From Washington

WASHINGTON, May 2.

The current report that Gen. McDowell has crossed the Rappahannock and occupied Fredericksburg is untrue.  Telegraph communication is now established with him.

Dispatches from Gen. Halleck, dated to-day, say nothing of the reported evacuation of Corinth.  It is discredited.

Deserters from the rebel army here continue to be numerous.  They are coming in daily, almost hourly, from various directions, and all agree in their statements that the rebel force numbers about 100,000 and of a very general depression in spirits both among officers and men.  The news of our recent victories is sedulously kept from them.

Time’s Special.

The town was startled by a rumor to-day that all the members of Congress of the border slave States, and a number of conservative sympathizes from other States, were seriously contemplating the propriety of withdrawing in a body from the Senate and House thus precipitating a decision by the people of the whole country on the radical measures of emancipation and confiscation.

The finance committee of the Senate received a deputation of butchers from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to-day by those arguments they were prevailed upon to reduce the tax on slaughtered animals.

WASHINGTON, May 3.

The following was received at the Navy Department to-day:

FLAG SHIP WABASH,

PORT ROYAL, S. C., April 28.

I have just time, this A. M., before the departure of the Susquehanna, to inform the department of the arrival here of the rebel steamer Isabella, Ella Warley, in charge of Lieut. Wilson, and a prize crew, she having been captured by the St. Jago de Cuba, Commander Ridgeley, 10 miles north of Abaco.  She is deeply loaded with Enfield rifles, and has, it is supposed rifled cannon in her forehold, which has not yet been examined.  These arms were taken on board of course at one of the neutral colonies of our coast.  I am informed by Lieut. Gibson that the St. Jago de Cuba discovered and chased the Nashville, but the latter was much too swift for her.  The Nashville also had arms on board for the rebels, intending to run the blockade if possible,

Very respectfully,

Your ob’t serv’t.,

S. F. DUPONT,

Flag Officer Commanding, &c.

To Hon. Gideon Welles, Sec’y of the Navy:

On the 8th ult. The army forces under Gen. Reno, departed at Cabb’s Point, N. C., for the purpose of destroying the locks of the Dismal Lock Canal  Having retired without accomplishing the object, Commander Rowlan determined to destroy the canal with the naval forces under his command.

The following is the report of the successful accomplishment of the work:

U. S. STEAMER COM. PERRY,

OFF ELIZABETH CITY, N. C., April 26.

SIR: – In obedience to your orders I left this place on the 22d inst., in the Lockwood, with the Whitehead and Putnam in company, each with an officer and detachment of men on board.  The Lockwood towing the wrecking schooner Emma Slade, with the apparatus for blowing up the banks to block up the Albemarle and Chesapeake canal at the North river.  We were joined by the Shawsher, having in tow a schooner which had been sent the day before to Roanoke Island, to be filled with sand.  On the morning of the 23rd, fifty men were landed on each bank, while a launch with a heavy twelve-pounder, was sent up the canal, and with this force we moved up two miles examining the banks to find the best place for operations.  I concluded to place the obstructions near the mouth, that the men while at work might be under the cover of the guns of the steamers, and the enemy prevented from moving it.  The schooner was sunk just inside of the canal and with brush, stones, trees and earth the passage was obstructed.  We were occupied from noon till sun-set.  Earth was thrown in by hand as far as could be, but we had no wheel-barrows to carry it to the middle.

Prof.  Mailler, of the Sub-marine Engineering Co., and his assistants, were of the greatest assistance to me.  Indeed, I was merely governed by his advice, as he is more familiar with this sort of work than I am.  He is of the opinion that it will require two or three months’ labor with a dredging machine to remove all what we have placed in a day and a half.  He says it will be easier and cheaper to cut a new outlet than to remove the obstructions.  The rebels, I think have no thought of using the canal, as they have themselves been obstructing it above and below the bridge.

WASHINGTON, May 3.

Special to the Post.

Secretaries Chase and Seward went down to Fortress Monroe last night.

Measures are in contemplation for the better defense of our northern frontier.

WASHINGTON, May 2.

Herald’s Special.

About two months ago I stated that there was in contemplation by the Government an amnesty measure; that it was proposed to offer an amnesty as soon as our power extended over Richmond, and a few other specified places.  Now I learn direct, not indirect, that the subject matter of such amnesty measure is actually under consideration, and my soon be issued – the whole depending on the immediate success of defeat of our arms.  I was told some time ago that such amnesty would be extended to all except Davis and his cabinet, and the Confederate Major and Brigadier Generals, with a few prominent and prominent civilians.

Senator Sumner’s bill, of which he gave notice, repeals three sections of the act of 1808, regulating the coastwise slave trade and makes the transportation of slaves from one port of the United States to the other a special offence.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 5, 1862, p. 1