New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-12-31
Letter from VIRGINIA.
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Special to the New Orleans Crescent.l 49,

| after thousand. deceptions were fools enough {
believe the story about two Yankee regiment
fighting each other for three hours. The truth il
the Yankees, instead of whipping each other, whiI
ped us at Dranesvile. Anyhow, we came o
second best. To be aure the odds-four brigade
to less than four fall regiments enormous
We lost some valuable officers, about thirty prison
ers, and considerable prestige.
The affair made US feel as blue as the breeehe
of the Confederate uniform for day or two TO
the disaster on our side at first as grossly ex
| aggerated as the Yankees will make 1t. But nov
that We know better, we feel better. am not 0
those who blame Gen. Stuart for giving battle OIL
| this occasion. Daring and aggressive war ough
to characterize Southern men or they ought not t.
| fight at al. Our repulse at Drainesville may en-
| courage the Yankees to make general assault
and also stiffen the Gorilla spine against England
So, on the whole, the fight will do US good.
| From England the tidings continue to be all tina
we could ask. Passengers on the Gordon, wht
| ran the double blockade at Nassau and again OF
our own coast, bring the most cheering intelligence
in regard to the feeling in England and in the Brit
| ish Bahamas. Stewards insoence, Giddings' mat
conduct in Canada, and the truly Austrian system
| OF espionage carried on in London by the Yankee
enssaries, had already inceused the British peo
| pie before the Trent outrage occurred. There ii
| to be no chaifering diplomacy about this outrage
| Lincoln must come down flat on his marrow bone
or fight. France it is pretty well settled will sus
| tain England Therefore, in the Language of thu
fellow at Bowling Green, when he heard the biz
| army of Gen. Buell. was coming, ''look out for
| h--ll Of 1aX-breaking ~
| Christmas is at hand with the usual accompan
ment of adjourned public bodies, egg-nogg frolics
| suppers at the rooms Of young men, and dances a.
the great hotels. very old and very literary
man, like your correspondent feels small interest
in these gaieties of light-hearted youth he much
prefers the soberer mrth which he has enjoyed fol
pf iiun fha iufnn Nv nrlir
Christmas Ode of the Crescents Incompatible
Poick." For gracious sake, don't let that fellow
| go to the wars and get killed. Col. Nixon is
war-risk" enough fer one Office to take.
1t ia singular fact that the name of Charles
Sumner is as odious III British in American his.
tory: Among the papers brought over in the
Gordon ls copy OF Reynolds Newspaper, the
organ of the working classes and very friendly to
the South. In this paper find very curious con.
tribution, entitled Prostitution as Means Of
Ecclesiastical Preferment" The writer, who signs
himself "Northumbrian," says that the Marchion-
ess of Conyngham was, with the consent of her
husband, the paramour of George the Fourth. She
was rewarded for her baseness with many titles
and jewels to the value of fS00O0. Her son. while
travelling in Switzerland, fell violently in love with
poor girl and wished to marry her. To enable
him to crafty his passion and to prevent m,esdl-
lance, his tutor and ellowtraseler, Charles Sum-
ner, himself married the girl. Grateful for this
infamy, the Marchioness of Conypgham exerted
herself so vigorously that Sumner rapidly rose
,
which still remains in the family and is worth G2O
900 year. ~
The promotion of Charles Summers brother,
John, followed his own, until the latter became
Archbishop OF Canterbury and Prmate of all Eng
land, and his descendants hold it to this day.
These instances, says the Northumbrian, afford a
wonderful Illustration of the potency of prostitu-
| ton in the procreation of pious preiates.n Even
more strange than that statement, made by this
writer, that nearly all positions in the British peer
age were attained by crime or by lust, is the
coincidence of two CHARLES SUMNER disgracing
two great nations and outragng civilization by
the Infamous means that made them distinguished
the one winning the highest honors of the English
church by voluntarily making himself the cuckold
OF peasant woman-the other winning and re.
tanning the high civic gift of seat in the American
Senate by cowardice so pitiful thatit is without
parallel in the annals of poltroonery-as if con-
cuplscence and mendacity had combined to dis
grace the nineteenth century, and to make the
Ango-SaXon race the butt for the contempt and
disgust of mankind throughout future ages.
We are too aptto regard our war troubles from
the narrow stand point of pure seishness, and to
think only of our own suf1erings. These are so nu-
merous and SO acute that we may well be excused
for feeling at once natural and irrepressibie. II we
think OF tie sutferings entaied other people by
the existing war, it is too often with no higher
motive than the procuration of the comfort to be
derived from the prospect of speedy termination
of hostilities. The following quotation from the
London Chronicle will serve to enlarge our vision,
and, while showing how vast the area of suffering
involved in our war, will at the same time enable
US to understand how closely the fortunes of
civilized nations are now and henceforth inter-
twined. At glance we obtain vivid conception
OF the noble citizenship in the great family of
nations to which every man Of every enlightened
country is destined and, in virtue of the indivi
dual craftsmanship which must hereafter be the
distinguishing mark of every intelligent man in the
Contederacy, we discover the pleasing analogy
between power checked by distribution, and war
mitigated, impeded, and arrested by the distrbu-
ton of suffering
"The presages Of desperate asinter are nluHipzy-
ing. Far and wide upon the continent, financial
clouds gather over the political and industrial
prospect. The new world conhagration threatens
to consume the materials Of prosperity to millions
on both sides of the Atlantic. At home the disas
trous prelude has already begun; forernnning, we
cannot but anticipate period of general suffering
in which, naturally and inevitably, the poorer
classes will endure the utmost bitterness of the
blight. Nor is it possible, notwithstanding the sin
cere reports of Sir Robert Peel to doubt that Ire
land will be called upon to undergo another ordeal
comparatively lenient perhaps, yet aggravated by
the diminished capacity Of England to relieve her.
We know that the fair weather prophets are augur-
ing differently; they subsst, of course, upon arti-
ficial condolences they are nothing if not declam-
ing about the uneXampled fortunes of the British
empire. But all this rhapsody will not set a single
mill going-will bring comfort to no Lancashire
cottage-Wil neither open cotton market nor
create cotton supply. Surveying the broad arena
of Europe can it be honestly affirmed that the as
peCtS Oh lne season are CnceTtul! Ilefe Is
panic, but, at the same time there is no approach
TO settlement of existing complications in Italy.
The French horizon is in all directions dark omi-
nous and melancholy. Austria stands upon the
brink of civil war, and Russia is returning to bar
barism. The French nation, notwithstanding com
mercal treaties, is not buying of US with any par.
ticuar enthusiasm. Turkey can hardly be kept
afoat; and elsewhere, statesmen must work inces-
sanity at the pumps to prevent the peace of Europe
from sinking into fathomIess depths of slaughter"
| cannot close this letter, long as it is, without
narratng an occurrence which happened some
days ago at Centreville. 1t was this !: Some
negroes, at work on the reads and Notifications,
took it into their heads one night to serenade Gen
Beauregard. Pleased with their performance, he
went to the window and asked them to sing al Nv
Maryland" the sweetest and most touching song
the war has yet produced. They were unable to
sing it. The next day Col. Jordan, Beauregard's
Adjutant, who has q printing press in his depart
ment, caused several copies of "My Maryland :"
to be struck off and sent to the members of the
First Maryland Regiment, many OF whom are
Vocaliss of the highest order. The hint was taken
and that night Cen Beauregard heard "My Mary
land' sung with the power and pathos which exiles
alone can give it. AT its close he stepped forward
and, in his modest, gentle way, said "Gentlemen,
thank you warmly for the very agreeable sere,
made you have given me-" The Malylanders,
knowing his quiet habits, and thinking he had said
all he intended to say, responded with three
cheers for Beauregard," and were about to return
to their camp. What was their surprise when he
called them TO stay, and unfurling flag, said