Year: 1862

/ The London Times, commenting on the defeat


of Gen. Banks, says:


The battle of Winchester is one of the most


important successes the Confederates have OBJ


tanned For though it is not likely to carry the
war into the enemy's territory, and though it


may be that the Federas viii once more en-
desvor to advance into the valley Of the She
nandoah, yet the South have given proof of their
| courage and resources in thus ejecting the
| invaders from Its soil, and convinced the most


confident Northerner that efforts and sacrifices
greater than any that have gone before must be
made, if even border State is to be won back
/ to the Northern Union


| AT the present time the Confederate outposts


extend to the Potomac. The long valley OF the


Shenandoah is again in their power. Federal
authority is once more endangered in Western
| Virgins, and the conquest of the State can no
| longer be looked on as a certainty by the most
/ sanguine Northerner. The fact that body of
$4,000 Confederates could thus clear an impOr-
| tant region of the enemy, could intiiet such
| disgrace on him and raise such en- alarm in his


chief cities, shows that the present resources of
the Federals in men, however large, have been


used to the utmost in prosecuting this war. The
North is now to conquer by capturing vast
intrenchments, and not by driving the enemy
before it in open fight. We may, therefore, say
that th a 6peetations of those who think that the
war is to come to an end in thirty or ninety days
are little likely to be realized. Several months
must eapse before the new Federal levies can
be raised, drilled and brought into the field. All
this time the increasing debt on both sides, and
mutual hatred are tending to make new Union
more impracticsble.


From the London Times, 18th.


An earnest gaze over these American battle
fields is like peeriDg into the thick darkness
where we hear men fighting. Nothing is visi
BILE except now and then when a fash gives a
partial and uncertain light. We then see col
umBs retreating and advancing, bodies of in
fantTy and cavalry flying and pursuing, but
nothing is certain except that men are killing
each other, and that certain flags are flying upon
certain fOrtresses War secrets were never bet
ter kept than they are by Southerners. Secrecy
was never more perfectly accomplished than by
the Northern government, since it has adopted
the plan of dressing hundred false images of
truth Great defeats appear as little skirmishes,
and little skirmishes magnifed into great
victories


Above the hurry burly and through the dark
ness we can see, however, a few things distinctly
We know that the stars and stripes are at New
Orleans and that there is a general there so in
tolerant of the saucy tongues of American la
dies that he answers a scornful phrase with
brutal outrage, and replies to sarcasm in much
the same manner as a revOlted negro would
punish the previous scolding of his masters
daughter. We know also that the Mississippi
has been galantly swept up and down, and that,
so far as the guns of the iron ships can reach,
the valley of that river is in the power Of the
Federals. But the principal fact is, that after
the great invasion had seemed to have almost
completed its work, and when the United States
had lust resolved to celebrate the Fourth of
July rs double jubilee, everything goes back
to its original condition A Federal army has
been once again in full fight across the Potomac;
Washington has been in lis old state of panic;
and Boston and New York have been again
hurrying off new armies to save Washington
from hostile occupation.


Would we seek a further sign of the
real belief of the better informed men of Ameri-
ca, let us mark the great commercial facts Al
though America has almost ceased to import, we
sec the premium on gold gradually advancing,
the exchanges gradually rising, and the prices
facts, occurring during the frenzy which makes
the populace drive State stocks up to nominal
premiums aud prefer paper to gold, show that
there is q very large class quietly and silently
realizing and making everything safe for the
crash they foresee. These are not signs that
the really informed people in America think
peace near, or so very probable. The very fact
that Mr.. Chase is buying gold with paper, in or
der that he may pay his dividends in gold, is 8





some people who ike the glitter of the metal.


GEN. BUTLER's LADY PROCLAMATION
From the London Morning Post government organ) of


the l2thl


The condition Of affairs in the American civil
war, exhibits no prospect of improvement. 1t
is not merely that the vicssitudes in the militia
~ struggle destroy in single week the chances
which the week previous appeared to secure to
one side q speedy triumph over the other. This
is by no means the worst or most ominOus sign
that the contest will be long protracted. A
much more alarming sympathy is TO be found
in the apparent recklessness of the Federal mill
tary chiefs to the course to be pursued respect
ing the Confederate populations, over which
they have conquered e nominal sovereignty.
We have heard great deal about the inhabit
ants of Southern towns being subjected to a
reign of terror 1t has been stated over and
over again that the revolutionary committees
had overawed the vast majority of the citizens,
that numbers had been compelled to declare
themselves in favor of the Confederate cause
wholly against their will and it was asserted
that with the first appearance of the stars and
stripes, the yoke of this tyrannical minority
would be ioyfully thrown off. If we may judge
from the circumstances which have called forth
Gen. Buffers late astounding proclamation, this
can scarcely be the case.


The contents and character Of that document
form certainly the most extraordinary episode in
the present American struggle. At first we
could scarcely bring ourselves to believe its
genuineness. Mai Gen. Butlers proclamation,
dated May Is, and purpOrting to be issued at
the headquarters Department of the Gulf, is TO
the effect that the officers and soldiers Of the |
United States have been exposed to insulting /
treatment from certain women calling them
selves ''ladies of New Orleans :" These insults /
it is affirmed, have no justification, the New 1
Orleans women, calling themselves ladies" /
having been treated with singular Difference and /
courtesy by the Federal officers and soldiers !
To punish this ingTatitude and effectually to re-
press this insolence, Gen. Buffers proclamation |
declares, "thst hereafter, when any females /
shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or |
show contempt for any officer or soldier of the |
United States, she shall be regarded and held |
liable to be treated as q woman Of the town, /
plying her avecation," This atrocious docu- !
ment will call forth from the public opinion of
every civilized country cry Of Just and uni ]
verssl Indignation. What insults could possi- /
bly, be heaped on any officer or soldier Of the /
Federal army compared with the insult now |
offered to it by Gen. Butler himself7 His Ian |
guage presumes that they must be lost to all
sense of decency and humanity, of ehivalry |
and honor. To tell the Federal officers and |
soldiers that, because the ladies OF New Orleans |
gave vent to the party feelings which they share
with their husbands and fathers, their brothers
and sons-even though they do 30, perhaps, |
after a provoking feminine isshion-they may
be degraded to the level of the most abandoned
of their SEX is an act to which it would be diff
cult to find parallel in the annals of either
aucient or modern warfare.


The cfiminality of the proclamation is only
equalled by its folly. Is it designed, by such
conduct, to reconcile the South to the prospects
of the restored domination of the North No
wonder that Gen. Besuregard Indignantly calls
onethe men of the South to arise as one man,
and drive from their soil the men who would
treat their mothers and wives, their daughters
and sisters, as harlots 1t matters little in what
precise sense this proclamation is to be under
stood 1t matters little whether it means that