1

Progress of the Rebel Army.

The rebel leaders are not idle, although much of their action is concealed. From the reliable information which we can gather from various sources with regard to the number and disposition of the Southern troops, there cannot be less than between forty and fifty thousand men now in Virginia. The New York Herald learns from a gentleman who has just come through the South, that there were 7,000 troops in Richmond on Saturday, 4,000 at Lynchburgh on Friday, 4,000 at Culpepper Court House, and about 5,000 at Dumfries on Sunday. Seven hundred Kentucky volunteers had just arrived at Strasburg. There were five thousand men at Harper's Ferry on Monday, and troops were then rapidly coming North by all the routes except the North Carolina Central Railroad, on which they were afraid to travel by night, lest the bridges should be broken down. Armed guards were posted day and night on the road from Weldon to Petersburg. Brigadier General Cooke commands the Potomac border of Virginia with a force of men, while Gen. Ruggles is stationed at Fredericksburg: but the number of their several commands is uncertain. The opinion of the men on the march from the South is, that they are to concentrate at Dumfries, on the banks of the Potomac, fifty five miles south of Alexandria, and from that point make an attack upon Washington. It is generally believed, however, that no intention was ever entertained to hold possession of Washington, should the rebels be successful, but to destroy it and thus remove a bone of contention.