From Washington

WASHINGTON, March 12.

Nothing new at Manassas.  The Rebels have retired towards Gordonsville.  They rest with their advance at the Cape Daine river, their camps extending back to Gordonsville, 12 miles.

Telegraphs from Fort Monroe, report all quiet.

Parties who accompanied a rebel flag of truce, admit that the Monitor severely wounded the Merrimac.

Information from Winchester to-night, indicates that our forces are in possession there.  Nothing valuable to our army was found at Manassas

Special to Tribune.

The Naval Committee of the Senate agreed to-day to recommend an appropriation of $250,000 for the construction of furnaces for the manufacture of 20 inch Dahlgren guns.

The Washington Star of this evening says: “He have positive information that the rebels have retreated as far as Gordonsville.  Our scouts have probably penetrated as far as Culpepper Courthouse, 34 miles in the rear of Manassas.

Times’ Dispatch.

The statement published that a council of war in Washington decided 6 to 4 that the army of the Potomac could not be moved against the enemy at present, is entirely untrue.  The Generals were unanimous that an advance would be possible and proper.  The difference was as to the plan of the proposed attack.  A correspondent of the Times, who accompanied the advance upon Centreville and Manassas has just come in.  It was only last Friday that the retreat of the rebels from Centreville commenced.  Gen. Johnston left Friday morning; Gen. Smith left Saturday P. M., and Col. Stewart last Monday – the day our army left camp on the Potomac.

The retreat was conducted very orderly at first.  Nothing was left at Centreville that could be useful to us.

The forts were planked and very formidable.  The commanded the roads, and the fire of not less than a hundred guns could be converged upon any approach to the defenses, but the guns were never brought from Manassas to mount the Centreville forts.  The railroad track extended from Manassas to Centreville, and a telegraph line.

The rebel generals had their headquarters at Centreville altogether, and a more convenient and complete military establishment could not be found in Washington than they had through Manassas.

The enemy continued their retreat as quietly as it began.  They carried off all their heavy guns from Manassas, forty or fifty in number – part of their army marching by turnpike to Warrenton, and part to Gordonsville, where, it is said, they would make a stand.

It was On Monday evening that the first sign of panic was noticed at Manassas.  A part of Stuart’s rear column was preparing a train to move southward by railroad when they learned that some excited rebels had set fire to the bridges ahead of them.  They immediately began to burn and destroy, and run away in general confusion.  Five hundred barrels of flour, piled in ranks, had their heads stove in; barrels of molasses suffered the same way.  Fourteen or fifteen kegs of powder were left, which they did not know how to destroy in safety to themselves.

It seems to be confirmed that the enemy had, for weeks, between 50,000 and 60,000 troops at Centreville and Manassas, and that they only began their retreat last Friday.  What they mean is a mystery, as that number of men in their fortifications would have been equal to three times the force assailing them.

They must have feared to trust those whose enlistment was expiring, or their powder, which many accounts agree is of very inferior quality.

The strongest news brought by the Times’ correspondent is that Gen. Jackson and one half of his army, whom Gen. Banks yesterday supposed he was closely watching in Winchester, wend down the railroad to Manassas one week ago, and quietly marched off southward in the valley of the Shenandoah.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, March 14, 1862, p. 2