The New York herald., 1863-08-24

Grams have. therefore, been successful in ell
their movements. But they must not trust too
much to their lucky stars. If Stanton should
happen to turn his attention towards them, we
would not give much for their laurels Little
chance would they have before one who has
made such short work with the commanders
OF the Army of the Potomac
The discovery, therefore, is not to be dis
puted. Stanton must be, Stanton is the veri-
table American Napoleon. All former aspirants
to that title were mere charlatans, and, in COM
parlson to him, were simple apprentices to the
art OF war. All hail, Napoleon Stanton!
The Bombardmeat or Fort sumter-The
Effect Of Our Ftre-Modera Guns and
| Modern siegcs.
Our advices received yesterday by the Star
Of the South, from Charleston, are very in
teresting. According to these accounts and
rebel telegraphs Of the goth inst. our two hum
dred-pounder Parrot guns, directed by the
skilful hand of General Gilmore, were trans
forming Fort Sumter into mass of ruins, and
| probably ere this that work has been made un-
tenable to the enemy, and perhaps is now in
| the occupancy Of our troops Events thus far
have proven what has hitherto been theory,
that the heavy ordnance now used in our army
and navy will destroy any masonry fortifca-
ton, even at distance Of three thousand yards.
The ingenuity Of the present day is fairly
taxed to its utmost to produce new engines of
war, and almost every day brings to notice some
| new invention Of this description The present
rebellion has done more to develop these ma
chimes and prove their practicability than
thousand years Of theorizing and speculation.
Not only have we developed the best war ma
chimes, but have introduced new and important
systems of managing great armies, strategy,
tactics, and the manner Of conducting modern
sieges. Writing Of sieges reminds us Of their
indispensable concomtant, big guns. Since
the year 1854, when Sir VIM. Armstrong, in
England, commenced the construction of the
first piece of his great rifled ordnance
that was to revolutionize the use of those Of
anterior fabric, to the present day, scarcely
month passes that the leading English papers
have not something to say about the Armstrong
guns. The English people, for score Of years
or more, having found themselves outwitted by
their cousins across the water in many depart
ments of the arts and sciences, thought, as
a set-oG when Sir William Armstrong in
vented his rifed ordnance, that this branch
would counterbalance all their deficiencies and
lack of inventive genius. Columns upon
columns Of the English journals have been de-
voted TO the publication of statistics iapd tabu
larized statements of experiments with the
Armstrong gun, from the first experiment against
wooden target with small calibres and. then
with iron ones, until the present day, when the
inventofha reached the maximum of his genius
by making 81 six xhundred-pounderg gun Of immense
range, which he asserts has power sufficient to
throw shot that will penetrate any iron ship
now aAoat, or destroy any fertilization now ex-
tant But the power Of this gun is yet to be
proved
With all this blow and bluster incident to
the John Bull family, wide margin must be
| made between the promise and the perform
ance. Before we pin our faith to any system
| or theorem we would rather see 1t practi-
cally tested. The Armstrong gun ia q
very good machine; but, notwithstanding
its inventor has been knightsd, and dincd
and wined from one end Of the British kingdom
to the other, the only practical result he has
given of the efficiency of his guns was during the
| ADglo-French war with China. where battery
or m0re. Of Armstrong field guns were arrayed
against the enemy, who had a few DID, inefec-
| tive gans. The accounts Of the wonderful per-
fornance Of these g,ius were sounded throughout
England in Engiishstyie. This is all that is prac-
tically known of the great Armstrong gun. Thea,
| again, there is the great Whitworth gun. also
tOf English invention 1t is the rival OF the Arm
| strong gun. Both of these wesPons have their
friends, both their relative merits, and although
| the Whitworth gun, in trial Of efficiency. ex-
cesded the Armstrong gun, Whitworth has nst
| yet been knighted. We do not propose, however,
to discuss the merits Of either except to dismiss
the subject by saying that the Whitworth field
pieces have been tried in our army in this re-
bellion, battery having been sent on here by
loyal Americans in London. After fair test
of them in the field they were condemned as
inferior to guns of our own manufacture. The
rebels in their late defence Of vicksburg had
| several OF these guns, which were furnished
them by neutral John Bull These were also
condemned by the rebels as not being equal to
their own manufacture and the guns taken from
dhs at Norfolk.
While the English people were crying "Eu-
reka" over their great guns, Sir William Arm
strong's transatlantic cousin, in the person OF
Captain r. P. Parrott was devoting in quiet
way his genius to the perfection of riied ord
nance which was to be in all Its essential fea-
lures American, and designed to surpass-as
Dahlgren had surpassed Paixhan-in efficiency
all modern ordnance, not excepting the great
Armstrong and Whtworth guns The efforts Of
| our countryman were first devoted to field ar
tillery. The gun is made Of cast iron, bored
and rifed in the ordinary way Its chief origi-
nal popularity is the addition of sleeve Of
wrought iron at the breech of the gun. This