At latest accounts, Gen. Patterson’s entire force was well entrenched in and around Martinsburg, Va., where Doubleday’s battery and some other detachments had joined it The six regiments sent from Washington had passed through Baltimore, and are probably arrived at the scene of action by this time. Gen. Patterson’s force is fully equal to 25,000, while Johnston has no more than 20,000, it is said, at Bunker Hill, seven miles distant, where he is preparing for a battle. There had been no engagement, nor anything more exciting than guerilla warfare, between scouting parties. It cannot be long before Gen. Patterson closes in up on the rebels, and then there will be a fight or a foot-race. Nothing is said of Gen. McClellan’s movements, but he must be near.
The movement of all our other forces across the Potomac, at Washington, is contemplated, but military censorship or the storm,—one or both—render our dispatches quite unsatisfactory on these important points
Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, IL