Specials to the New York Papers

(Special to Times.)

WASHINGTON, March 12. – The statement published that account in council of war in Washington decided by 6 to 4 that the army of the Potomac could not be moved against the enemy at present, is entirely untrue.  The Generals were decisive that an advance was possible and probably the only difference was as to the plan of proposed attack.

A correspondent of the Times who accompanied the advance upon Centreville and Manassas, has just come in.  It was only recently that the retreat of the rebels from Centreville commenced.  General Johnson left Friday morning, General Smith left Saturday afternoon, and Colonel 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 well planned and very formidable.  They commanded the roads and the fire of not less than a hundred guns could be converged upon any approach to the defences.  The guns were never brought from Manassas to mount the Centreville works.  A railroad track is extended from Manassas to Centreville, and a telegraph line.  The rebel Generals had their headquarters at Centreville.  Although a more convenient and complete military armament could not be found in Washington than they had at Manassas.  The enemy carried off all their heavy guns from Manassas, forty to fifty in number, part of their army marching by turnpike to Warrenton and part to Gordonville, where it is said they would make a stand.  It was announced that the first sign of panic was noticed at Manassas.  A part of Stewart’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.  Then they immediately began to burn and destroy and run away in general confusion.  500 barrels of flour were stove in.  Barrels of molasses suffered the same way.  160 barrels or 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 two weeks since, between 50,000 and 60,000 troops at Centreville and Manassas, and that they had began their retreat last Friday.  Why they went is a mystery, as that number of our men in their fortifications would have been equal to three times their forces assembling there.  They must have feared to trust their men whose enlistments were expiring, or their powder, which many accounts agree, is of very inferior quality.

The strangest news brought by the Times correspondent is, that Gen. Jackson and one half his army, whom Gen. Banks yesterday supposed he was closely watching in Winchester, went down the Railroad to Manassas one week ago, and quietly marched off southward.  The other half are said to be moving southward in the valley of the Shenandoah.

(Special to Tribune.)

The Naval Committee of the Senate agreed today to recommend an appropriation of $25,000 for the construction of furnaces for the manufacture of 20 inch Dahlgreen guns.

The ––– of this evening says we have positive information that the rebels have retreated to as far as Gordonville.  Our scouts have probably penetrated the country as far as Culpepper C. H., 35 miles in the rear of Manassas.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 3