From Charleston.
[special correspondence of the Dispatch.]
Charleston, March 18, 1861.
Major Anderson's pluck will be tested today or to-morrow.
No, not the Major's pluck — I beg his pardon, for he is game, I have no doubt — but the Black Republican pluck, will be tested fully to-day or to-morrow, for the notorious floating battery will be moored within two hundred yards of Fort Sumter, and put in the place designated for her. If Fort Sumter then speaks, the war is fairly opened; if not, it is a yielding up. The battery will be manned by a pretty desperate crew, headed by Capt. Jack Hamliton, late of the United States Navy--as daring a fellow as you will find — and, if the Major fires a gun at her, he will have his hands full.
What right would he have to fire upon the flag of a foreign nation, and especially upon so unique a craft?
How can he tell but that it is a Chinaman?
The craft will be moored out in broad-day light, and at the firing of the first gun the lightning shall tell you of it. General Beauregard has stopped Major Anderson from receiving oil and tallow candles, but as many sperm candles as he pleased.
Do you know the reason?
Because oil and tallow will make his cannon work easy, and sperm will not, and oil and tallow will do the labor of four men. Smart, ain't he?
Congress has appointed Judge Magrath Chief Justice, as I predicted.
All the seceded States are now raising, and have raised, an army of ten thousand men each for the Northern invasion.
If any Black Republican reads your paper, let me tell him with the utmost kindness and good will, and at the same time with all sincerity and truthfulness, with a full knowledge of what I write, that if a war commences between the two sections, it will most assuredly be carried into the Northern States by the most desperate army that was ever martials on this or any other continent.
The thing is determined on — the plan is now matured-- and all will be ready soon.
Nor is this all: Reprisals will be the order of the day, and woe to Northern shipping.
Now, I advise all who talk so glibly of "sending down armies to whip the rebels," as soon as that is done, get their affairs arranged as speedily as possible.
To-day is Monday, and is always a busy day, so I will say nothing more at present, but will give you the on dits to-morrow. 