From Cairo

CAIRO, March 19. – The report published in the Chicago papers of the capture of Island No. 10 is considered premature.  It is not believed in Cairo.  At 11 o’clock yesterday, when the packet left Columbus, no such information had reached our forces there, and the reverberations of artillery, as if heavy cannonading was in progress, was distinctly heard.

The Ohio is extremely high and Cairo is in a fair way to be submerged.

The news from the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers is unusually scant and meager.

There have been no arrivals for twenty-four hours.

None of our gunboats have ascended the Tennessee higher than Savannah since the engagement of the Lexington with the rebel batteries at Pittsburg.

The Collection of 18 transports at Savannah in connection with circumstances known here but not considered proper for publication, indicates that the country about the Tennessee river near the Alabama line, is to be the theatre of extensive military operations.

The horses and mules captured at Donelson and condemned animals belonging to the Government, are being sold at auction to-day.  They bring from $25 to $50.

J. H. Winters, formerly a merchant of Napoleon Arkansas, accompanied by his brother, came to our pickets at Columbus, a few days since, and gave themselves into custody, saying that they wished to visit their friends in the North.  They were immediately arrested as spies, and are now in close confinement at this point, awaiting trial by military authorities.

Twenty secesh officers, wounded and captured at Donelson, are in custody here.

Capt. Waterhouse’s battery remains at Cairo.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 3