Yards

From the first place of fighting, where Major Vogdes

was captured.................................... 3,331

The first pine trees........................... 4,043

Long Point Beach................................ 6,101

Where we first fired on the steamers............ 6,832

Where the rebels landed, and where they were

attacked by Major Arnold, with Captain Robertson's

and Lieutenant Shipley's companies.............. 7,306

or 4 miles 266 yards.

HARVEY BROWN,

Colonel, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF FLORIDA, Fort Pickens, October 12, 1861.

GENERAL: In my official report of the affair of the 9th instant it will be perceived that I briefly notice the New York volunteers. I did so because the regiment did not behave well on the occasion, and because I think that, if properly officered, its conduct would have been different. I desired to spare it the stigma of cowardice, which I should have been compelled to inflict. The material of the rank and file is very good, and in the hands of even respectably intelligent officers might be made efficient; but as a body, and with very few exceptions, the officers are in every respect unfit for officers, and incapable of performing their appropriate duties, and the enlisted men consequently can have but little respect for or confidence in them. If it can legally be done, I would recommend the transfer to other regiments of the enlisted men to the regular companies at this post. By so doing the regiment can in one month be made efficient, and I would with confidence lead them into battle, which I should now be very sorry to do.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HARVEY BROWN,

Colonel, Commanding.

Brigadier General LORENZO THOMAS,

Adjutant-General, Washington City, D. C.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF FLORIDA, Fort Pickens, October 117, 1861.

COLONEL: I had occasion yesterday to send Lieutenant Seeley, my assistant adjutant-general, with a flag to the other side. While there he saw a rebel newspaper, containing an article on the action of the 9th instant, in which was this paragraph:

It is now certain that 175 in killed, wounded, and missing will more than cover our entire loss, while 250 will probably barely cover that of the Federalists.

This shows that in estimating in my official report their loss at three times the number left on the island, viz: 1 captain, 13 enlisted men killed, 1 lieutenant, 6 enlisted men wounded, and 5 officers and 22 enlisted men prisoners, I underestimated their actual loss according to their own acknowledgment, and we may safely infer from past experience that only half the truth is here told. Their loss, therefore, is nearly equal to the whole number of troops actually inflicting it, and this without attaining one single object proposed by the expedition, except the partial burning of the camp of the Sixth Regiment New York Volunteers and the robbing its officers. They did not destroy a single article of quartermaster's or commissary stores; they did not