Specials to the New York Papers

(Special to Tribune.)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 – Several days have passed since a gun has been fired from the rebel batteries on the lower Potomac, although numerous vessels have sailed by them.  Although rebel cannon seem to be in their places, it is doubted whether they are not blacked logs and whether the gunners have not left the banks of the Potomac.  Two Whitworth guns reached Gen. [Hooker] yesterday and will be used to ascertain the true facts of the case.

(World’s Dispatch.)

The indications in the Senate to-day are clearly in favor of the immediate passage of Senator Trumbull’s confiscation bill with an amendment freeing all slaves of rebels.

Senator Powell will deliver a speech to-morrow against the bill and take occasion to explain his present position as a Senator, it being understood that his views are inconsistent with his holding his seat at the present time.

The House Judiciary Committee are nearly agreed on a confiscation bill, but may possibly await the action of the Senate.

The tremendous gale that commence so furiously on Monday night has dried up the mud and prepared solid ground for our soldiers to march over.  Already a wonderful change has taken place and the soldiers are becoming confident that they are to move at last.

(Times Dispatch.)

Gen. McClellan received a dispatch an hour since from the West confirming the report that Nashville, Tennessee is taken by Gen. Buell’s army and stating that the rebels have fallen back to Murfreysboro [sic], about 30 miles south of Nashville.

The judgment of the court martial in the case of Col. James Kerrigan has been approved by Major General McClellan and a general order issued carrying it into effect.  The court did not find Kerrigan guilty of treason, but inefficiency and of conduct unbecoming an officer, in the gross neglected of his military duty, as manifested in the disorganized and disgraceful condition of his regiment.  Kerrigan was adjudged to be dismissed from the service.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26. – New mail routes are to be speedily opened in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The Senate bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue certificates of indebtedness to Government creditors whose accounts have been audited, will probably pass the house.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 3