The Portland daily press., 1862-07-09

The ne,cs from the Peninsula-Efect of the
capture of Richmond notc-Edrnestness of
the Rebets-7he Peninsula Cdmpaign-1he
killed and rounded.
WASHINGTON, July Sd, 1862.
The news received to-day has dispeIed much
of the uncertainty and fear which rested upon
all in regard to the capture of our army in the
Peninsula. The battles of Monday aud Tues
day, heavy and bloody, seem to have resulted
in positive repulses of the enemy.
The fighting, however, we must expect to be
resumed tomorrow and the next day, to con-
tinue until the rebel hopes of saving Rich
mond are forever dead. They attack. No
other course is left them. They must defeat
Mcclellan in his position or he inevitibly has
their capitol, pushing towards it as he has been,
with heavy artillery, before which its defences
cannot stand day. Now, more than ever, is
it their necessity to assail him, since his new
move threatens Fort Darling. This taken, to
remove the Instructions in the river near it,
and to carry the dreaded gunboats up to the
city, is a matter of no long delay.
doubt not but that at the time Gen. Nc
Clellan first reached the Peninsula it was the
design of the rebel leaders to evacuate Rich
mond without battle. The tone of the Rich
mond newspapers satisfies me that such deter
mination was then formed. They did not be-
liere they could hold the james rirer against
our ndrdt forces. But, unexpectedly to them,
our vessels, even our iron-clad impregnables,
were repulsed at Fort Darling. Moreover,
Gen. McClellan's advance had been necessarily
slow, whence they have taken courage, and
had ample time to change their mind and re-
construct new plans. The clamor of Virginia
against abandoning its capital, has had weight,
also, and now, from all these reasons, and from
others which need not be discussed. the deter
mination to defend the city has been taken,
and it is carried-out with vigor and skill,
with daring and sacrifices, which throw lurid
CLEANS of an unholy glory around wretched
cause.
But their first design, that of abandoning
Richmond without serious resistance, was the
wiser one, and no doubt their more sagacious
men see it in that light They would have re-
tired to some inland point, and proclaimed
such retirement strategic operation. Max
ing their new centre of operations at Lynch
burg or some other point, they would have
compelled us, in the heat of Southern sum-
mer, to have carried our columns a hundred
miles inland and our fianks exposed for that
distance to their daring raids. Thus, no daubt,
they might for months and months kept us at
bay. When we have seen that Cen McClel-
lan's army, with its centre not over twenty
miles from its water base, 1.-THE White House
on the Pamunky,) has been entirely ridden
around, and its lines broken through and cross
ed by the eneIny's cavalry and artillery, we
may judge what serious dangers, annoyances
and disasters ii would have been exposed to
in the hundred miles of advance that must
have lain between Richmond and the point in
land the enemy might have selected at which
to make a stand.
The enemy's capital in our possession under
such circumstances, would have brought no
sound claim of success to our arms. and but
indifferent moral results. The unfortunate as
pect of such fact would have been explained
away to the satisfaction of the people of the
South, as well as TO that of the more civilized
and contemplate enemies of Republican in
sutuuohs, WIN hi Europe are enjoying our
misfortunes and auguring cur overthrow.
But now we believe the thing has changed.
and auspiciously for us. The enemy has con-
centrated his best troops-all he can command
to defend his capital. Deer the dead bodies
Of the brdrest men Of the South ,re ,cade in
blood 10 Richmond. To take a capital thus
defended, is an event of such moral and mate
rial significance will go far to end the war.
We delude ourselves when we expect or hope
for easy conquest over the South. The war is
great one-materially, and in its results, the
grandest the world has ever seen. The South
are in earnest. They hate the North, hate the
country, hate republican institutions-they are
brave, bloody and barbarian, and they must be
caught and killed before there can be peace in
the land.
DIR. Foulker, editor of the Memphis Ava
lanche, one of the best informed men in the
South, writes in that paper, June 30th, that "a
new programme has been determined upon by
the confederate leaders, who are preparing
themselves for tremendous effort. They
consider that the territory recently given up
has weakened the North and correspondincly
Strengthened the South. They expect to hold