The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-27 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(L orn the'hues Cot respondent.)
BALTIMORE, June 13.
A story is told in Baltimore by a gentleman who
was recently in Richmond, that the Southern Pre.
sident was asked in his presence how soon he thought
the war would end ? Placing his hand upon the
head of a little boy, not five years of age, Mr. Davis
replied, " Not till this child is an old man." Mr.
Davis's sorrowful anticipation is shared in this
city, if not further north. All expectation that the
Federals will conquer the Confederates, or the Con-
federates the Federals, has subsided. The exhaustion
of neither party is deemed possible. The interven-
tion of Great Britain and France has ceased to be
looked for. The capture of Richmond, if effected—
which few believe—may gratify the pride of the
North, but will not expedite the subjugation of the
South. The strength of the Confederates lies in no
city and no locality, but in the hearts of a people,
whom the prolongation of hostilities may exasperate,
but can never incline to peace. The ouly chance
that promises speedier results then Northern vice
tory is Northern defeat, to be achieved over
Grant or Sherman, it matters not which. The
idea of those who see in the independence
of the South the only chance for the preserva-
tion of the liberties of the North is, that
popular passions,
such a defeat in the midst of the Presidential con-
test would lead to a commercial panic and a furious n
agitation of ,
out of which would
spring a civil war in the North. Then it is atgued
the South might extort
the recognition of its inde-
pendence from that Powerful Northern party which
in such an event would certainly arise to prevent
the further disentegration of the Republic. But
Federal victory will not bring Federal success, and I
the child will become a youth, the youth a man, and
the man grow gray with the burden
of 70 winters
before the South will learn submission. The South
can bear defeat. The question is if the North can
bear it without political convulsion. It would seem,
frem the plight of General Grant ; from hie
inac-
tivity for the last eight days—from the fearful
losses he has endured—from the readiness of Gene-
ral Lee to confront and foil him at any point upon
which he may select to hurl his legions—from the
well-known though strenously denied fact that the
Confederates in every battle have inflicted at least
three times the damage they have sustained ; and
from the fact, equally ominous, but not so stoutly
contested, that a siege of Richmond might consame
the summer and Grant's army along with it by the
diseases and fevers of an encampment among the
swamps of the Chickahominy, that this great ques-
tion may have a speedier answer than most people
anticipated a month ago, and that Grant's defeat,
retreat, or withdrawal, is not only imn.inent from
day to day, but will be followed by complications
far graver and more perilous than attended the
drawn battles of M'Clellan and Meade, or the re■
verses of Pope, Burnside, and Hooker,
The indications to-day are that Grant will try
another change of base, and risk another great
battle, before resorting to the last extremity of a
siege. Mr. Stanton's curt despatches lead to the
inference that the movement has already com-
menced, and the guarded letters of the New
York and Philadelphia journals name the James
River as the new starting point of his much-en-
during army. It is, perhaps, sufficient criticism

upon this movement to say that there are but
few military men in the North who do not consider
it fraught with much greater danger than any which
the army has yet encountered, and no friends of
the South who do not fervently hope that nothing
will prevent General Grant from attempting it.
Reinforcements continue to be forwarded, but
they are chiefly raw recruits and emigrants who have
not been six months in the country—men who
doubtless do not lack courage, but who have not
acquired the habits of discipline or the professional
pride of the trained soldier. And however nume-
rous these reinforcements may be, it is not probable
that they more than half fill up the successive de-
pletions which the army of the Potomac has suffered
during the last five weeks. The frightful loss of
life in every battle does not account for more than
20 or 30 per cent. of the 100,000 men who have
disappeared from the effective force of the army
since the passage of the Rapidan. To these have
to be added the wounded who fall in fair fight under
the shot and shell of the enemy, the prisoners, the
deserters, the three-year Volunteers whose term has
expired, the tattered and attenuated remnants of
whose once complete regiments continue to march
through this city. But whether reinforced in whole
or in part, General Grant has but little superiority
in numbers over General Lee ; while the latter has
an immense advantage not only in position, but in
everything that goes to elevate the morale and in-
crease the heroism of an army.
In anticipation of the next battle, news of which
is hourly expected, the military hospitals of this
city have been cleared of every man fit to bear re-
moval to his home in the north or west, and all
preparations made to receive from 5,000 to 10,000
men. Baltimore has not the accommodation for
the wounded to be found at Washington, which a
gentleman just arrived from that city describes
as being one huge hospital ; but such ac-
commodation as it has is kept in constant requi-
sition. The hospitals are situated in various parts of
the town, and tax to their utmost the professional
resources of the place. I visited one of them a few
days ago, immediately after a clearance had been
made of the most advanced cases of convalescence,
and saw as much human suffering in the space of
half an hour as I care to see again in a lifetime. Ten
houses--one of them a large hotel situated on one
side of Camden-street, and six, including a piano-
forte manufactory, directly opposite—have been
hired by the Government, connected one with the
other, and form the chief military hospital of Balti-
more. The wards aro clean and airy, and every pos-
sible adjunct of health and comfort is provided for
the wounded. Such as remained on the day of my
visit were for the most part fatal cases, or cases of
which the surgeons had bat faint hopes. There
were men who had lost legs and arms, and men who
were awaiting resignedly—and many of them un•
consciously—the inevitable amputation that might
or that might not save their lives, and who seemed
to have lost all interest in the war and the world,
and in everything around them, save perhaps in the
friendly care of some sympathising nurse, who
smoothed their pillows or offered them their drink
or their medicine. There were some who had the
crowns of their heads carried off by fragments of
bursting shells, and yet survived ; some shot through
the lungs and certain to die, but yet thinking by a
look any kind-hearted surgeon who ventured to tell
them, against his convictions, that there was yet
hope ; others whose jaws had been torn away, some
shot in the foot, some in the hand, some through the
shoulder, and some in the head—the ball in one in-
stance not being merciful enough to take life, but to
leave insanity behind it. The rooms were tastefully
adorned with the Federal flag, vases of flowers, and
sometimes with aquariums, or Wardian cases of ferns,
and the walls hung with portraits, among which that
of Jenny Lind was most conspicuous, and appeared
in every room. These gifts were contributed by the
nurses, all of whom were Northern and principally
New England ladies, who had read of Florence
Nightingale, and, inspired by her example, had de-
voted their time, their kindness, their care, and their
money to the relief of suffering humanity, and the
elevation of the common hospital to the comfort and
the dignity of a home. Among these ladies was one
in deep mourning, whose husband married her two
years ago, started from the altar to the battle-field,
and returned no more. Another, who paid two visits
daily to the hospital, was not exactly a nurse, but
did something of a nurse's duty in her own peculiar
way. She was about 60 years a age, scrupulously
neat in her attire, was dressed in decent black, car
ried a basket of cakes on her arm, and seemed as i

she had been permitted to come into the hospita

to carry on her humble trade among the soldiers.
She stopped at every bed, or at every chair in which
a soldier sat up reading, and offered her frugal ware,
looking hurt if it were nor, accepted. But the good

woman was no merchant. She made the cakes
herself fresh every morning, and they were her free-

will offerings to the men.

It was all she could

afford, and it was the only way that suggested
itself to her mind in which she could be of service.

It was supposed she had lost a husband, or more
probably a son, in the recent battles, but as she said
nothing about it and seemed to shun conversation,
no one cared to invade the secrecy in which she
chose to envelope herself. In addition to hEt

%."tikes, she carried in her basket a collection of newly
gathered roses ; and when in her peregrinations
through the wards she came to a bedside of which
the occupatit was palpably doomed to rise no more

alive, she placed a rose npun his pillow if he slept;
or, if he ware awake, put it into his hand, with a
look of motherly commiseration, and passed on.

And who shall deny the wealth of pity iu her gentle

action, or assert that in her humble ministrations
there was no portf9u of those heavenly charac.
teristics which we ascribe to the angels P
Although the ladies of Balifruore, with this one
exception, left to the ladies of a more Northern

and Eietern latitude the duty of attending to the

wants and cheering the last hours of the Federal

wounded, it must not be supposed that their sym•

pathies were not as abundant as those of their

Northern sisters. The eympathies existed, but they

flowed in another direction. There were no Con-
federate wounded to be cared for, but there were

Confederate prisoners in Fort Delaware and other

places i❑ the vicinity who required the kindly atten-

tion of those who believe that they suffered in a

righteous pause, The military autocrat of Balti.
more—who rules as stringently as Butler before

him, though he n:tiy see treason and disloyalty in

the expression of sympathy with Southena captives,

has not yet deemed it expedient to say so, or to pro-
hibit the good Samaritans of his satrapy from feed-

ing the hungry and clothing the nak.cd, even if the
hungry and the naked be the enemies of h.:
Govern-
ment. The good Samaritans therefore—all of

ladies—having full command of their husbands'

purses for this object, if for no other, no sooner hear
of the arrival of a detachment of Southern prison-
ers than they meet to apportion the wants of the
captives among them, and to provide them, each
according to her means, with the clothing and other
comforts they may require to render captivity less
irksome. One lady, three days ago, clothed 100
prisoners at her own expense ; another provided
for 50, another for 20, and many more provided for
two or three. They were not allowed to deliver

their bounty personally, but were permitted to re-
ceive the epistolary thanks of the recipients. The
letters of the prisoners are in every style of com-
position, from the ungrammatical to the correct,
from the business-like to the romantic, but ail con-
vey the same manly gratitude and the same un-
wavering confideLce in the final triumph of the
cause for which they have suffered so much and are
ready to suffer to the end.

The Semaphore of Marseilles states that the at-
mospherical variations which have so prevailed during the
last month have now ceased, and that summer has regularly
set in. During the last few days the thermometer has stood
at from 26 to 28 deg, Centigrade ($9 to 80 Fahrenheit).
[ADVERMEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Pills. Sick Head-
aches.—Thousands suffer from this worrying annoyance
when the body and brain are depressed by warm, damp
weather.r
ing pills present a ready means
of u
s P
indigestion,uibritirousness, faintness, and flatu-
lency. eo
In rdebilitated constitutions and nervous habits
c Holloway
these pills are the best restoratives—they correct all the
unpleasant torpidily of the liver, they remove distension,
and never fail to obviate all obstructions of the bowels, and
to induce their regular action. For all abdominal ailments
Holloway's pills are the safest possible medicine—they at
once give ease and comfort, and naturally strengthen the
whole series of organs concerned in the process of indiges-
tion; will be found useful in every household,

Her Majesty's screw steam sloop Racer, now in commis-
sion at Woolwich, was on Saturday hauled out of the inner
basin and received her complement of 130 men and boys,
and a detachment of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, in
readiness for sea. The following officers have joined :
Commander Isaac N. T. Saulez (November 13th, 1354),
Lieut. W. E. Darwall, lately of the flagship Nile, on the
North American and West India stations'; Surgeon Andrew
M'Clure, M.A., from the Royal 'Urine Artillery at Fort
Cumberland. Mr George W. Mu k, paymaster, promoted,
on paying off the Ardent; Mr Samuel M. Spry, master ;
Mr Hogg, Mr Jenner, and Mr Hoer have also joined.
The Admiralty yacht Black Eagle, Staff Commander
Whillier, recently returned from the Danish waters, having
laid in stores for a three months' mist), got up steam, and
sailed from Woolwich on Saturday morning for Norway.
Her Majesty's steam storeship Supply, Staff Commander
Bawden, has arrived at Woolwich, laden with a cargo com-
pleting the residue of the garrison stores left at Corfu after
the departure of the troops. Capt. Bawden, who has been
suffering from severe rheumatic fever, was on Saturday re-
moved in a cot from his ship to the Royal Naval Infirmary
at Woolwich, and is progressing favourably.
The War Department steamer Lord Panmure, Master
Commander Moore, returned tc Woolwich on Saturday
laden with platforms, shot, and general stores, from Ports-
mouth, whither she sailed on the previous Sunday with a
full cargo of heavy balks of timber to supply the new labo •
ratory, under the superintendence of Capt. Bailey. Thus
the two shipments, discharges, and double voyage were
completed in about 140 hours.
The Caspar, the first of the fleet of vessels taken up this
year by the Admiralty for the conveyance of Russian hemp
to Chatham Dockyard, has arrived at that establishment
from St. Petersburg, and has coramenced discharging her
cargo alongside the dockyard.
The Racoon, 22, screw corvette, Capt. Count Gleichen,
sailed from Spithead, on her northern cruise, on Saturday,
Lieut, Prince Alfred rejoining from leave previous to the
corvette weighing her aachor. The Prince, accompanied
by the Prince of Wales and Prince Louis of Hesse, arrived
at the Queen's private station is the Royal Clarence-yard,
Gosport, from Windsor, at 104$ a.m., where, on alighting,
the Royal Princes were received by Major-Gen. Lord Wm.
Paulet, C. 8., Admiral Sir M. Seymour, G.C.8., Rear-Ad-
miral Harry Edgell, C. 8., Capt. Scott, C.B. (aide-de-camp
to the Queen), Col. Thackwell (Assist. Adjutant-General),
and other officers. Their Royal Highnesses immediately
embarked on board the Fire Queen steam yacht, Staff. Com-
mander Paul, which conveyed them out to Spithead, and
transferred them to the Racoon, lying at anchor with the
Channel fleet, but with steam up in readiness to start on
her voyage. Soon afterwards a signal was made from the
Racoon to the Edgar, flagship of the Admiral commanding
the channel squadron, that " the Prince of Wales would be
glad to see Admiral Dacres on board the Racoon." The
Admiral at once went on board the corvette. At 3 p.m. the
Racoon weighed her anchor, and, after steaming about the
Channel fleet for some little time, stood out to see by the
eastern channel, with the Fire Queen in attendance. Off the
Warner light-ship the engines were stopped, and the Prince
of Wales and Prince Louis of Hesse, taking leave of Prince
Alfred, left her, re-embarked on board the Fire Queen, and
returned to Portsmouth harbour, landing at the Royal
Clarence Victualling-yard, and thence proceeding by spe-
cial South Western train for Windsor, via Basingstoke, at
430 p.m. In accordance with the wish expressed by the
Prince of Wales, no public honours of any kind were paid
him beyond the attendance of the chief military and
naval authorities at the Royal Clarence-yard. The
inhabitants of Portsmouth, however, considering themselves
free from any official trammels or etiquette, decked out their
Victoria Pier, at the entrance to the harbour, gaily with
flags, and cheered most lustily as the Fire Queen steamed
in and out of the harbour, the Prince of Wales lifting his
hat repeatedly in answer to the crowd assembled on the pier.
The Channel fleet remains at Spithead, awaiting orders
from the Admiralty. The experimental squadron, consisting
of the Research, 4, 1,253 tons, 200 horse power, the En-
terprise, 4, 990 tons, 160 horse power, iron cased frigates,
and the Wolverine, 21, 1,703 tons, 400 horse power, arrived
at the Nore on Friday evening from their cruise in the
North Sea, in order to be joined by the Fawn, 17, 750 tons,
100 horse power, and the paddlewheel steamer Salamis; 855
tons, 250 horse power, before proceeding on particular ser-
vice. On Saturday evening, in accordance with orders re-
ceived at Chatham by telegraph from the Admiralty, the
Wolverine and Salamis proceeded to the Down, where they
will be joined by the remainder of the squadron. The Enter.
prise was occuped nearly the whole of Saturday in coaling.
The Fawn has shipped the whole of her guns, shot, shell,
and powder, and the officers recently appointed to her have
joined and taken up their commissions, and she will be ready
to take her departure during the present week. The whole
of the vessels will rendezvous at the Downs, where they will
join the ships composing the Channel fleet, under the orders
of Admiral Dacres, C,B , and await the final instructions of
the Admiralty.
The contractors' trial of the engines of the screw steam
frigate Ocean took place outside Plymouth breakwater
on Saturday last. Her keel was laid at Devonport in Aug.
1860, for a wooden line-of battle ship, to carry 100 guns,
but on the 30th of Tune, 1861, she was crdered to be "con-
verted" into an iron-cased frigate, mounting 34 guns.
The Ocean was accordingly lengthened 20 feet amidships ;
her stem and stern were altered. bne was launched on the
9th of March, 1863, and has since been protected with iron
plates and fitted with bilge pieces at Keyham. This frigate
is now classed with the Caledonia, Royal Alfred, Royal Oak,
and Prince Consort, all of about 4,000 tens, and her engines
and machinery, built by Messrs Maudslay, Sons, and Field,
are precisely like those of the last named vessels, with the
exception only that the pitch of the Ocean's screw is 22ft
Gin, while that of the Prince Consort is 25ft. The trials of
the Prince Consort's engines took place on the 23d, 24th,
and 25th of September last year, and were reported at the
time. The Ocean left Harnoaze at 9in the morning, in
charge of Capt. William Edmonstone, C. 8., chief of the
steam reserve. There was a numerous company on board,
including Rear-Admiral Thomas M. C. Symonds, C. 8.,
superintendent of the dockyard, Mr. Maudslay, and Mr.
Herbert Maudelay. The trial was superintended on the
part of the Government by Mr James Steil, assistant-
engineer at Keyham, and Mr William A. Dinnen, inspector
of machinery afloat ; and for the contractors by Mr War-
rener. The weather was fine, wind being from the N .N. W.,
with a force of from 4to 5. The sea was moderately
smooth. The temperature in the stoke-hole was about 103,
and on deck 65. Under full boiler power the mean of six
runs at the measured mile gave 12.895 knots; revolutions,
58 per minute; vacuum, 251. Under half boiler power the
mean of four runs was 10691 knots ; revolutions, 47} ;
vacuum, 261. These results are considered sufficiently
satisfactory to prevent the necessity of any further trial.
There were no hot bearings, and all the machinery appears
to be in perfect order. The speed attained does not equal
that of the Prince Consort's in September last, being 215
less, but that frigate was not then fitted with bilge pieces,
and, not being so deeply laden, drew 54' inches less aft than
the Ocean.

The screw steam-sloop Cordelia, 11, was placed in com-
mission at Devonport on Friday with a complement of 130
men, She will receive draughts of seamen, marines, and
boys to-day, and be stored forth with for the lime station
temporarily. The sloop is now in the Prince's dock, where

her valves will ba overhauled and bottom cleaned.
The whole of the troops at Aldershott turned out for a
field-day on Friday, under the command of Lieut.-General

Sir John Pennefather, K.C.8., and proceeded to the com-
mon, near the Royal Pavilion_ After marching past the
division took grcund to the Westward, and formed in order

of battlo on the high gnund south of the common to attack

an advancing enemy, supposed to be occupying the village
of Cove, with his right resting on Pyestock and his left on
Cove-common. The heavy brigade of cavalry, under com •
mand of Col. Darby Grffith, consisting of the Carabineers,
the Royal Dragoons, and the Scots Greys, commenced the
fight. They advanced in line of contiguous columns in close
order at a trot, followed by the light bligade, undg the
command of Col. Soame Jenyns, and consisting of the 13th
and 14th Hussars. The heavy brigade was accompanied by
_ _ _

a half battery of Royal Horse Artillery on either flank, and
the light brigade by a half battery similarly disposed. The
heavy brigade deploy3d into line on the right squadron of

I the Royals, the batteries of this brigade taking up position
in ,;:ivance of the right and left fronts, and opening fire.
Having asir'used the enemy, the artillery limbered up, and
the brigade advsZKet at a gallop, accompanied by the guns.
The Hussar brigade 7hich had deployed into line during
the above movemerts, advanced at a gallop and halted.
The heavy brigade then retired by sections of threes from
the right of regimetts, and Wormed line in rear of the
Hussars. The heal), brigade next advanced, and the light
retired by open column of troops from the left of the line.
The heavy brigade ialted, and the artillery again threw in
several rounds. Tte heavy brigade then retired by open
column of troops from the right at a trot, thus clearing the
front of the infantry and artillery, who were in position,
forming three lines, The Royal artillery commenced a
heavy cannonade, supported by file firing, from General
Taylor's brigade. general Russell's brigade advanced in
line, and halted aose to General Taylor's, thus forming
four ranks, the latter kneeling, and both throwing in a
tremendous file fir?, while the ertiilery pounded away
cwoimthboiuntedintearnmdisswioeall-
.eTxheceateend rnv
emyfoeilemtcki:
e.oro
afew more
pleted

his disorder; and soon he was beating a hasty retreat
to the westward, hotly putaued by the victorious troops
until they were lost to the sight of tho visitors. The whole
of the manceuvres were rapidly and ski!killy executed.

The division returned to quarters abut 1 o'clock.
By direct:on of the authorities at the War Department,
a series of experiments will be carried out at Chatham dur-
ing the present summer by the officers and men attached to
the Royal engineer establishment in order to test the merits
of the new description of pontoon, similar to that in use in
the Austrian army, which it is proposed to introduce into the

English bervice. - The superiority claimed for the Austrian

pontoon is its increased strength and buoyancy. It is found

to be far more portable then the ordinary Blanshard pcntoon
which has been adopted ir, the corps of Royal Engineers. It

can, besides, be turned to 1189 by an army when on the
march and in the field—an advantage not possessed by the

Blanchard pontoon, which, from its size and unwieldy train

and proportions., causes the transport of the pontoon train

to be attended. with cowiderable (lit:Acuity. - The experi-