The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-31 00:00:00

lIIE CIVIL WAR IN AMBRICA.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, MAY 14.

The main positions of interest this week are
Cairo, Wheeling, Harper's Ferry, and Washington.
The geographical situation of the latter place is too
well known to need description. About 30,000
troops are now concentrated there, and no fear is
felt as to its safety. Indeed, the loyal troops oc-
cupied Baltimore yesterday, without resistance.
Harper's Ferry is situated on the Potomac, about
80 miles (I think) above Washington, and on the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Being at the junc-
tion of the Shenandoah, and thus commanding by
the railway the communication both with Baltimore
and. the West, and by its rivers the communication
between the interior of Virginia on the one side,
and the city of Washington on the other, it is a
strategic place of great importance. It is under-
stood to be occupied by troops of the Confederate
States in considerable force, and the private intelli-
gence of the Union Defence Committee last night
was that the scouts of this force were being thrown
out towards Washington, and had already come in
collision with some of the Government troops. It
was also supposed that Virginia will attempt from
this point to operate upon Wheeling and Western
Virginia. Wheeling, situated on the Ohio river, is
what is known as the " Panhandle"—the narrow
piece of Virginia that juts up between the western
boundary of Pennsylvania and Ohio—is the western
terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and is
the centre of a movement in favour of the Union that
threatens to be fatal to Virginia. I find that the
Union leaders of New York have yet some doubt
of the good faith of this, that they fear it is a ruse
to get arms, with the purpose in the end of joining
Virginia. It may be that their fears are well
founded; but I shall assume, until I see more evi-
dence to the contrary than I can yet see, that they
are mistaken, and that the movement is made in
good faith. Before this reaches you the question
will be decided. Assuming that it is not a sham, you
will see at once that it is one of the greatest import-
ance. Twenty-five of the Western ccunties of the
State are represented in the Convention now held
at Wheeling, whose object is to restore either the
whole State of Virginia, or so much of it as they
represent, to its allegiance. By the aid of a map of
Virginia you will see how large a part of the State
is included between the Alleghenies, the Kenawha
river, and the Ohio. It was originally contemplated
that the Convention should only consist of repre-
sentatives from these counties, with a view of
seceding from Virginia, but I learn that several
counties to the south of that river and along the
Kentucky line have come into the movement, and
that an effort will be made to induce the Conven-
tion to assume to act as and for the loyal State of
Virginia—to assume that the old State officers by
their treasonable acts have ceased to have a right to
exercise authority over the State, and that the
people have the right to organise a new Govern-
ment faithful to its constitutional obligations and
loyal to the Federal Government at Washington.
Whatever form the deliberations at Wheeling
may take, they cannot fail, if had in good
faith, to be of the utmost importance. Instead
of the expected division in the North, Mr.
Davis finds the real civil war on his hands at
the South. In this part of the country there are
none of the features of civil war—no dissensions, no
division of parties, no diversity of opinion, except
as to the stratagy of the campaign, no signs of hos-
tile forces, no forcible interruption of business, no
marching of armies, except as collected and sent
forward to the seat of war, no blockading of ports,
no contest about the Government which we are to
obey, and which to deny. There, on the contrary,
civil war in reality exists. With a hostile army
and navy encircling its territory, and cutting off all
means of traffic without, the people within are rally-
ing to put down the Government they have at-
tempted to institute in the place of that at Washing-
ton, and the best private advices are that this
movement at Wheeling is but the beginning—that
as the forces of the United States approach, a Union
party will show itself in every seceded State, except
South Carolina, and will aid in the overthrow of
the disunion conspiracy. I see every day new
reason to believe that there is ground for this hope.
It is believed here that the mass of the pro-
perty holders in the South are not in favour of this
rebellion—that while, having large amounts at
stake, they did not offer an active armed opposition
that might have led to anarchy, especially as the
Washington Administration of November and De-
cember last openly sympathised with the conspire•
tors, they will gladly see the authority of the United
States restored, and peace established in the only
way in which it can be established while the present
temper of the North lasts. In view, firstly, of its
immediate effect upon Virginia, and, secondly, of its
ultimate effect upon the great latent Union mass in
the South, the importance of the Wheeling Con-
vention cannot be over-estimated.

Tennessee has followed the ignoble example of
Virginia, has formed a secret military league with
the Confederate States, and provided for a popular
vote upon the question of secession after their
armies shall have occupied the State and silenced
opposition,—a mode of settling this question that
this part of the country is not at present disposed
to assent to. The attempt at secession being thus
general in the valley of the Mississippi, the Govern-
ment are taking the most efficient means to prevent
arms, or munitions of war, or provisions from reach-
ing the rebellious States.
The Confederate States are availing themselves
with great diligence of the war privilege of repudiat-
ing their debts. In this matter they show them-
selves faithful disciples of their leader. The Go-
vernor of Georgia orders, by proclamation, Southern
debtors not to pay Northern debtors, and in many
cases they have assigned that in their correspon-
dence as the reason for default. Other merchants
write that they cannot collect money for remittance
North, and all, or nearly all, have stopped remitting.
The West, too, fails to make its remittances, its
currency being entirely disorganised by the depre-
ciation of the Border State stocks, on which it is
founded. New York has to bear the burden of all
this, and under it the dry goods merchants are sus-
pending or asking extensions veryr
generally.
Other branches of business, where there are less
extended credit, are not so much affected.

Admiralty orders have been received at Chatham
for the undernamed line-of-battle and screw
steamers, attached to Steam Reserve at the port, to
be immediately supplied with Armstrong guns in
the following proportions, viz. he Mee anee, 80,
400-horse power, with two 100-pounder pivot guns
and two 40-pounders ; the Phaeton, 51, 400-horse
power, with one 100 pounder pivot gun and two
40-pounders ; the Cameleon, 17, 200-horse power,
with one 100-pounder pivot gun and one 0-
pounder; the Defence, 24, 800-horse power iron
steamer, with four 40-pounders, one 25 pounder,
and one 12-pounder ; the Resistance, 24, 800-horse
power iron screw steamer, with two 100. pounder
pivot guns, 16 100-pounder, four 40-pounders, one
25-pounder, and one 12-pounder s 4the:Leander, 51,
400-horse power, with one 100-pounder pivot gun
and two 40-pounders; the Rodney, 91, 500-horse
power, with two 100-pounder pivot guns and two
40-pounders; the Hood, 91, 600-horse power, with
one 100-pounder pivot gun and two 40-pounders ;
the Waterloo, 91, 500-horse power, with two 100-
pounder pivot guns and two 40-pounders; the
Goliath, 80, 400-horse power, v-kh two 100-pounder
pivots and two 40-pounders ;' e Irresistible, 80,
400-horse power, with two 100-pounder pivots and
two 40-pounders; the Bombay, 81, 400-horse
power, with one 100-pounder pivot gun and two
40-pounders ; the Galatea, 26, 800-horse power,
with two 100-pounder pivots; the Severn, 51, 500-
horse power, with one 100-pounder pivot and two
40-pounders; the Arethusa, 51, 400-horse power,
with one 100-pounder pivot and two 40-pounders;
the Orpheus, 22, 400-horse power, with one 100-
pounder pivot; the Barossa, 22, 400-horse power,
with one 100-pounder pivot ; and the Griffon, 5,
80-horse power, with two 12-pounders.
The Herald, 8, Capt. Denham, F.R.S., which re-
cently returned to Chatham from the South Pacific
survey, is entirely dismantled, and the whole
of her stores are returned to the dockyard. She
will be taken under the shears to have her masts
taken out, and to-morrow her crew will be paid off,
after nine years' service.

The Ma-rlborough, 131, screw, Captain W. li.
Stewart, C. 8., in the course of her elaborate refit at
Portsmouth, is being fitted with copper tubing to
each deck, having at intervals along the decks
double-headed nozzles, communicating by the ne-
cessary cocks through the ship's side with the sea
water, and worked by an auxiliary engine, forming
one of the most complete and effective fire•engines
it is possible to conceive.

Her Majesty's screw steamship Anson, 91, 800-
horse power, having had her water-pressure tested,
got up steam in the basin at Sheerness dockyard
yesterday, in order to prove her machinery, &c.,
and to ascertain whether she had suffered from the
pressure. The result being satisfactory, the vessel
was removed to her moorings in the harbour, pre-
paratory to undergoing a trial of her speed at the
measured mile.

The engines of the screw steam frigate Phcebe,
51, which was cut in two and lengthened in Devon-
port dockyard, will be tried to-day in the basin at
Keyham Steamyard.
The troopships Powerful, Khersonese, and Ade-
laide have discharged at Woolwich a large number
of miscellaneous materials captured during the late
Chinek war, and a large number of fortress guns,
of various sizes, in solid brass and copper, some of
which weigh out 6 tons. The battered condition
of several of the guns, and the stains of blood with
which they are still marked, testify to the unerring
aim of Milward's and Barry's batteries of Arm-
strong guns. One of the pieces bears no less than
seven severe proofs of the effect of the aim. A shot,
having entered the mouth of the gun, as it appears,
carried away the muzzle and nearly passed through
the opposite side ; a second struck one of the trun-
nions, and the gunner was doubtless killed at his post,
as the breech of the piece is besmeared with blood
which has flowed from a large stain over the vent
piece. Others are marked in a similar manner.
Major Milward's battery has been deposited in store
at Hongkong, and Lieut.-Colonel Barry's, brought
home by the Adelaide, is now ranged along the
landing-wharf at Woolwich. It bears extremely
slight indication of wear and tear. A battery is
likewise occupying the same wharf, recently
returned from Aldershott, and on an official
examination of the two it was yesterday stated that
the Chinese carriages have suffered less damage
than those which had not left England.
The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Commander F. D. Rich, to the
Centurion ; Charles S. Doxat, midshipman, to the
Nile ; Walter C. Batty, promoted to the rank of
acting first-class assist.-engineer in the Terrible ;
Rinbo R. Siccama, assist.-surg., to the Revenge ;
Daniel O'Connor, assist.-surg., to the Impregnable
for Plymouth Hospital ; and William J. Aplin,
assist.-surg., additional to the Fisgard.