The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, .1 UNE 18, 1861.

211 E CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

THE SOUTHERN STATES.
(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW ORLEANS, MAY 21.

Yesterday morning early 1 left Mobile in the
steamer Florida, which arrived in the lake of Pont-
chartrain late at night or early this morning. The
voyage, if it can be called so, would have offered,
in less exciting times, much that was interesting—
certainly to a stranger a good deal that was novel,
for our course lay inside a chain, almost uninter-
rupted, of reefs, covered with sand and pine trees,
exceedingly narrow, so that the surf and waves of
the ocean beyond could be seen rolling in foam
through the foliage of the forest or on the white
beach, while the sea lake on which our steamer was
speeding lay in a broad smooth sheet, just crisped
by the breeze, between the outward barrier and the
wooded shores of the mainland. Innumerable creeks,
or " bayous," as they are called, pierce the gloom of
these endless pines. Now and then a sail could be
made out, stealing through the mazes of the marshy
waters. If the mariner knows his course, he may
find deep water in most of the channels from the
outer sea into these inner waters, on which the
people of the South will greatly depend for any
coasting trade and supplies coastwise they may re-
quire, as well as for the safe retreat of their pri-
vateers. A few miles from Mobile the steamer, turn-
ing out; of 4he bay, entered upon the series of these
lakes through a narrow channel called Grant's Pass,
which some enterprising person, not improbably of
Scottish extraction, constructed for his own behoof
by an ingenious watercut, and for the use of which,
and a little iron lighthouse that he has built close
at hand, on the model of a pepper-caster, he charges
toll on passing vessels. This island is scarcely three
feet above the water; it is not over 20 yards broad
and 150 yards long. A number of men were, how-
ever, busily engaged in throwing up the sand, and
arms gleamed amid some tents pitched around the
solitary wooden shed in the centre. A schooner lay
at the wharf, laden with two guns and sandbags,
and as we passed through the narrow channel seve-
ral men in military uniform, who were on board,
took their places in a boat which pushed off for
them, and were conveyed to their tiny station, of
which one shell would make a dustheap. The Mo-
bilians are fortifying themselves as best they can,
and seem, not unadvisedly, jealous of gunboats and
small war steamers. On more than one outlying
sandbank towards New Orleans are they to be seen
at work on other batteries, and they are busied in
repairing as well as they can old Spanish and new
United States works which had been abandoned, or
which were never completed. The news has just
been reported, indeed, that the batteries they were
preparing on Ship Island have been destroyed and
burnt by a vessel of war of the United States. For
the whole day we saw only a few coasting craft and
the return steamers from New Orleans ; but in the
evening a large schooner, which sailed like a witch,
and was crammed with men, challenged my atten-

tion, and on looking at her through the glass I could
make out reasons enough for desiring to avoid her,
if one was a quiet, short-handed, well-filled old
merchantman. There could be no mistake about
certain black objects on the deck. She lay as low
as a yacht, and there were some 50 or 60 men in the
waist and forecastle. On approaching New Orleans
there are some settlements rather than cities,
although they are called by the latter title, visible
on the right hand, embowered in woods and stretch-
ing along the beach. Such are the " Mississippi
city," Pass Cagoula, and Pass Christian, &c.,—all
resorts of the inhabitants of New Orleans during
the summer heats and the epidemics which play
such havoc with life from time to time. Seen from sea
these huge hamlets look very picturesque. The de-
tached villas, of every variety of architecture, are
painted brightly and stand in gardens in the midst
of magnolias and rhododendrons. Very long and
slender piers lead far into the sea before every door,
and at the extremity of each there is a bathing box
for the inmates. The general effect of one of these
settlements, with its light domes and spires, long
lines of whitewashed railings, and houses of every
hue set in the dark green of the pines, is very pretty.
The steamer touched at two of them. There was a
motley group of coloured people on the jetty, a
life
few whites, of whom the males were nearly all
is ne put on board, uniform
t e ; a
fe of few
andh ae le
h la u r
all one
eof h
passengers
never ceased talking politics all day, except
tbptaae of
that
wasgoeds were landed
or
when they were eating or drinking, for I regret
to say that they can continue to chew and to spit
while they are engaged in political discussion.
Some were rude provincials in uniform; One was
an acquaintance from the far East, who had been a
lieutenant on board the Minnesota, and had resigned
his commission in order to take service under the
Confederate flag. The fiercest among them all was
a thin little lady, who uttered certain energetic as-
pirations for the possession of portions of Mr. Lin-
coln's person, and who was kind enough to express
intense satisfaction at the intelligence that there was
smallpox among the garrison at Monroe. In the
evening a little difficulty occurred among some of
the military gentlemen, during which one of the
logicians drew a revolver and presented it at the
head of the gentleman who was opposed to his pe-
culiar views, but I am happy to say that an arrange-
ment, to which I was an unwilling party, for the
row took place within a yard of me, was entered
into for a fight to come off on shore in two days
after they landed, which led to the postponement
of immediate murder.

The entrance to Pontchartrain Lake is infamous
for the abundance of its mosquitoes, and it was
with no small satisfaction that we experienced a
small tornado, a thunderstorm, and a breeze of
wind, which saved us from their fury. It is a dis-
mal canal through a swamp. At daylight the vessel
lay alongside a wharf surrounded by swell boats
and bathing stations. A railway shed receives us
on shore, and a train is soon ready to start for the
city, which is six miles distant. For a few hundred
yards the line passes between wooden houses, used
as restaurants, or " restaurats," as they are called
horeaway, kept by people with French names and
using the French tongue ; then the rail plunges
through a swamp, dense as an Indian jungle, and
with the overflowings of the Mississippi creeping
in feeble shallow currents over the black mud.
Presently the spires of churches are seen rising
above the underwood and rushes. Then we come
out on a wide marshy plain, in which flocks of
cattle, up to the belly in mud, are floundering to
get at the rich herbage on the unbroken surface.
Next comes a wide-spread suburb of exceedingly
broad lanes, lined with small one-storied houses.
cannot The inhabitants are pale, lean, and sickly, and there
is about the men asertain look, almost peculiar to
the fishy fleshy populations of Levantine towns,
errun
edescribe,u n
seaboard,
euobaartd, whichan d exists
crops
out alonghere
whichthe Mediterranean
led t
again. The drive through badly-paved streets
enables us to see that
there is an air of French
civilization about New Orleans. The streets are
wisely adapted to the situ •
ation ; they are not so
wide as to permit the sun to have
it all its own way
from rising to setting. The shops are " magasins ;"
cafes abound. The coloured
population looks well
dressed, and is going to mass or market in the
early morning. The pavements are crowded with
men in uniform, in ',which the taste of France is
generally followed. The car • nage stops at last, and
rest comes gratefully after the stormy night, the
mosquitoes, " the noise of the captains" (at the bar),
and the shouting.

MAY 22.

somewhat exaggerated by the fervour of
The prevalence of the war spirit here is in every-
and the violence of popular opinion
tGhailnlgic
origin,
and the tyranny of the mass are as potent as in any
place in the South. The great house of Brown
Brothers, of Liverpool and New York, has closed

its business here in consequence of the intimidation
of the mob, or, as the phrase is, of the " citizens,"
who were " excited" by seeing that the firm
had subscribed to the New York fund, on its
sudden resurrection after Fort Sumter had fallen.
Some other houses are about to pursue the
same course, all large business transactions are
over for the season, and the migratory popu-
lation which comes here to trade has taken
wing much earlier than usual. But the streets
are full of " Turcos" and "Zouaves," and " Chap-
seurs ;" the tailors are busy night and day on
uniforms ; the walls are covered with placards for
recruits, the semstresses are sewing flags, the ladies
are carding lint, and stitching cartridge bags.
The newspapers are crowded with advertisements
relating to the formation of new companies
of Volunteers and the election of officers.
There are Pickwick Rifles, Lafayette, Beauregard,
Irish, German, Scotch, Italian, Spanish, Cres-
cent, McMahon—innumerable—Rifle Volunteers of
all names and nationalities, and the Meagher Rifles,
indignant with" that valiant son of Mars" because
he has drawn his sword for the North, have re-
baptized themselves, and are going to seek glory
under a more auspicious nomenclature. About New
Orleans I shall have more to say when I see more
of it. At present it looks very like an outlying
suburb of Chalons when the Grand Camp is at its
highest military development, although the ther-
mometer is rising gradually, and obliges one to
know occasionally that it can be 95 deg. in the
shade already. In the course of journeyings south-
ward I have failed to find much evidence that there
is any apprehension on the part of the planters of a
servile insurrection, or that the slaves are taking
much interest in the coming contest, or know what
it is about. But I have my suspicions that all is
not right ; paragraphs meet the eye, and odd sen-
tences strike the ear, and little facts here and there
come to the knowledge which arouse curiosity and
doubt. There is one stereotyped phrase which I sin
tired of :—" Our negroes, sir, are the happiest, the
most contented, and the best off of any people in
the world."

The violence and reiteraney of this formula cause
one to inquire whether anything which demands
such insistance is really in the condition predicated,
and, for myself, I always say, " It may be so, but as
yet Ido not see the proof of it. The negroes do' not
look to be what you say they are." For the present
that is enough as to one's own opinions. Externally
the paragraphs which attract attention, and the
acts of the authorities are inconsistent with the
notion that the negroes are all very good, very
happy, or at all contented, not to speak of their
being in the superlative condition of enjoyment;,
and, as I only see them as yet in the most
superficial way, and under the most favourable
circumstance, it may be that when the cotton-
picking season is at its height, and it lasts
for several months, when the labour is con-
tinuous from sunrise to sunset, there is less
reason to accept the assertions as so largely and
generally true of the vast majority of the slaves.
" There is an excellent gentleman over there," said
a friend to me, " who gives his overseers a premium
of 10 dols. on the birth of every child on his plan-
tation." f, Why so ?" " Oh, in order that the
overseers may not work the women in the family-
way overmuch." There is little use in this part
of the world in making use of inferences. But
where overseers do not get the premium it may be
supposed they do work the pregnant women too
much. Here are two paragraphs which do not
look very well as they stand :
" These negroes who were taken with a sudden leaving
on Sunday night last will save the country the expenses of
their burial if they keep dark from these parts. They and
other of the breden' will not be permitted to express them-
selves quite so freely in regard to their braggadocio designs
upon virtue in the absence of Volunteers.—Wilmington
(Clintock county, Ohio) Watchman (Republican)."
" Served Him Right.—One day last week some coloured
individual, living near South Plymouth, made a threat
that, in case a civil war should occur, he would be one to
savish the wife of every democrat, and help to murder their
offspring and wash his hands in their blood.' For this
diabolical assertion ho was hauled up before a committee
of white citizens, who adjudged him forty stripes on his
naked back. He was accordingly stripped, and the lashes
were laid on with such a good will that blood flowed at the
end of the castigation.— Washington (Fayette county,
Ohio)Register. (Neutral)."

It' is reported that the patrols are strengthened,
and I could not help hearing a charming young
lady say to another the other evening that " she
would not be afraid to go back to the plantation,
though Mrs. Brown Jones said she was afraid her
negroes were after mischief."
There is a great scarcity of powder, which is one
of the reasons perhaps why it has not yet been ex-
pended as largely as might be expected from the
tone and temper on both sides. There is no sul-
phur in the States—nitre and charcoal abound.
The sea is open to the North. There is no great
overplus of money on either side. in Missouri, the
interest on the State debt due in July will be used
to procure arms for the State volunteers to carry on
the war. The South is preparing for the struggle
by sowing a most unusual quantity of grain, and in
many fields corn and maize have been planted in-
stead of cotton. " Stay laws," by which all incon-
veniences arising from the usual dull, old-fashioned
relations between debtor and creditor are avoided (at
least by the debtor) have been adopted in most of the
Seceding States. How is it that the State Legisla-
ture seems to be in the hands of the debtors, and
not of the creditors ?

There are some who cling to the idea that there
will be no war after all, but no one believes that the
South will ever go back of its own free will, and the
only reason that can be given for those who hope
rather than think in that way is to be found in the
faith that the North will accept some mediation, and
will let the South go in peace. But could there—
can there be peace ? The frontier question—the ad-
justment of various claims—the demands for in-
demnity, or for privileges or exemptions, in the
present state of feeling, can have but one result.
The task of mediation is sure to be as thankless as
abortive. Assuredly the proferred service of Eng-
land would, on one side at least, be received with
something like insult. Nothing but adversity can
teach these people its ovm most useful lessons.
Material prosperity has puffed up the citizens to an
unwholesome state. The toils and sacrifices of the
Old World have been taken by them as their birth-
right, and they have accepted the fruits of all that
the science, genius, suffering, and trials of mankind
in time past have wrought out, perfected, and won
as their own peculiar inheritance, while they have
ignorantly rejected the advice and scorned the les-
sons with which these were accompanied.

- MAY 23.
The Congress at Montgomery, having sat with
closed doors almost since it met, has now adjourned
till July the 20th, when it will reassemble at Rich-
mond, Virginia, which is thus designated, for the
time, capital ot'the Confederate States of America.
Richmond,
h mond, the principal city of the old dominion, is
about 100 miles in a straight line south by west of
Washington. The rival capitals will thus be in very
close proximity by rail and by steam, by land and
by water. The movement is significant. It will
tend to hasten a collision between the forces which
are collected on the opposite shores of the Potomac.
Hitherto Mr. Jefferson Davis has not evinced all
the sagacity and energy, in a military sense, which
he is said to possess. It was bad strategy to menace
Washington before he could act. His Secretary of
War, Mr. Walker, many weeks ago, in a public
speech, announced his intention of marching upon
the capital. If it was meant to do so the blow
should have been struck silently. If it was not
intended to seize upon Washington, the threat had
a very disastrous effect on the South, as it excited
the North to immediate action, and caused General
Scott to concentrate his troops on points which pre-
sent many advantages in the face of any operations
which may be considered necessary along the lines
either of defence or attack. The movement against
the Norfolk Navy Yard strengthened Fortress Mon-
roe, and the Potomac and Chesapeake were secured
to the United States. The fortified ports held by the
Virginians and the Confederate States troops are
not of much value as long as the streams are com-
manded by the enemy's steamers ' • and Gen. Scott
has shown that he has not outlived either his repu-
tation or his vigour by the steps,
rapid, he has taken to curb the malcontents in
Maryland, and to open his communications through
the city of Baltimore. Although immense levies of
men may be got together on both sides for purposes
of local defence or for State operations, it seems to
me that it will be very difficult to move these masses
in regular armies. The men are not disposed for
regular lengthened service, and there is an utter
made good in a day, a week, or a
wantw
hiwhich
cannotf fiel d trains, equipment, and commissariat,
month.

The bill passed by the Montgomery Congress,
entitled " An Act to Raise an Additional Military
Force to serve during the War," is, in fact, a mea-
sure to put into the hands of the Government the
control of irregular bodies of men, and to bind them
to regular military service. With all their zeal the
people of the South will not enlist. They detest
the recruiting sergeant, and Mr. Davis knows

enough of war to feel hesitation in trusting himself
in the field to volunteers. The bill authorises Mr.
Davis to accept volunteers whammy offer their ser-
vices, without regard to the place of enlistment,
" to serve during the war unless sooner discharged."
They may be accepted in companies, but Mr. Davis
is to organise them into squadrons, battalions, or re-
giments, and the appointment of field and staff offi-
cers is reserved especially to him. The company
officers are to be elected by the men of the com-
, pany, but here again Mr. Davis reserves to himself
the right to veto, and will only commission those
officers whose election he approves.
The absence of cavalry and the deficiency of
artillery may prevent either side obtaining any very
decisive results in one engagement, but no doubt
there will be great loss whenever these large masses
of men are fairly opposed to each other in the field.
Of the character of the Northern regiments I can
say nothing from actual observation, nor have I
yet seen in any place such a considerable number
of the troops of the Confederate States moving to-
gether as would justify me in expressing any opinion
with regard to their capacity for organised move-
ments such as regular troops in Europe are expected
to perform. An intelligent and trustworthy ob-
server, taking one of the New York State Militia
regiments as a fair specimen of the battalions
which will fight for the United States, gives an
account of them which leads me to the conclusion
that such regiments are much superior when fur-
nished by the country districts to those raised in
the towns and cities. It appears in this case, at
least, that the members of the regular Militia com-
panies in general send substitutes to the ranks.
Ten of these companies form the regiment, and,
in nearly every instance, they have been-doubled
in strength by volunteers. Their drill is ex-
ceedingly incomplete, and in forming the com-
panies there is a tendency for the different
nationalities to keep themselves together. In the
regiment in question the rank and file often con-
sists of quarry-men, mechanics, and canal boatmen,
mountaineers from the Catskill, bark peelers, and
timber cutters—ungainly, square-built, powerful
fellows, with a Dutch tenacity of purpose crossed
with an English indifference to danger. There is
no drunkenness and no desertion among them.
The officers are almost as ignorant of military train-
ing as their men. The colonel, for instance, is the
son of a rich man in his district, well educated, and
a man of travel. Another officer is a shipmaster. A
third is an artist; others are merchants and law-
yers, and they are all busy studying " Hardie's
Tactics," the best book for infantry drill in the
United States. The men have come out to fight for
what they consider the cause of the country, and
are said to have no particular hatred of the South or
of its inhabitants, though they think they are " a
darned deal too high and mighty, and require to be
wiped down considerably." They have no notion
as to the length of time for which their services
will be required, and I am assured that not one of
them has asked what his pay is to be.
Reverting to Montgomery, one may say without
offence that its claims to be the capital of a Republic
which asserts that it is the richest and believes that
it will be the strongest in the world are not by any
means evident to a stranger. Its central position,
which has reference rather to a map than to the
hard face of matter, procured for it a distinction to
which it had no other claim. The accommodations
which suited the modest wants of a State Legisla-
ture vanished or were transmuted into barbarous
inconveniences by the pressure of a Central Govern-
ment, with its offices, its departments, and the vast
crowd of applicants which flocked thither to pick up
such crumbs of comfort as could be spared from the
Executive table. Never shall I forget the dismay of
myself and of the friends who were travelling with
me on our arrival at the Exchange Hotel under cir-
cumstances with some of which you are already
acquainted. With us were men of high position,
members of Congress, senators, ex-governors, and
Gen. Beauregard himself. But to no one was greater
accommodation extended than could be furnished
by a room held, under a sort of ryot-warree tenure,
in common with a community of strangers. My
room was shown to me. It contained four large
fourpost beds, a ricketty table, and some chairs of
infirm purpose and fundamental unsoundness. The
floor was carpetless, covered with litter of paper
and ends of cigars, and stained with tobacco juice.
The broken glass of the window afforded no un-
grateful means of ventilation. One gentleman sat in
his shirt sleeves at the table reading the account of
the marshalling of the Highlander s at. Edinburgh
in the Abbotsford edition of Sir Walter Scott;
another, who had been wearied, apparently, by
writing numerous applications to the Government
for some military post, of which rough copies lay
scattered around, came in, after refreshing himself
at the bar, and occupied one of the beds, which, by
the bye, were ominiously provided with two pillows
apiece. Supper there was none for us in the house,
but a search in an outlying street enabled us to dis-
cover a restaurant, where roasted squirrels and
baked opossums figured as luxuries in the bill of
fare. On cur return we found that due preparation
had been made in the apartment by the addition
of three mattresses on the floor. The beds were
occupied byunknown
snoredstatesminenfraiennddwl
y t till
morning. and
morning. Gentlemen in the South complain that
strangers judge of them by their hotels, but it is a
very natural standard for strangers to adopt, and in
we slumbered
respect to Montgomery it is almost the only one
that a gentleman can conveniently use, for if the
inhabitants of this city and its vicinity are not
maligned, there is an absence of the hospitable
spirit which the South lays claim to as one of its
animating principles, and a little bird whispered to
me that from Mr. Jefftrson Davis down to the
least distinguished member of his Government there
was reason to observe that the usual attentions and
civilities offered by residents to illustrious strangers
had been " conspicuous for their absence." The
fact is, that the small planters who constitute the
majority of the landowners are not in a position to
act the Amphytrion, and that the inhabitants of
the district can scarcely aspire to be considered
what we would call gentry in England, but are a
frugal, simple, hog and hominy living people, fond
of hard work and, occasionally, of hard drinking.'

THE NORTHERN STATES.
(FROM ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT.)

NEW YORK, JUNE 5.

No great change has taken place in the military
positions of the two forces since my last letter.
New troops continue to arrive in Washington, and
we suppose that the same thing is taking place in
the South, but on this point I cannot pretend to
give you reliable information. During the week a
number of regiments enlisted for the war have gone
from New York ; amongst others a regiment of
naturalised citizens from the Continent, organised
in companies according to their nationalities. They
are a good-looking body of men, though many of
them are undersized, and will undoubtedly make
an efficient regiment, as many of them have seen
active service in the revolutionary wars of the Con-
tinent. I happened to meet them as they marched
down Broadway to the steamer, and was much
struck with an order that was passed along the
column. The order came from the colonel in Eng.
lish, it was taken up by the first captain in German,
the second did the same, the third gave it in
French, the fourth again in German, the fifth in
Italian, and the sixth repetition, a polyglott friend
at my elbow said, was done in Polish, but for this
I won't vouch. But this I will stand sponsor for—
that the regiment is made up of enough nationali-
ties to ensure certain destruction by all present
theories of continental politics. Yet I venture to
predict that it will live through the war, and gain
distinction if it gets into battle.

Although the military movements are kept a
strict military secret, I think I have authority for
saying to you that General Butler does not intend
to attack the Sewall's Point batteries or to trouble
Norfolk. Instead of that he will probably intrench
himself between James and York rivers and co-
operate there with any forces that may hereafter
be sent from Washington against Richmond. The
fugitive slaves from that part of Virginia are
already overrunning his camp, and he has been
obliged to apply to -Washington for instructions.
The newspapers that went out by the last packet
took these instructions to you. They were prepared
by Mr. Seward, and are understood to be the most
moderate expression of the feelings of the Cabinet
on the subject. They authorise him to retain the
fugitives as contraband of war. I understand that
Mr. Chase and those members of the Cabinet who
agree with him are willing to take stronger ground
than these instructions.
The Administration will aim to make the coming
session of Congress as short as possible. The five-
minute rule will probably be adopted at the start.
The leaders of the party have not yet decided