otey than the Northern armies. They are
under better discipline, because they fight with
more animosity, and they have been more habi-
tuated to military life. The social distinctions
which exist in the South between rich and poor,
between landed proprietors and their dependants,
extend their influences to the field. No Southern
company would, if it could, elect a mere bour-
geois, t shopkeeper, or the keeper of a house of
ill-farm, to be an officer. There are some Southern
States such as South Carolina, which have been
drillirg their militia for years, and in others the
fear of servile insurrection has created military or-
ganisations of infantry and cavalry which are now
in the service of the Confederates, fighting con amore
against the Abolitionists. They are more used to
arms than the bulk of the Northern populations,
excepting those of the Western States. There is no
" shipping on the back" of officers by privates, such
as I have seen in the Northern regiments in the
streets. The Sohn Brown raid gave an impulse to
all the military systems of the South, and prepared
them for this conflict. In Southern towns and
counties there exists a system of patrols and armed
police unknown in the North, and the parade of
armed force before the slaves was a necessary re-
gait of their condition. In a word, my words of
warning that it would be necessary to handle the
troops of the North with very great caution and
skill in the face of the Confederates have as yet
been borne out to the letter. But they are not
better or stronger men. The poor whites of the
seaboard slave States may be fairly set against
the inferior population of the Northern cities, and
the Secessionist levies of Tennessee may find their
match in the men of Illinois and lowa. If the war
continues discipline will do its work with the United
States armies, and then the question will resolve
itself into one of numbers and position. At the
present moment there is not, as far as I can
judge, outside of the regulars, and one or two crack
regiments, a single battalion which could be relied
on to form into square to receive a charge of cavalry
under a heavy fire with any regularity or success.
And this brings me back to what I was saying con-
cerning the use or abuse of military terms.
" Charges" are not mere " advances" of horse or
foot, as may be seen by a reference to Decker, Bar-
dier, Burn, or Faye. A " battery" means either a
work covering and defended by guns, guns them-
selves in the field, or a division of artillery ; and it
does not follow that a battery was "masked" be-
cause it was not observed till it opened fire. It is
only when artificial obstacles or screens of brush-
wood are used, which are thrown down when the
guns open, that the word " masked" can be pro-
perly applied to guns, and it is seldom or never
used in reference to field pieces unlimbered in woods,
and moved from time to time during the action.
So far as I can learn, there was only one work
defended by them in the immediate front of the
Federalists at Bull's Run, and that was the earth
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rences. •
The first part of the campaign has 'been played
out. That it,has ended disastrously for 'the Fede-
ralists is to be attributed, in my mind, to the impa-
patience and ignorance of the politicians who
forced the military leaders to precipitate advances
for which they were not prepared. Up to the
time of taking an aggressive movement all had gone
well for the Union. The principal army in front of
Washington was learning its duties, and could lie
there in perfect safety. It occupied the soil of Vir-
ginia from Alexandria to the extreme western limits
of the State. M'Clellan and Patterson had defeated
the Secession leaders or forced them back. from the
Valley of Virginia, and Johnson had taken up his
post at Winchester with no other view than to
join Johnston and Beauregard in case of their
being pressed. Butler extended the limits
of his command in another part of the
State from Fortress Monroe to Hampton and
Newport News. Lyon and Siegel, moving with
caution, were gradually recovering Missouri to
the Union. But there was no pleasing the violent
and ignorant men who had the ears of the Coun-
cillors at Washington. They wanted immediate
action. They cried out ".On to Richniond " when
they could scarcely march to Manassas': The army,
once set in motion, had to go on. It fiew back in
fragments, and the work has all to be done over
again. In the moment of Lyon's earlier successes
I heard a Senator declare that it was not the Gene-
ral at all, but a politician who was with him as
officer of a regiment, who had done all the work,
and he implied that if General Scott were simi-
larly blessed, and subjected to the action of a poli-
tician of tact ana decision, similar triumphs would
have been gained in Virginia. Now see the result.
The cause of the Union has received a heavy blow
and great discouragement, while that of disunion
has been proportionably advanced. There is
greater apprehension at this moment of an attack
on Washington than at any former time since I
have been here. General Wool, the successor of
General Butler, who was obliged to abandon Hamp-
ton, in consequence of the withdrawal of his
troops, to strengthen the army of the Potomac
after the battle of Bull's Run, is almost hemmed in
at Fortress Monroe, and is uneasy about his outly-
ing troops at Newport News. Harper's Ferry is
evacuated by the Federalists, who are concentrat-
ing, under Banks, about Point-of-Rocks, lower
down the river, and are anxious about Frederick
itself and Western Maryland. Lyon killed, his
army routed, Siegel repulsed with slaughter, the
Federalists retreating as fast as they can, the Se-
cessionists pursuing them—all that had been
gained in Missouri utterly lost for the time, the
army of the Potomac driven back to take refuge
within its lines—these things tell their own tale,
and are the best rebuke of the presumptuous men
who cast aside the lessons of experience and mili-
tary science that they might gratify their passion
and impatient desire to overcome their enemies.
They have been only saved by the weakness of
their antagonists, who as yet have developed as
little vigour in following up an advantage as if
they had been old and respectable generals on our
own home model, aided by regular councils of war.
The aggressive campaign has ended thus far un-
successfully for the North. The second part is yet to
come. Which will be the aggressor this time in the
fight is yet to be seen, but the indications are that
the South will try its hand in an offensive move-
ment, and, if it does, the North will, I think, have
its revenge for Bull's Run, and, may be, a balance
to its credit on the other side. Whatever may be
the object in view it is certain that the Government
at Richmond is acting as if it intended to create
apprehensions in Washington, and thereby animate
its friends, and they are exceedingly numerous in
Maryland. There has been a gradual advance of
the Confederates towards the Upper Potomac, and
their outposts have been at the same time ostenta
tiously drawn back from thevipkilty of the Federal
lines. A strong force is it—sista. lying near Win-
chester, which is on the rail to Harper's Ferry, and
at Strasburg, which is on the rail from Manassas.
Another corps is, according to several accounts,
close to Leesburg, the terminus of the rail to Alex-
andria, and another strong corps lies between
Fairfax Courthouse and Alexandria, resting on
Manassas, and covering the roads to Washington
and the town of Alexandria. A considerable
number of scows and large flat-bottomed boats
have been collected in the creeks of the Potomac
below Washington, and it is suspected that there
are batteries at Mathias Point, which commands
the channel of the river at a projecting spur about
55 miles below the capital, but that as yet they
have held their tongues. At Acquia Creek, from
which the rail to Richmond, by which passengers
and traffic were usually carried in times gone by
from Washington, runs, there have been batteries
for a long time past, and it is now believed there
is a camp there, and a considerable increase to the
works. The scows, collected to the number of
500, could be loaded with guns, cavalry, and
infantry with ease, and many of them could
carry a company complete at a trip. The channel
of the river runs on an average within range of rifled
ordnance, and there is no doubt that the Confederates
are making ordnance of that nature at the Rich-
mond Foundry. From Port Tobacco, on the bank
of the Potomac, opposite Mathias Point, a march
of 25 miles would bring the Confederates behind
Washington, on the line of rail between the capital
and Baltimore and Annapolis. But the country is
difficult, intersected with streams, and ill-provided
with roads and means of communication. It is
affirmed that the Confederates could not advance
because they had no transport, and that they are
now in possession of a proper train ; but any
attempt to cross the river now would be very diffi-
cult, owing to the activity of the Government in
purchasing vessels and hastily fitting them out as
steam gunboats, to neutralise which the enemy
must erect strong batteries with guns of long range
to clear the river—a work of time if it can be done
at all. The hopes of the Secessionists are kept alive
by rumours, a sort of food which is by no means
healthy in these parts. Meantime the North is in
such a mood that the Government is encouraged to
proceed to the most extreme acts in repressing
opinions hostile to their measures. It is now a
crime against the United States to denounce the
war, or even to cry aloud for peace, and there is a
spirit abroad which promises to make the struggle
last as long as men and money can be found to
bring it to an end, The hardy fishermen who are
fostered by a system of bounties on the North-eastern
shores of the New England States have tendered
their services at sea to the Government, and the offi-
cers and men of the Mercantile Marine have also
great body of
brave placed
saati tohr
se dwi shpoo swa ol f s
ot
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ne
men-of-war's men, as good as can be needed for the
bneavgyooad Banners and
work they have to do. The army under M'Clellan
is at least as strong as that which was under
M'Dowell, and there cannot be less than 55,000 men
around Washington this moment, without including
the force under Banks. There is an abundant sup-
ply of sailors for such ships as the Government can
provide, and they are determined to act on the
rivers as well as on the seacoast the moment they
can do so. The following is a description of the
gunboats which are required for the former work
in the Government tenders and specifications :
" The load draught of water not to exceed 6 feet
9 inches, to be armed with two rifled guns of
7,0001 b. each, one at each end of the vessel; also
with two 12-pound howitzers
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dish
observe a strict neutrality. It was next alleged that
she would force the blockade for the sake of the vital

necessity "cotton." Now, when it is pretty clear
that she will do nothing of the kind on that account,
she is accused of atrocious designs on the whole
Republic, and it is said that her conduct in not
forcing the blockade is accounted for by her desire
to see the North and South waste each other in a
prolonged war. In the same way her refusal to
force the blockade for cotton and her desire to ren-
der herself independent of the semi-monopoly of the
South is said to arise fromsher hatred to America
generally. In fact these men are frantic because
England gives them no pretext for anything but
vulgar insolence. In the present state of the public
mind, as expressed by the tone of the papers, it is
quite evident that there is an incapacity, produced
by passion, to distinguish falsehood-from truth, and
a profound judicial blindness, feigned or real, among
the public instructors. For instance, • one paper
accepts, or pretends to accept, the most ridiculous
statements in, or said to be in one of the letters from
the South seized on Mr. Mure. There is, of course,.
the usual sensation heading,—" English Neutrality
—Startling Development," and then comes an
extract from the intercepted letter, to the effect
that " Mr. B." showed the writer confidentially my
letter about the battle of Bull's Run. The pro-
bability or possibility of the fact is never thought
of for a moment; it is a peg to weave a string of
lies, upon, though the journal in question is au-fad
at making whole cloths of these articles without
any pegs at all. On the same authority the State
Department is actually called upon not to lose a
moment in demanding an • explanation from
Lord Lyons respecting some statment in
the same letter that the nomme B. and
Mr. Bouligny had sent Mr. Trescott
(who was Under-Secretary of State during Mr.
Buchanan's administration) to Mr. Jeffer-
son Davis, at Richmond, to ask him to accept the
doctrine that the neutral flag covers goods not con-
traband of war, which "is a step of direct treat-
ing with our Government." Another paper takes
comfort in comparing the loss in killed of the small
assaulting column of the English at the Redan with
the loss of the Whole Federal army in the battle of
Bull's Run, and finds that the former was 386, and
the latter 480—whence it concludes that either both
were " awfal conflicts" alike, or both were " sham
battles." In the same way it is sought to irritate
and excite ill-feeling against your correspondent by
wilfully ignoring the express words of his letter in
reference to Bull's Run, in which he distinctly
stated that he left it to American journals to de-
scribe the fighting, and that he only related what
he saw with his own eyes. This, too, is done by
papers which freely applied the words "cowardice,"
"disgrace," "infamy," and such opprobrious epi-
thets to the conduct of the army itself and its officers,
and quoted the words of United States " honour-
ables" narrating their impressions, far stronger than
any I used, with evident complacency. These people
know in their hearts that I never impeached the
courage of those who fought, but that I did endea-
vour to describe the terror of the flignt and the panic
of those who ran. If they succeed in their object I
cannot help it, but they may depend upon one
thing—that nothing, while I have life, will induce
me to suppress what I believe to be the truth, and
that all they can do is to add another to the proofs
that freedom of speech and thought can be rendered
unsafe and dangerous in the land of freedom of
speaking and thinking. As if not to be outdone
in extravagance, some of the Southern papers are
calling out for the expulsion of the Consuls of the
European Powers which have not acknowledged the
Confederacy, and in the face of the blockade, which
will soon be rigid enough, are using the most absurd
language as to their might and power, and the
power of the " cotton press " over all the world.
With the exception of their great success in Missouri
the political event; in the border States have been
unfavourable to the Confederates ; but the signs
of dissension and trouble in the North, on the
other hand, are alarming to those who can read the
' signs of the times. The State Democratic Conven-
tion in Maine has split on the question of peace or
war, and a great animosity exists on that very
question in larger circles in other States. Kentucky
is distracted in her attempts to preserve a strict
neutrality and to follow the example of France and
England.
The answer of the Union men of Western Virginia
to the threats of the Congress at Richmond, and to
the acts of the Richmond dis• Union party, has been
given by the Convention at Wheeling, which has
decided on forming a new State, to be called
" Kanawha," which shall be created or rejected by
the people on the. 24th of October; but meantime
the Confederates are likely to interfere.
Another attempt will be made to recover Western
Virginia, and there is reason to think that General
Robert Lee, the best of the Secessionist leaders, has
been detached to direct the movement, and is now
moving across the mountains from Monterey to
Beverley, whence he can threaten Grafton on the
junction of the railroad communications from
Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Mary-
land. The traces of the authority of the Federal
Government in Texas are fast vanishing. The
commander of Fort Filmore surrendered with 500
men to the Texans about the end of last month, and
fighting, apparently with a result unfavourable to
the Federalists, had been going on near Mecilla.
However, I have reason to think that endeavours
will be made to attack the Secessionists in Texas
from a point which they little anticipate, and as to
which I am not now at liberty to say anything more.
There are many questions unfortunately arising
which tend to create embarrassment between the
Government of the United States and foreign
powers, mainly due to the anomalous position and
claims of the former, and, it must be added, to the
impropriety and indiscretion of the subjects of
foreign Powers who are called upon to follow a
strict neutrality.
The seizure of the British vessel Adelisa, bound
to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by the United States'
revenue yacht Henrietta, at Newport, Rhode Island,
opens two very nice questions with France and
England at one and the same time; for, not only
was the vessel seized because she had sailed from a
Confederate States' port—Wilmington, in North
Carolina—which was not blockaded, but a French
subject, M. Bebian, was arrested, subjected, as he
complains, to personal indignities, and finally sent
as prisoner to Fort Lafayette. I believe the cutter
in question was a yacht belonging to the son of
the notorious proprietor of a New York paper, and
was received into the United States' service in the
time of their need on the condition that the son
aforesaid should be provided with a commission of a
lieutenant in the United States' navy. The seizure
of newspapers by the order of the Government, and
the attacks on the democratic newspapers by the
mobs of the North, the institution of the passport
system, the constant surveillance of police, and
opening of letters, are all symptoms of the horrors
of the civil war in the great republic. The grand
mistake which the Americans have made is that
they thought great increase of wealth and popula-
tion
w were
proofsmm e
ns e ofr
material
at e
ri soliditya l prosperityand
f 0 r
'they
mistook
good
government. They imagined that the growth of
cities, the spread of dominion, the extension of
commerce, were all the hostages, a nation could
give to fortune, overlooking the principle that the
security of life and property, and the freedom of
opinion, were the true test of a people's happiness
and of a perfect civilisation.

As I predicted and apprehended, the defeat has
developed mob violence in the North, and outrages
on freedom of speech—tarring, feathering, and
destruction of :property for opinion's sake—have
taken place in the New England States, which
leave on the people a stain of barbarism as large
and deep as that which rests on the Slave States
for similar brutal and atrocious acts. God defend
us from mob law !

AUGUST 23.
A month has elapsed since the battle of Bull's

ledged to be at the head of a belligerent Power, to
accede to the princi pies accepted by the great Powers
at the end of the R.'assian war, respecting which Mr.
Seward's own views had undergone remarkable
modifications since this gre it contest began. There
i 3 a tenacity in the Government and people of the
United States in maintaining their pretensions,
while in their acts they scarcely bear out one of
them, which is cuaious and significant. Thus, for
example, although. they do not venture to execute
their threats and fdaeir captured pirates, they refuse
to acknowledge the Confederates as other than re-
bels, and leave their prisoners to pine away in con-
finement sooner than ask for an exchange, which
would seem to admit t that the Confederates were alien
enemies. The autho Titles are all working with energy
to bring every power to play against the South, and,
as they consider it important to prevent communica-

tions between the Confederates and their Commis-
sioners in Europe cEr their friends here, they have re-
solved henceforth t,o stop and board all the steamers
outside the ports, a t id place officers on board of them
to look out for suspicious persons. But what can
they do when ladies will wad their crinolines with
percussion caps, littl carry galvanic batteries in
their tender boson s?—when they hug sulphuric
acid under their arms, and wear stays of copper
wire ?—when they pad their petticoats with re-
volvers, and swell their stocking legs with quinine?
Yesterday there was a review of Gen. Anowell's
division by Gen. 111-Tlellan at the other Side of the
Potomac. I rode over in the forenoon, and found
the troops drawn lip in the meadows which extend
from the river tomvards the tete de pont. The sen-
tries on the Long-b •ridge examined the passes closely.
One effect of the rc ;cent orders in relation to passei
has been to dimini sh the number of people on the
bridge and on the roads to the camps very much ;
but there are great; quantities of carts and waggons
on the move, and it looks as if the authorities were
determined there should be no want of transport.
No army in the world has finer horses than those
which have been colic ‘cted by the activity and efforts
of the Quartermastei ...General Meigs. Prince Na-
poleon was much s truck with their superiority.
The carts are almost equally good and numerous.
There can be no ward of horses for their cavalry, or
for remount horses, as long as the attelage is
are the
as
good. But finer than either horses or carts
men. With the 03x ception of such regime