The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-26 00:00:00

Letter from Norfolk, Virginia.

The following extracts are from a letter addressed
by a young officer of the British navy to a friend in
Edinburgh, and give an interesting glimpse of the
movements of society in a town with Southern
sympathies but in Federal possession ;
'• H.M.S. Desperate, off Norfolk, Va, April 29.
We left Fortress Monroe yesterday in conse-
quence of a request from our vice-consul here that
we should come up for the purpose of affording
protection to himself and the other British subjects
in the town, in the event of an attack on the town
by the Confederates.
" The Confederates are in the neighbourhood of
the town in pretty considerable force. General
Longstreet has the command, some say of 50,00°'
others of 30,000; the latter is the opinion held bY
the Federal authorities, their own power beieg
about the same. They hold the advantage in their
possessing gunboats; still even with that great
help they are not doing the amount of damage to
the Confederates which they so sanguinely ea'
petted.

" For some time the presence of the so-called
rebels has been palpably made known to their an-
tagonists in the neighbourhood of Suffolk by occa-
sional raids, not doing any serious damage, but
still enough to keep the others on the alert, and
prevent any aid being sent to others of their forces
in a worse position. Still, though constantly
harassing, the attack on the encampment was never
made. A short time ago the Confederates managed
to erect a battery on the bank of the Nansemond
River, about half-way between Fort Monroe and
Norfolk, from which they have been for some time
annoying ',he gunboats. We have heard the firing
distinctly for about the last ten days. All Sunday

it was very heavy. At that time we did not know
where it was going on, but on coming up here we
found out that the battery had been captured and
about 100 men taken prisoners—not, however,
without (it is said) destroying three of the Federal
boats entirely, and one partially.
" One of the brightest occurrences took place
down here a few days ago. General Corcoran was
stopped by Col. Kimball, of the 9th N.Y. Volun-
teers, and asked for the countersign; not having it,
and being refused to be passed, he coolly out with
his Colt and shot the colonel. N-xt day he is pro-
moted from brigadier to major general! I think
that beats Sir Joshua Jebb and the For gar-
rotters.'

"Should the Confederates advance on the town of
Norfolk (at present they are investing Suffolk),
General Keyes, commander-in-chief of the Federal
army here, has given notice that he will at once fire
upon the town without regard to either sex or age; •
and has given notice to all the women to quit the
town, hut they will not go. I do not, however,
anticipate tht, attack will take place, and think that
all the game here is for the purpose of taking the
attention of the Federals off some more important
point.

Te Yankees are awfully savage at us, because
we do not visit them at all, while we are never out

_ --
of the houses of the Confederates. They put it all
down to our feeling sympathy with the South,
Well, I dare say there may be some ground for their
attributing it to that; in some cases I know 00
feeling is entirely with the Confederates, but the

real fact is that we got some introductions to the
ladies of Norfolk from other naval sfficers who 104
been here, and we all like them very much. We
have no parties or any thing of that kind; all they
say is,' You bring a lot of gentlemen, and we'll find
the ladies,' so off we go in a body of about a doze'
and call at any of their houses. Well, from there
we disperse and bag as many ladies as are necessary
and then all come back again, and go at it as 106
as we can, dancing and singing.
"This is quite as pleasant for them as for us, for
they have literally only one young man in the town'
all all the rest being in the army or navy • and he d°e
not go much out, as he is tormented by ~
allusions '
crinolines, caps, and crochet, so they are glad t 0
catch us.

"There is one projected move on foot here- 41Z,"
the establishment of a civil government in VirgiDlB;
Whether this is to be subordinate to the preaal"
military law, or to supersede that, we do not kaow.,;
at any rate the Virginians about here do not see®
to relish it much. They have a King "
now, who, however, is a gentleman ; and 00' are
mightily afraid of getting a King Stork, whoa ,
hundred to one, will not be so. The idea enter.
rained by some here at present is, that all the or be
who will not take the oath of allegiance vill
packed off to Dixie,' while the ladies will not
allowed to leave the town ; and by this refineinell_te
cruelty, this separation of families to induce II:,
poor wretches to join the detested Union..
_f;
present almost all supplies are cut off from them'
some families, indeed have hardly
on. Still, from what I have seen of the fr. !e
here, male and female, 'should aay that, if au the
Confederates are like the people of this part er
conquer
them:' may exterminate, but never will
thorn." enough to ouuo