The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-23 00:00:00

THE SOUTIIERN CONFEDERACY.

hardly be stated to any sensible man or woman. If
the Federal officers coLils in the Libby could be
admitted to a sight of the heartrendia4 letters
which I have read from Confederate otaera con-
fined on J9hnson's Island, they would face their lot
with a little more manliness, and no-, aggravate
trials already sufficiently irksome by permitting
themselves to imagine that their sufferings are ex-
ceptional and peculiar, and such as were never borne
by any other prisoners of war upon earth. Fur the
present it will be sufficient to state that I hope
shortly to give such facts and statistics as will esta-
blish, at least to the satisfaction of Europe, the true
condition of the unhappy starvelings whose ima-
ginary agonies have been such a rich mine to the
press, and especially to the illustrated journals, of
New York.

ThompSOD.

(From Me Sp6eial Correspondent of he Tiwe.s.)
RICHMOND, Dec. 21, 1863.
It is a ;jugular commentary upon the brilliant
engineering capacity of Gen. Gilmore, of which so
much has been said in Northern journals, that after
one of the costliest sieges on record, and after the
loss of hundreds of lives, and the expenditure of
mountains of projectiles, he has attained no result
greater than was within his reach so far back as
Sane, 1862. It will appear hardly credible that
before the battle of Secessionville it was competent
for the Federals to establish batteries as near to
the heart of the city of Charleston as is the situa-
tion of their present betteries on Morris Island nt
Cernming's Point. It should be understood by
your readers that there is on James's Island, near
the Stone) River, to the west of Secessionville, a
church, which lies a distance of precisely four and
a half miles from St. Michael's Church, in the
centre of Charleston. This church was occupied
by the Federals before the battle of Secessionville
in June of last year. It was again occupied by them
before their attack upon Battery Wagner on the
10th of July of the current year. Upon the 16th
of last July the Confederates attacked the
Federal garrison which held the church in question,
and, inasmuch as the garrison consisted almost
entirely of black troops, little difficulty was ex-
perienced by the Confederates in recovering the
position. At the same moment Gilmore's main
force was doing desperate fighting and cannonad-
ing, which resulted at the end of 58 days in land-
ing him at a point equidistant from Charleston
with that which he had evacuated almost without
struggle on Jaly 16, 1863. It will readily
be believed that since July the Confederates
have not been idle in providing against the danger
of this point falling again into Federal hands. I
um assured that the ecience of defensive military
engineering has been exhausted in securing James
and Sullivan's Islands from the possibility of suc-
cessful attack. There is, I have little reason to
doubt, but one possible avenue bywhich the Federals
can indulge the venom of the Atlantic ...Ifontlly, so
often shed and projected against Charleston, and
enable the writers in its pages to sow the ruins of
that hated city with salt. It will be by landing
50,000 men on the South Carolina coast, by seizing
upon the Charleston and Savannah Railroad and
advancing along it upon the former city. It may
be imagined, before such an attempt can be success-
ful, what an amount of labour, time, and money it
will exact. Any other Government on earth, save
that which has attempted to canalise the Missis-
sippi, and to secure its free navigation by supplying
fresh steamers upon its waters quicker than they
can be burnt by the enemy, would be aghast at the
stupendous magnitude of such a task as supplying
the requisite transport for this enterprise, and estab-
lishing the necessary supply depots at Hilton Head
and Port Royal. Vengeance is doubtless as sweet
to Boston as to any other city on earth, but gene-
rations yet unborn will wince under their expe-
rience of the burden laid on their shoulders by such
men as Mr. Everitt. It needs but the folly of a
few additional enterprises like the attempted cap-
ture of Charleston by land to make the burden
heavier than future generations can bear.
It seems to me that whenever and if ever reason-
ableness and sobriety resume their sway in Boston
and New York, the siege of Charleston, as con-
ducted by the Federals, will be looked on as one of
the most stupendous follies ever witnessed upon
earth. In order to attain to such a success as is in-
volved in the ability to throw Greek fire into
Charleston from a distance of four miles and a half,
and in order to stop a great port of entry for blockade
runners, a sum of money has been lavished which
would purchase the whole State of South Carolina.
It is probably known in England long before this
time that the Greek fire is not more formidable than
a child's Christmas crackers ; it will probably be
known hereafter that Charleston, as a port of entry
for blockade-running vessels, will do as much busi-
ness in 1864 as she did in 1862. Bat, putting spite,
venom, and vengeance out of the question, I believe
that never upon caeth was an enterprise undertaken
in which the object sought possessed a value so dis-
proportionate to the price which it exacted for its
attainment. The payment of this price by the Fede-
rals, unrewarded though it has hitherto been by any
encouraging success, is the measure, not of the value
which they attach to the possession of the city of
Charleston in ruins, but of the grudge which ever
since the days of Andrew Jackson the Northern
States, and pre-eminently New England, have
nursed and cherished against the home of" nullifi-
cation," the cradle of Secession.
Again I feel tempted to raise a warning voice about
the disparity of the armament on board of the English
and American navies. It is impossible for those who
have been many months absent from England to be
well informed as to the actual state of public opinion
at the present moment upon this vital subject. But,
judging from the officers of her Majesty's navy who
have at rare intervals brought vessels of war into
Confederate ports, it appears still to be held that
the 6S-pounders or S-inch smooth bore is England's
best weapon of offence against iron clad vessels.
The experience gained at Charleston enables me
confidently to affirm that as well might you pelt one
of the Yankee Monitors or Ironsides with peas as
expect them to be in any way damaged by 8-inch
shot. Another disagreeable question forces itself
upon an Englishman's attention when he is cogni-
sant of the terrific broadside thrown by the eight
11-inch guns of the Ironsides—ono of the most
formidable broadsides, in the opinion of the de-
fenders of Charleston, which has ever been thrown
by any vessel upon earth. Have we any ship in
existence which could successfully resist such a
broadside, and respond to it with anything like
commensurate weight and vigour ? I should be
faithless to my duty if I did not mention that :t is
the universal opinion of all the English officers
serving in the Confederate army with whom I have
conversed that England is behind America in the
weight and power of the guns sent by both nations
to sea. It is still a matter of the greatest surprise
to those who are cognisant of the endless experi-
ments in guns and projectiles which are every day
made by the Federal and Confederate States that
England has not thought it worth her while to
attach to the armies of both nations such a commis-
sion as M'Clellau had in the Crimean War, with a
view to their gaining such scientific information
with regard to ordnance and projectiles as at this
m. foment can be gained nowhere else on earth. It
my conviction that from both sections such com-
missioners would receive nothing but courteous and
unreserved information upon all that it imported
them to know. It is scarcely creditable to our
Government that they should be blind to the oppor-
tunities for gaining information which this gigantic
conflict affords, or that from Old World pride they
should refuse to avail themselves of the experience
to be derived from a continent destined henceforth
and evermore to play no secondary part in the
drama of the world. _
It is my intention in my next letter to give full
details of my recent visit to the Libby Prison and
Belle Isle, In the meantime, I will content myself
with stating that, in my belief, prisoners of war
hive seldom been more tenderly treated than are
the 1,040 Federal officers now held captive in the
Libby. There was at one moment a great deficiency
of the Commissary-General's stores at Richmond,
occaskned by temporary causes, and of not more
than four days' duration. During these four days
the prisoners experienced what has again and again
been endured unmurmuringly by Confederate sol-
diers in the field, and wereobliged to live entirely
upon farinaceous food. Loud as have been the out-
cries in Yankeedom about their starving prisoners,
there has been no less uproar in the Confederate
Congress against Commissary -General Northrup, by
reason of the deprivation of meat which, during
these four days, he inflicted upon the prisoners.
Mr. Foote, the Thersites of the Southern Congress,
has made the rafters ring with his denunciations of
President Davis, who is understood to be a friend
of Mr. Northrup, and who for divers reasons is
especially obnoxious to Mr. Foote. It will not, in
my opinion, be possible for the New York journals
i
to awaken a fresh burst of European ndiwnatien by
factitious representations of miseries which have
no existence in fact. That the condition of a pri-
soner of war is at best trice. and unenviab lo need

The presence for the last ten days of General Lee
in Richmond has led to many rumours of his being
about to go to the West, but, as I mentioned in my
letter of the 14th inst., the appointment of General
Joseph G. Johnston to fill the post vacated by
General Bragg has been for some time past decided.
It is understood that throughout the deliberations
which have preceded this appointment Gen. John-
ston's claims have been warmly urged by General
Lee. And here let 111 a do justice to the patriotism
and unselfishness of General Bragg's bearing since
his " decapitation," which have been such as all
those who were best acquainted with his character
expected at his hands. Without rancune, with
generous cordiality and warmth, he has offered to
fill the post of Chief of the Staff to General John-
ston or General Lee—the same post which at the
commencement of the war he so successfully filled
under General A. Sidney Johnson. I believe that
nothing is as yet settled with regard to the post to
which General Bragg will be appointed. The cor-
respondence with the War department in which
General Bragg has recently played so creditable a
part will hereafter, when made known to his coun-
trymen, recommend him to their favour in a degree
of which they are at present unable to form any
conception.
The military movements of the past week have
been of little moment, unless (as is at this moment
hoped rather than expected) they should end in the
capture of the Federal Cavalry General Averill,
who has struck boldly into the heart of Virginia,
and inflicted some damage, though not much, upon
the Virginia and Tennessee railroad at Salem sta-
tion, It is along this railroad which connects
Lynchburg with Bristol in Tennessee, that the
supplies for General Longstreet's army—or rather
such supplies as he cannot gather on the spot
where his army is stationed—are forwarded to him.
It is hoped that General Fitz Lee, one of the most
active of the cavaliers of Virginia, will be in
time to cut off General Averill's retreat ; but
such is the length of the frontier line over which it
is possible for the Federals to retire that I have
little expectation of the attainment of this result.
Gen. Longstreet has during the past week given a
hug to a small portion of a Federal force, which was
making believe to pursue him, and would apparently
have inflicted material damage upon them had not
a great rise in the Holston River forbidden the
Confederate cavalry to cross and intercept the
Federal retreat. Nothing is, I suspect, further from
Gen. Longstreet's intention than to leave to Gen.
Burnside the unmolested possession of Knoxville
during the present winter. The withdrawal from
around Chattanooga and Northern Georgia of
Federal troops still continues, and is by some ex-
pected to lead to the evacuation of Knoxville and
East Tennessee. It is evident that some important
development of Federal strategy is in progress, and
the large number of transports and their activity on
the Potomac are suggestive either of some attempt
upon Richmond by water, or of a descent upon
Charleston. Be the programme of the Aulic Council
at Washington what it may, it will, I apprehend,
be impossible for them to permit the winter months
to wear inactively away. There are signs which in-
dicate unmistakably that the unanimity of the
Washington Congress about the prosecution of the
was is a thing of the past. It is idle to talk about a
large portion of the Federal army, which is about to
disband in May,being willing to enlist again. There
are too many Federal prisoners in the South, and
too great uniformity of opinion among them about
their own future conduct when their time of service
will be up, to admit of any doubt as to what the
conduct of their comrades under similar circum-
stances will be. Unless that mighty Battle of
Armageddon, which has incessantly danced before
the dazzled vision of the North, is fought between
the present moment and the Ides of May, let all
hope of aggressive warfare be abandoned by the
Federals. It is true that they may be strong enough
to repel invasion, and to maintain the blockade of
their enemy's ports for years to come, but it is doubt-
ful whether such an amount of unanimity as will be
requisite to enable them even to preserve this atti-
tude can be secured for 12 months more. In the
meantime, if ever England, under the guidance of
Mr. Cobden and Mr. Beecher, has been led to be-
lieve that this is honestly a war for the abolition of
slavery, what will be said when it is known that the
motion of Mr. Rollins, of Missouri, to the effect that
" Th;s war is not waged in any spirit of oppression,
nor for any purpose of conquest or subjection, nor
for the purpose of overthrowing and interfering with
the rights of established institutions in those States,"
was recently carried in the House of Representatives
at Washington by a mejority of 115 votes against 52 P
The winter has already worn half away, and none
of the terrible trials which were bespoken for the
Confederate States by Southern croakers and
Northern threateners have as yet made themselves
felt. With true English heartiness, Virginia is put-
ting on her Christmas garb, and if the social condi-
tion of Richmond were canvassed at this moment, I
should say that exception might reasonably be
taken on the ground rather of an excess than of a
shortcoming of merriment. The markets of the
present winter are unquestionably more abundunt
hitherto than were those of last winter; oysters,
game, venison, poultry are offered in the greatest
profusion. Irish potatoes are almost a drug, and,
as I predicted, are served out with the rations of
the Virginian army in the field. Prices have ceased
to be weighed and considered ; the Confederate
dollar is worth about twopence English, and is so
regarded by everybody, for everybody has dollars in
abundance. The temper of Congress on the ques-
tion of the war is stern and unyielding as was that
of the Roman Senate after Canree ; but I fear that
I must be permitted to express a doubt whether
they aro fitter to deal with the difficult question of
their currency than was the French National Con-
vention to cope with the analogous embarrassment
of their assignats. He, however, who should fancy
that this war will be stopped by the breaking down
of a financial system upon either side cannot be
other than a sorry judge of human nature, and
poorly versed in the teachings of history. If there
be any misnomer on earth, it is that which makes
money synonymous with the sinews of war. Never
yet was war stopped by the impecuniosity of belli-
gerents ; least of all in a country blessed with such
abundance as this continent, where ail that is requ.
site for the wants of man is lavished upon him with
matchless bounty, where the clouds drop fatness and
the valleys laugh and sing, and where all that was
wanted to secure prospectively to a third of the
human race such contentment and happiness as
have been denied to Europe was the presence of
two Qualities of which, more than any other nation,
Americans are bereft—humility and moderation.

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Complimentary Soiree to Mr, George

A complimentary soiree was given in the Manchester
Town Hall, on Thursday evening, to Mr. Geo. Thompson,
the well-known advocate of negto emancipation, prior to

his departure to America. About 500 persons were present,
and the chair was taken by Mr. Geo. Wilson.—The Chair-
man said that since Manchester elected to lose the first place
in the house of Commons by the rejection of its represen-

tAtives, he had preferred to see the exposition of his politics
at Ashton, Rochdale, and Birmingham—but he could
scarcely have acquitted himself of the calls of conscience if
he had remained absent from that meeting, because, consi •
daring Mr. Thompson's great services to the country and to
freedom, he esteemed that gentleman to hold a place in the

front rank of all living men.—Mr. T. 11. Barker read an
address to Mr. Thompson, beautifully illuminated on vel-
lum, and encased in morocco leather. It commenced with
an acknowledgment of the 30 years' services which Mr.
Thompson had devoted to " every advanced movement for
the welfare of the human race, but pre-eminently in the

caase of freedom." "Whoever the foe, whatever the diffi-
culty, he had always been the steadfast friend and defender
of liberty and justice, His elle pen and eloquent tongue
had always been at the service of the true friends of universal
emancipation. His name was not unknown to the friends
and foes of liberty in the Federal Republic of America.
Associated with the name of William Lloyd Garrison, the

name of George Thompson had become a cherished house-
hold word in the homes of that kindred and friendly nation,
On this cccasion he would visit America under circum-

stances, and with prospects very different from those he
encountered on his two previous visits. Within the last
three or four years it might be said that a nation had been
born again in the cause of freedom. " That noble martyr
liberty, John Brown, the hero of Harper's Ferry, by his
magnanimous devotion, sent a thrill of new impulse to the
nation's heart of hearts. The moral electricity of that

and am soon to visit them again, also those at AlexanOria.
But 1 am filling my letter with contrabands,' and in'iu:d
1 might write a volume about them, if I bad time, ond you
required it to deepen your interest in my long•enelttved
people,"

grand human soul, not only galvanised the shareholders o
the South, but awakened to now life, to new purpose, and
to new hope the drooping spirits of the freemen of the
North. Had it not been for that immolation on the altar
of liberty and patriotism, honest Abraham Lincoln could
not have been elected President of the Union, nor have
been enabled to become the second deliverer of the nation,
and the holy cause of negro emancipation would have
gone back probably half a century, It was the
crisis of the nation's utmost social, political, and
moral need, and the providence of God raised
up a man who had a heart and a conscience above
the tricks of politicians and the subtleties of diplomacy."
George Washington gave the American nation the precious
boon of independence; Abraham Lincoln conferred a more
inestimable blessing, by proclaiming the Federal nation
henceforth the home of universal freedom. Though the
great work was not fully and finally accomplished, the
foundation of true national freedom was laid, and the day
was at hand when the top-stone should be raised amid the
plaudits of every free nation throughout the world.—Mr.
Ernest Jones moved the adoption of the address. He said
that, and all the efforts in which Mr. Thompson had been
engaged, the one which he had been most gloriously
associated, was the struggle for the emancipation of negro
slavery. He would now go to America as an ambassador,
to draw' the links of friendship still closer. His entry
into the States would not be a mere isolated, individual
act. The Americans would recognise in him one who
represented as largely as any man the feelings and
the virtues of the English people.—Mr. Charles Thompson
seconded the adoption of the address, which was supported
by Mr. J. H. Estcourt, Dr. Pankhurst, the Rev. J. C.
Street, and Dr. John Watts, and adopted.—Mr. George
Thompson, who was received with loud cheers, rose to
accept the address. Ile said that ho left England with the
consciousness of having been no place hunter ; ho had never
asked to be rewarded for his efforts for the weal of this
country. He did not leave England a disappointed man,
nor with any desire to cast reflections on his country, for
with all her faults ho loved her still, He did not go to
America in the expectation, or with the view of receiving a
welcome when he landed there, or with the hope of having
a seat on the floor of Congress, or receiving an invitation
to dine with Mr. Chase, Mr. Seward, or Mr. Lincoln.
What drew him with the most strength to America was
the wish to meet a cherished few who were the pioneers
in the great and glorious movement of negro emanci
pation. That cause had enlisted his sympathies from
his earliest years; it increased when as a boy he went
to the Freemason's -hall, London, to listen to the dulcet tones
of Wilberforce, and the magnificent eloquence of the now
deceased Henry Brougham, for Lord Brougham lived, but
Henry Brougham was dead. (Applause.) Twenty -nine years
ago, and shortly after his first public appearance in Man-
chester, he (Mr. Thompson) visited America. Ile was hunted
about that country like a partridge upon the mountains, a
reward was set upon his capture, and gallows were even
erected at his door. But he who was " spewed" out of
America 29 years ago, should return to see that mighty
people in its right mind, bringing forth " fruit meet to re-
pentance" in the shape of freedom to the race they once
abased. If he had the opportunity he should represent to Mr.
Lincoln the feelings of this country towards tho Northern
States ; and though he was absent from England in body, he
should be here in spirit, and take interest in her. wafare.—Mr.
J. Patten and Mr. Glaz_hrook presented an address from the
Ashton-under-Lyne Union and Emancipation Society. It
acknowledged the services which Mr. Thompson had ren-
dered to the cause of negro emancipation, and his zealous
advocacy and defence of the great principles of political
and social reform, of his assistance to secure a suitable
administration to guard the interests of British India, and
of his advocacy of the repeal of the corn laws. The society
rejoiced to have had his counsel and co-operation during
the present American rebellion. They sincerely hoped he
might have a pleasant and speedy voyage, and that he
would be welcomed by thousands of generous hearts
when he reached America—the future refuge of the
liberties of mankind. Mr. G. Thompson brh fly acknow-
ledged the compliment that had been paid him by his
friends at Ashton, and after the mzeting, hid :been ad-
dressed by Captain T. M. Chester, a coloured man from
Liberia, the proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to the
chairman.

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 23, 1864.