The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-20 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY.
The Cunard steamship- Persia, Captain Judkins,
which landed troops at Bic, and then went to Hali-
fax, has arrived from the latter port with advices
to the 10th inst. She made the run in seven days
23 hours.
The steamship Vanderbilt had landed at New
York 3,600 bales of Sea Island cotton, collected at
Beaufort.
The Rinaldo, with Mason and Slidell on board,
sailed from Princetown on the 2d inst., a strong
gale from N.E. blowing off shore. She had not
reached Halifax on the 10th, and Captain Judkins
supposes she has borne down smith for Bermuda, or
some other of the West India Islands.
The Asia arrived at Halifax on the Ist inst. with
head-quarters and one battery,loth Brigade, Royal
Artillery, andilie 3d Battalion Military Train.
The Adriatic arrived on the 31st ult. with 1,100
men, and left for St. John's, New Brunswick, on
the Bth inst.
The Magdalena arrived on the 4th, with the 2d
Battalion 16th Regiment and Artillery.
The Melbourne arrived on the sth, having put
into Prince Edward's Island for coal.
The Australasian landed 1,100 men at St. John's,
New Brunswick, about the 4th, and reached New
York on the 9th. Major General Romney landed
at St. John's.
The 62d Regiment, Bno strong, from Halifax,
having arrived at St. John's, proceeded overland
for Quebec. The regiment reached Woodstock,
and could proceed no further owing to the bad state
of the weather and the roads. It would proceed
when the weather improved.
The Parana, with the Scots Fusileers and Artil-
lery, arrived at Sydney, Cape Breton, on the 6th,
and, after coaling, would proceed to St. John's on
or about the 10th.
The Canada, with Royal Engineers and Artillery,
arrived on the Bth.
The Cleopatra, with the 2d Battalion 17th Regi
ment, arrived on the 9th, and would remain al

Halifax.
The Adriatic, with General Lord William Paulet
and the Guards, arrived at St. John's, New Bruns-
wick, on the 9th, and commenced disembarking.
Her Majesty's ship Orpheus arrived at Halifax en
the Bth.
The Himalaya reached Bermuda on the 6th, and,
after landing troops, proceeded on the 9th for
Jamaica and Barbadoes.
The Challenger, Bulldog, and Steady were at
Nassau on the 25th alt. The Immortalite sailed on
the 26th ult. from Bermuda. The Donegal arrived
on the 30th ult. from England via Jamaica, where
she transferred the marines of the expeditionary
battalion to some other vessel. The Nimble and
Spiteful left for Havannah ; the St. George, Ariadne,
and Jason, for the Gulf of Mexico. The flagship
Nile was at Bermuda on Ist inst. On the 27th the
French ships of war Massena, Guerriere, L'Ardeur,
and L'Astrea, the former carrying Admiral De la
Graviere, arrived at Havannah. The British ships
Challenger, Spiteful, Steady, and Plover also ar-
rived the same day.
General M'Clellan.iad recovered sufficiently to
tide out. _
On the 3d an exchange of 239 prisoners took
place near Shipping Point on the James River.
The Fcderals were forwarded to Baltimore, where
they were well received. A letter from Baltimore
professes to give a correct account of the treatment
of the prisoners while at Richmond :
" The prisoners, according to these accounts, were
crowded together in tobacco warehouses, with no-
thing to sleep on bet the floor, and with but scanty
covering. They had no conveniences for washing or
for personal cleanliness. Their food was scanty and of
the worst possible description, except the bread,
which was fresh and sweet. From the time of their
capture, July 21, until Dec. 15, they were liable to
be shot if seen at the windows. At the later date,
according to the Richmond Enquirer and the Rich-
mond Dispatch, in both of which papers the state-
ment appears, an order was issued by the military
authorities forbidding this shooting in future. One
case was related to me of exceeding barbarity. It
was that of a young man whose self-denying kind-
ness and attention to his comrades had won for him
the respect and attachment of all. He was sit-
ting at an open window smoking a pipe, but not
leaning out of the window. Without the least pro-
vocation some ruffian in the street fired at him.
The ball passed through his head, killing him in•
stantly. Dr. Higginbotham happened to be in the
room at the time and witnessed the shocking scene.
There was a Swiss sergeant in charge of the pri-
soners, whose brutality is attested by them all. It
was his duty to assemble them and call the roll
every morning. If any were the least tardy in get-
ting up, he would strike them over the head with
the butt of his musket. His language uniformly was
of the most vulgar and outrageous character, " Get
up, you God d—d s—s of b—s," was his usual style.
When any of the prisoners died their bodies were
carried out to -the deadhouse, but no one knew
what became of them, or whether they were buried
or not. Some of the men state that when coffins
were provided the bodies were thrust into them
without tenderness or decency, and if a leg or an
arm happened to be shattered or broken, it was
rudely doubled up or crushed in. Such is the dark
side of the picture. But there is, for the honour
of humanity, a brighter side also. The prisoners
all concur in the statement that they were
occasionally visited by ladies, who never failed to
leave behind them some token of their 'angel
visits.' They brought them cakes, jellies, and
other delicacies, and often when the stern sentinels
would refuse them admission they would seize the
presented bayonet with their little hands, turn it
aside, and thus eluding the guard, make their visit,
Other ladies, in riding past in their carriages, threw
bouquets of flowers in at the windows. One lady,
with two beautiful daughters, is particularly men-
tioned as having been kind to the prisoners. Some
of the prisoners, under a guard, were allowed to go
to a spring for water. The guard remaining at
some distance, women would occasionally meet
them at the spring. One of these women told them
that she had a Union flag concealed in her house,
and that if the Union troops came to Richmond she
would display it from her housetop. All of the
prisoners speak in terms of the deepest gratitude of
the kind attention of Dr. Higginbotham, a well-
known physician of Richmond. He was constant
in his attentions to them from first to last,—so
much so, indeed, that his loyalty was suspected,
and he was put under arrest by the military
authorities. He was subsequently released, how-
ever, by the civil authorities, and resumed his kind
ministrations. On Thanksgiving-day some kind
persons sent several roast turkeys to the prisoners.
Captain Warner, also, the Commissary-General,
frequently sent in presents of cakes, &c. The men
applied to him frequently for little favours, which
were oftener granted than refused. The men
seemed remarkably grateful for any little kindness
sort. They
Tripp,
speak,
for instance, in high
ofte thrmsisof Surgeon of Scranton, Pennsyl-
vania, Bth Pennsylvania Regiment, who they say
supplied them with many comforts from his own
purse. Some of the men state that they got letters
from friends at home stating that money had been
enclosed, but the latter had been abstracted. Others

who had gold sent them say they never got it,but got
instead the worthless Southern shinplasters. Dur-
ing the whole time of their imprisonment the
fidelity of the men to their country never wavered.
Not one of them would have asked to be released
till the Government saw proper to do so. They
would cheerfully have remained there and died in
prison rather than have our Government release
them by acknowledging the rebels as belligerents.
So they say, at least; and it may be that a know-
ledge of that fact has made the Government more
tardy in exchanging them than it otherwise would
have been. They say that even now they do not
know on what. terms they are released, except that
they have taken no oath whatever. They are going
on to Washington, to report themselves to head-
quarters, and to obey whatever requirement may be
made of them. Their desire to re-enter the army,
however, and to fight is universal. • They say they
are in for the war, and they are burning to revenge
their wrongs."
Some sharp skirmishing had taken place between
the opposing pickets on the Potomac.
On the 3d a body of Federals, 800 strong, under
General Weber, advanced from Fortress Monroe to
Big Bethel, and dispersed the Confederate pickets.
Breastworks nearly half a mile in length were
noticed. The reconnoitring party then returned.
On the 6th the Confederates and Federals ex-
changed artillery fire at Hancock, Maryland.
Advices from Hilton Head to the 3d inst. report
that the navy was actively engaged recontioltrink
along the coast and rivers, having occasional skir-
mishes with riflemen. On the 26th, despite there
being 11 vessels off Charleston, the Confederate
privateer Ella Warley, alias the Isabel, succeeded,
after several endeavours, in getting away. The
Pocahontas was sent in chase, but abandoned the
pursuit. On the 2d inst. she succeeded in returning
to Charleston, although chased and shelled. On
the lst inst. a combined military and naval ex-
pedition, under Brigadier-General Stevens and Cap-
tain Rodgers, of the Wabash, advanced on Port
Royal, and, after a short resistance, took possession
of the Confederate batteries. General Stevens then
advanced within six miles of the Charleston Rail-
road. The Confederates then requested a brief time
for the burial of the dead, after which they fell back
upon the fortifications which were near the railroad,
leaving one large gun in the hands of the Federals.
The Confederate force was estimated at 8,000 men,
under Generals Gregg and Pope, and the Federal
force at 4,500 men. The latter last nine men
wounded, one, a Major Watson, mortally. Accord
ing to the latest report, General Stevens was wai
ing for reinforcements.

The Southern papers give a somewhat different
version of the affair. Private despatches received
at Augusta, Georgia, from Pocataligo, South Caro-
lina, dated January 1, state that the Unionists at-
tempted to advance from Port Royal Ferry, but
were repulsed by the 14th Regiment of South Caro-
lina Volunteers, under command of Colonel Jones.
The Confederate loss was 15 killed and wounded.
One Yankee was taken prisiner, but their loss is
not otherwise given. The following is a despatch
to the Richmond Examiner :

" VICTORY IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
"Charleston, S.C., Jan. 2.
" Fighting on the coast commenced yesterday.
Thirty-five hundred of the enemy landed on the
main, near Port Royal Ferry. They were met with
the bayonet by two regiments of our troops. The
Yankees fled precipitately, throwing away their
arms as they ran. They were driven into their
boats. The howitzers on the boats opened fire on
our troops, killing six and wounding twelve South
Carolinians. The enemy's loss is about the same.
To-day the enemy landed in much larger force at the
same place. Gen. Gragg's brigade fell back a short
distance to an eligible position. The pickets were
skirmishing all day. The enemy design an attack
on the railroad, and cannot avoid a battle."
The Richmond Examiner, under the head of
" War Rumours," says—
" Later in the day another report obtained circu-
lation that a battle had been fought in the neigh-
bourhood of Port Royal, South Carolina, and that
the enemy, who were advancing inland, had been
repulsed and a great victory had resulted to our
arms. This report, although not authenticated by
any despatches received at the War Department,
obtained considerable credit last night, on the
strength of private despatches alleged to have been
received in the eity, giving an account of the engage-
ment; We are not disposed, however, to credit the
report without further and more distinct confirma-
tion of it than yet received.
" P.S.—Since the foregoing paragraph was writ-
ten we have received a special despatch from our
Charleston correspondent fully confirming the re-
port, to which we are happy to refer the reader.

" Passengers from Richmond who left that city
on the 3d inst. state that news had been received
there that Commodore Dupont landed 3,500 troops
on the mainland near Port Royal Ferry on New
Year's-day. An engagement ensued, in which the
rebels repulsed the Union troops. On Jan. 2. the
attempt was renewed with better succers, and Gen.
Gregg's South Carolina Brigade was driven back
with heavy loss. The Charleston Mercury has a.
despatch, stating that a large force of Federals had
landed on the North Edisto, and seized 'railroad
station No. 4 on the Charleston and Savannah
Railroad. General Lee has informed Jeff. Davis
that he is confident of his ability to prevent th e
Federals from advancing on Charleston or Savannah.
Southern advices of the 3d inst. state that the
Federals under General Butler had made advances
from Ship Island, in the Mississipi Sound, to Beloxi,
a small town on the coast, and had landed some
thousands of men.

On the Ist and 2d the artillery duel between Fort
Pickens and the Confederate batteries was resumed
without damage.
The Federals are reported to have obtained a
success at Huntersville, Western Virginia, on the
4th. The Confederates are alleged to have lost 80
in killed and wounded, and 80,000 dols worth of
army stores and clothing.
From St. Louis, Missouri, our advises are to the
2d instant, but they contain no information of in-
terest.

There was no foundation for the report that a
battle had been fought at Paducah, Kentucky.
Part of the Louisville and Nashville Railway had
been destroyed by the Confederates. The Union
force, according to telegrams from Louisville of the
stb, was about to advance. The fire at Nashville is
reported to have occasioned damage to the extent of
700,000 dole.

Advices from Cairo to the 6th instant state that
General Pillow had resigned his command in the
Confederate army; that all classes of men were
being impressed for the military service ; and that
energetic measures had been taken to oppose the
advance of the Federals. Submarine batteries had
been submerged between Cairo and Memphis.
A powder mill exploded at New Orleans on the
29th ult.

The _Richmond Examiner of the 3d alludes to the
operations on the coast of the Yederal forces :
"The repulse of the enemy in South Carolina is a
joyful earnest of the future. Although no official
accounts have been received, yet we think it true
news. The Northern troops, after long hesi.
tancy, have made their first attempt, at a march
from the seacoast towards the interior of the State,
and have received their first rebuke. Whenever
and wherever they repeat the experiment, it may
safely be predicted that they will arrive at a simi-
lar result. The Northern people and Government
anticipate great effects from the naval operations on
the coast, because a part of the plan was a multi-
plied series of successful marches and subjugations
throughout the Atlantic States. They supposed
that, having the ports, they would soon and easily
have also the country commanded by the ports. To
take possession of a harbour and a strip of wav,e-
waskr`' sand was the design of their armada. 'let

it will be found that these are all the prizes they
will or can gain for an enormous expenditure.
Wherever the water is deep enough for their large
ships to get within range of the hasty and insuffi-
cient seacoast defences of the South, they can cer-
tainly batter them down and land their troops.
But then will end their barren glory. Whenever
they attempt to march a column into the land it
will inevitably come to grief. The causes are easily
seen. The seacoast can never furnish a sufficient
basis of operations for an efficient attack on a State
in arms, unless the whole power and force of the
nation that makes it is employed in the adventure.
If the North could give up its whole line of land
operations, take all its armies of the Potomac, Mis-
souri, and Ohio in vessels and transport them to
the shores of Carolina, they might make with
success the inroads they have planned. But we need
fear nothing from columns of 10,000, 15,000, or
20,000 Bull Runners when they leave their vessels
even for a distance of two miles. In no part of the
Southern country, even if they could make such
descent unknown and unheralded, would they find a
land so destitute of men as to become their prey.
We may be content and happy when we hear of
similar efforts, from the rational assurance that they
will arrive at parallel catastrophes. The fear that
some minds entertain of the Northern fleet, and the
consequences of its operations in the South, are not
less without foundation than the security or indiffer-
ence whichthe firs tacconnt of its sailin greceived were
without justification. That fleet can do mischief
to the villages of the coast, but is without power to
inflict a vital or even a disabling wound upon the
Confederacy itself. It will cost the Northern Union
many millions of money, and many a fine ship ; it
will ravage a half-dozen small towns, and cause some
good cotton to be burnt. But whenever the popular
outcry of the North forces the generals who have
charge of it to risk an advance of the smallest and
mildest sort in any part of the interior country, we
will have our revenge, and our enemies will get the
reward of insolence and cowardice. The troops sent
on this expedition, and borne by.the transports at-
tached to it, are, like all the troops in the field, raw
and undisciplined. Now, here, as elsewhere, when-
ever the untrained volunteers of the South meet the
untrained volunteers of the North, with an equality
of numbers and commanders, the defeat of the lat-
ter may be assumed as a certainty. The repeated
trials and proofs of this war leave no possible doubt
of the individual superiority of the Southern man
over the Northern man in a personal combat, and
this superiority is still the only element in the
battles fought between the two nations. This is
our security against the fleet and army which oper-
rates this winter on the Southern coast. It is also
our perfect and absolute defence for the present
against the great force collected along our Northern
frontier. So long as the armies of the Union and
of the Confederacy are both composed of recruits
we stand in no danger, and need entertain no appre-
hensions. The dark hour of our trial has not yet
come. It will come whenever M'Clellan has sue
ceeded in converting his Yankees into the involun-
tary machines known to the military science as
regiments, brigades, and divisions. This is the end
that he proposes to himself. This is the secret of
his long delay. This is the work of his hands and
his head at this moment. He may succeed in ex-
ecuting it completely. The most cowardly indi-
viduals of the most unwarlike race, when long sub-
jected to a rigid and methodical discipline, can be
amalgamated into bodies which act with the
certainty and insensibility of combinations of
iron and brass moved by steam and direc
ted by one human hand. There is no reason to
suppose that the people of the United States are
exceptions to the rule that holds good with Hindoos
Muscovites, and Malays. Their separate pol-
troonery can be overcome by the power of military
organization, and then the courage of our segre-
gated soldiery—however noble—may be broken like

the wave on a mass of stone. Here lies the true
danger of the future. While the North relies on
discipline we trust still to individual superiority ;
and, however brilliant the results that the last has
hitherto gained, and may still secure, it will be
found in the end as inefficient on the American
Continent and in the 19th century as it has ever
been in all other ages and all other lands."

The same paper of the 2d gives a dismal account
of the condition of the Confederate army on the
Potomac :

" The present condition of our army is a cause of
severe and painful anxiety. The courage of our
troops is not abated, the eagerness for the fray is
not relaxed, and yet demoralization is creeping in,
we fully believe, from the insane and reckless
neglect of the Government to sustain and to culti-
vate the spirit of our soldiery. There is too much
drunkenness among the officers on the Potomac,and
too much vacant idling among the men. We are
informed as a positive fact that in the majority of
the army on the Potomac the practice of regimen-
tal drills has fallen into complete disuse. This
alone would be sufficient to demoralize any army in
circumstances such as ours. The drill is not only
essential for schooling the soldier, it fulfils other
vastly important and essential purposes. It de-
velopes and educates the physique, fortifies the sol-
dier against disease, and, what is perhaps the most
important moral consideration of all, gives him oc-
cupation for a portion of his time each day, and
protects him, at least measurably, against the can-
ker worm of the army—ennui. What can be pre-
dicted but utter demoralizetion for an army whose
condition is that of tens of thousands of men,licing
in utter idleness, grovelling in their tents, with no
other occupation than what is afforded by the
greasy pack of cards that is the inevitable inmate of
every tent, or the yellow-covered novel, whcse
wretched and perhaps filthy entertainment has
more than once gone the rounds of the company ?
We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the
army is becoming a name of terror and dread
in the minds of our citizens. The newspapers are
still filled with advertisements of bonuses for sub-
stitutes, although the War Department has adopted
a rule restricting the number of substitutions to
one in each company. The rates paid for substitutes
are enormous. We are informed that they average
from 200 dols to 250 dols, and we have been told of
a recent instance where 1,500 dols was paid for the
prompt procurement of a substitute to take the
place of a private suddenly constrained to leave the
army. Evidences stare us in the face of the unwil-
lingness of men to accept the life of famine, dirt,
and vacant idleness in the army. Richmond is filled
with soldiers who have come out of the hospitals,
or who have got here on some pittance or other, ap-
plying for discharges, and striving and
in all sorts of ways to get out of the array. It was
but a few days ago that a soldier dischargedwriggli fromng
one of the hospitals here committed suicide rather
than be constrained to return to the army.
There is no unwillingness among our young
men to serve their country. There are
thousands who would willingly go with
their lives on their sleeves to battle with the
emit)" and to attest a devoted and courageous pa-
triotism, but who dread to betake themselves to the
wretched, half-fed life of dirt, vacancy, and idleness
in the camps. This is the restraint upon volunteer-
ing. The Government will in vain essay to remove
it by a bounty law for re-enlistments—the provi-
sions of which, by the way, for company reorgani•
sation has already, we understand, proved a fruitful
source of intrigue and demoralisation in our army
_without of her measures that will reach to the root
of the evil. The authorities at Richmond may
assure themselves that, as long as the health of the
army is neglected, and it is maintained in its dirty,
sluggard condition, the drills neglected, the half-
rations of commissaries winked at, the rowdyism of
officers passed over, and the vacancy and idleness
of a ' a defensive policy' held out as rewards to
volunteering, the army will not be filled
and replenished but from few classes of
our people. Why was it that when our soldiers

• portation from the Carolinas and Louisiana to the
depots at Manassas and Centreville, and could have
bought sugar in New Orleans at 3c., it permitted
our
teahnnedd molasses, r
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Potomac
tolerates
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aeonuesdssephuffe
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All
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iefintntthetmonthseamsltheep f
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arrciao
drills
? Why is it
ssc
orei ifncesugar,
a practicemo,
uorno gfarmy
omissionbu yaai
officersnonnangd
sugar from the sutlers at 40c. a pound
that to-day the Government reeks not what it reads
negligence, which have contributed to the demo-
ralisation of oil,. army, might have been avoided.
It is not too late to repair them. We are firmly
convinced that the reform of the condition of our
army, with a wise and firm hand, and the holdirg
out of rewards, not to avarice or idleness, but to the
true patriotic enthusiasm of our country in the pro-
spect of an active military policy and of a share of
military glory, will provide the best security for re-
enlistment and the most successful stimulant to vo-
lunteering. We are firmly convinced that no other
measures will restore the spirit of the volunteer
and enthusiasm of the country."
From Venezuela we learn that Paez was still in
power, but that Monegas had taken possession of
two or three towns.