The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-17 00:00:00

TILE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(Ft om the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
BALTIMORE, MARCH 31.
The expeditionary force is nearly all embarked
and concentrated at Fortress Monroe, or on the
mainland between the James and York rivers. Be-
fore this letter leaves Boston it is probable I shall
have reached the scene of operations, embarking
either here or at Alexandria or Washington, as the
case may be, with my companions. The General
commanding and the Staff have not yet gone on
board the steamers detailed for their use, but the
utmost is done to get stores and all the vast variety
of materials connected with such an army and such
an expedition in readiness, and, no doubt, this week
will witness remarkable events around Fortress
Monroe. If the Confederates are as well informed
as they are supposed to be, they may be keeping
the Merrimac to the last moment, till the whole force
is ready to begin operations, and it will then be seen
whether the assurances of the naval officers that
they are quite prepared for her are well founded.
Another iron clad steamer has arrived here to coal,
on her way to Old Point Comfort, to aid the Moni-
tor. The Nangatuck is 101 ft. long, 20ft. beam, 7ft.
depth of hold ; draws 52ft. light draught, 9ft. when
submerged to fight ; but she does not afford such
protection to the gunners as the Monitor, though
her deck is only a few inches above the surface when
she is depressed by the admission of water. Her
armament consists of one 100 pounder rifled gun
and two 12 pounders to keep off boats and boarders,
and she made 11 knots an hour on her voyage.
Notwithstanding all the preparations of the naval
authorities to frustrate any attempt of the Merri-
mac to run out, there is a great chance of her run-
ning the gauntlet, and of blowing up or destroying
the large ocean steamers engaged to butt at her.
We shall soon know more about it. Since last
mail there is little to record, but on the whole
the news is favourable, as it comes to us, for
the Federals. The Confederates under Price and
Van Dorn are said to have crossed the Boston
Mountains, reduced to a suffering handful, and
the Federal General Curtis, unable to pursue
them, owing to the devastated condition of the
country, has returned to Keithsville, Missouri.
From Island No. 10 comes an admission of failure,
though the bombardment was renewed on the 29th.
The other night I went to hear Mr. Wendell
Phillips deliver a lecture on the war at the Smith-
sonian Institute. The lecture-room was crowded—
not a black face to be seen, however. That circum-
stance was not so remarkable perhaps, but it cer-
tainly was worthy of note that no coloured man, as
I am told, came to the subsequent lecture on Tous-
saint rOverture, whom Mr. Phillips designates as
greater than Napoleon or any one else, except
perhaps old John Brown. I had heard that Mr.
Phillips was a " great orator"—he is nothing of the
kind. He has none of the burning force of the true
orator, but he possesses much of the unadorned
eloquence which distinguished Mr. Cobden. His
manner is easy, natural, unimpassioned, but very
earnest ; his language flows on easily and lucidly,
without depth and without turbulence; his action is
simple, unexaggerated, and expressive, and if he be
not altogether either Cicero or Isms, ho deserves
something better than rotten eggs and paving
stones for his sentences. The very fact of his being
permitted to appear at all and open his mouth in
public in the district of Columbia was remarked
upon, as a singular proof of the vast change in public
opinion effected within the last few months; but if
I were to judge from the expressions of some of his
auditors, such as Senator M'Dougall and others,
the who went away in high dudgeon, he would have
been in Fort Warren very speedily had they pos-
sessed powreecirnoirfeisasouniinega/aelt:rcensndtreolca
ocl
aiett.he And
indeed itdid
part
of a Unionist to near the words of one who declared
he was against the Union if it meant a constitution
guaranteeing the rights of slaveholders, as it de-
manded great forbearance from any but a fanatic to
listen to one who declared old John Brown was the
greatest man that ever lived since Ile who died for us
was born. For a British subject, too, it was hard to
bear with the violence and intemperance of sentiment
uttered in the softest and most saccharine manner,
for it could not be very agreeable to him to
hear that Mr. Phillips, in extinguishing slavery,
wished to make the United States so powerful that
they could take off the deck of any ship, under any
flag, any man they pleased ! He made several
attacks, covert and direct, on Great Britain ; but
I am bound to say they elicited no applause from
his audience, although his allusions to Fremont
were received with much cheering. When he de-
clared he was " not acquainted with the mysteries
of rail-splitting," all eyes were turned on the pry
sident's secretaries and some members of his Go-
vernraent who were in the lecture-room, but they
mande no sign. All this exaggeration and bad taste
are in favour with the " earnest" men on the Abo-
lition side; they are supposed to indicate sincerity I
and strength of conviction and love of.truth. Mr.