[Inclosure No. 2.]

Copy of extracts from Baltimore Sun and Petersburg Daily Express.

[By telegraph for the Baltimore Sun.]

THE LATEST FROM THE SOUTH.

FROM SOUTH CAROLINA- A BOAT FROM FORT SUMTER FIRED AT BY THE SOUTH CAROLINIANS-HON. JEFF. DAVIS SPOKEN OF FOR PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

CHARLESTON, JANUARY 23.-The battery on the beach at Sullivan's Island fired into a boat from Fort Sumter on Monday. There were three men in it, who approached the beach with muffled oars. The sentry at the battery hailed them and warned them off. Failing to obey the summons, the sentry fired musketry into the boat, when it turned round and went away. Soon after those at the battery heard a noise like the hauling up of a boat at Fort Sumter. One of the men in the boat is said to have been wounded badly. Their object is supposed to have been desertion, but some day it was a desperate effort to run the gauntlet of the sentries and spike the guns of the battery.

[The Daily Express, Petersburg, Va., Tuesday morning, January 22, 1861.]

COMING TO THE POINT-A PRACTICAL MOVEMENT.

THE POSITION OF MAJOR ANDERSON. -Lieutenant R. K. Meade, of the Engineer Corps, at Fort Sumter, has been in our city, on a visit home, for several days past, Several gentlemen with whom he has conversed inform us that he speaks in the highest terms of Major Anderson, not only as a brave and fearless soldier, but as a strong and true Southern man, his position in the present state of affairs, however, rendering it impossible for him to take any other position before the people of the South and of the Union. He does not feel in the slightest complimented by the fanatical cannon firing in his honor at the North, and it is with pain, not fear nor even embarrassment, that he realizes the present attitude of the South towards him. That he loves the South, that he prefers it, every social tie gives ample testimony. He is bound by the holy ties of wedlock to one of the fairest of the fair of Georgia, a daughter of General Clinch. He has four devoted brothers, every one of whom, it is said, is a strong secessionist. Add to this that he is a Southerner by birth, and a descendant of Revolutionary sires, we need hardly more to give us assurance that he not only loves his native South, but will at the proper time, and in an honorable manner, draw the sword in her defense. These are simple inferences from facts as known. Not a syllable has fallen from the lips of Lieutenant Meade to lead to the remotest deduction that Major Anderson will not perform his whole duty to the Government of the United States. But that he will be hand in hand with the South as soon as he may be, with honor, relieved from his position, we have little to doubt.

MAJOR ANDERSON.-"A Comrade" writes to the Columbus [Ga.] Enquirer concerning the late removal of Major Anderson to Fort Sumter, and in defense of his action and character. The conclusion is: "Major Anderson is a Southern man-born and raised in the noble old 'Dark and Bloody Ground.' He will be found on the side of the South when this government is dismembered, and, when his critical position has been properly understood, his name will be fully exonerated from the grave charges which have been made against it by those who have been deplorably misinformed upon all the points of military honor which have governed this truly gallant and meritorious officer."

FORT SUMTER, S. C., January 27, 1861.

General JOS. G. TOTTEN,

Chief Engineer U. S. Army:

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that since the date of my last letter very little has been done by the troops of South Carolina around us, in consequence of the continued storm of rain and wind that has prevailed. The little that has been done comprises the completion of the mortar battery, situated to the southeast of Fort Johnson, on James Island, and the enlargement of the battery on Cummings Point by