The New York herald., 1862-03-11


Another Glorious victory-Thc Contract
ing Lines OF the Rebellion-The Great
Rebel Army OF Virginia Falling Back.
Another glorious victory has crowned the
Union arms in the West, adding one more to
the catalogue of successes which have been
following upon each other in all quarters for
the last few weeks. An official despatch from
General Halleck reached headquarters last
night announcing that General Curtis has de-
feated the combined rebel armies of Generals
Price, McCulloch, Van Dorm and Macintosh,
near the Boston Mountains, in Arkansas, after
three days hard fighting, and dispersed them in
utter confusion. The rebel army of the ex-
treme West is thus broken up, and Missouri
securely protected from further molestation.
Since the battle of Bull run, in July last the
rebels with an apparently inhexible tenacity,
have held fast to their stronghold of Manassas,
in front of Washington, and its defensive out
posts right and left extending hundred miles
along the southern bank of the Potomac river.
All this was essential to their continued occu-
patton of the State of Virginia, including their
Confederate capital of Richmond. To maintain
this, the central and most vital part of their
enormous general defensive line, they were too
much weakened to protect it at other impor-
TON spto fall; ;,,to
enable US now to encircle Manassas with our
armies.
Realizing, at length, their desperate situation,
the rebels, for some days past, have been break
ing up their camps along the Potomac and
falling back into the interior. Thus Gen.
Banks, on the upper division of the river,
crossed over and took up his position in the
great valley Of Virginia without opposition;
thus when Colonel Geary crossed over and ad-
vanced upon Leesburg, instead of meeting with
another Balls Bluff defeat he passed on into the
occupation of the town and its defcnces without
finding an enemy; thus Winchester, the strong
est point on the left wing of the rebel army, has
been abandoned; and thus on the Lower Poto-
mac, the other morning. Gen. Hooker from the
Maryland side, discovered that the rebel bat
teres, which, since last summer, have material
ly prevented our navigation of the river, were
evacuated and now we have the news that the
strongly fortified central camp at Centreville,
which looks down upon Bull run, has been
abandoned-the enemy thus confessing that,
even without a battle, Manassas, like those
other strongly fortified camps of Bowling Green
and Columbus, has ceased to be tenable.
In addition to this rebel retrograde move
ment, foreshadowing the speedy expulsion Of
JEFF. Davis and his spurious Confederate govern
ment from Richmond, we have the steady ad-
vance of the Burnside expedition upon the
rear of Norfolk, and the complete invest
ment of New Madrid by General Poke.
At the same time, further south, while
one detachment of General Sherman and
Commodore Dupont's expedition is closing
around Savannah, another detachmsra has en-
tered and occupied the harbor of Brunswick, in
Georgia, and of Fernandina, in Florida-two
very important positions in reference to inland
operations in that quarter, if necessary, and the
suppression Of contraband trade.
All these movements unmistakably indicate
speedy end to this rebellion. The loss to it
qf Tennessee .gs tskss % away its great protecting
barrier In the West the loss Of Columbus,
without much further difficulty, opens to us the
line of the Mississippi down to New Orleans
and this retrograde movement of the great
rebel army of Virginia portends the hegira of
jeff. Davis from Richmond, never to return
The general impression is that he, his govern
ment and his armies, will fall back within the
limits of the cotton States, and there endeavor
to concentrate their diminished armies for q
stubborn resistance. But the season for cotton
planting is at hand, and upon the question
whether they consider their eollapsing Southern
confederacy under the circumstances, worth
the sacrifice of two crops of coton-that of last
year and that of the present year--tbe planters,
we suspect, will decide in favor Of their cotton
and their negroes, and revolt against the
rebellion.
In any event. the days of this rebellion are
numbered, and for the bulk of the cotton crop of
the last year the government of the United
States will soon provide IN outlet for the mar
ksts Of the world