From Washington

WASHINGTON, March 1.

There is nothing in the official telegrams last received, to show that the rebels are evacuating Columbus, nor has any information been received from Gen. Buell since the announcement of the taking of Nashville, when he was four miles from that city.  Hence the newspaper reports of rebels being surrounded at Murfreesboro are not reliable.

Dispatches were received at the Navy Department to-day from Commodore Foote, inclosing a report from Lieut. Gwin, in which he says he returned to Cairo on the 23d inst., after having gone up the Tennessee river in the gunboat Tyler as high as Eastport, Miss.  He is happy to state that he has met with an increased Union sentiment in Southern Tennessee and Northern Alabama.  He saw few Mississippians.  In Hardin, McNary, Wayne, Decatur and a portion of Hardeman counties, all of which boarder upon the river, the Union sentiment is strong, and those who do not express themselves openly loyal, are only prevented by their fears of the military tyranny and coercion which is practiced by the marauding bands of guerilla companies of cavalry.

Learning that a large quantity of wheat and flour was stored in Clifton, Tenn., intended, of course, to be shipped South, a large portion of it having been bought for a firm in Memphis, on his down trip he landed there and took on board about 1,000 sacks and 100 brls. Of flour and some 6,000 bushels of wheat.  He considered it his duty to take possession of the above to prevent its being seized by the rebels or disposed of in the rebel country.

The glorious success of our armies at Forts Henry and Donelson, he says, has been most beneficial to the Union caused throughout South Tennessee and Alabama.  The Union men can now again dare to express their loyal sentiments without fear of being mobbed, especially along the banks of the river.

He brought down under arrest a man named Wm. H. Pool, who has been active in oppressing [sic] Union men in his community.  He has warned the inhabitants of the different towns along the banks of the river that he would hold the secessionist and their property responsible for any outrages in their community on Unionists, and had enlisted seventeen men and brought down a portion of the refugees.

A dispatch form Com. Goldsborough to Secretary Welles, dated U. S. steamer Philadelphia, off  Roanoke Island, Feb. 23, says the reconnoitering party sent up the Chowan river has returned.  It did not go up beyond Winton.  There the enemy in considerable force opened a heavy fire upon the vessel (the Delaware) in advance, with a battery of artillery and musketry, which induced our force to attack it in return, both by landing the New York 9^th Zuaves and with the guns of the vessels that could be brought to bear upon  the enemy.  The enemy soon took flight, and the houses they occupied as quarters were burned.  Not a man was injured on our side.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1