CHICAGO, March 13 .
– The Times Washington special of the 12th says our scouts have arrested seven
rebel bridge burners caught in the very act near Manassas.
Refugees say the rebels had no very heavy guns mounted in
earthworks at Centreville. The forts all
commanded the approaches from Washington.
There were more to prevent our forces coming on either flank. Ten days ago the rebels had sixty thousand
troops there. The rear guard did not
leave until Monday. Five caissons, five
hundred barrels of flour, several hundred barrels molasses were found to-day,
all damaged.
The Tribune specials says that it is now estimated that the
rebel army has gone to Gordonsville Junction, ninety-three miles from the
Potomac and fifty-nine from Manassas.
Our scouts have penetrated as far as Culpepper Court
House. The country around Gordonsville
is represented to be well adapted for defences and the railroad connection
being vastly more important than those at Manassas.
Evidence before the Committee on the Conduct of the War
to-day, shows that the whole rebel army army [sic] opposite less than thirty
thousand – fifteen thousand at Centreville and ten thousand and Manassas.
The Committee of investigation at St. Louis has finished
sitting the aggregate of claims passed on was upward of ten millions. The amount was much reduced.
The Naval Committee of the Senate to-day agreed to
appropriate twenty five thousand dollars for the manufacture of twenty inch
Dalghgreen [sic] guns. The committee was
brought to this conclusion by a telegraph from Assistant Secretary Fox now at
Fortress Monroe, urging that orders for their manufacture should be given at
once. He adds that the Monitor can sink
the Merrimac but that it will be a terrible struggle.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 3