Today in History:

465 Series I Volume VI- Serial 6 - Fort Pulaski - New Orleans

Page 465 Chapter XVI. OCCUPATION OF SHIP ISLAND, MISS.

Schedule B contains the list of quartermaster's stores shipped on board the Constitution.

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General, Commanding.

To the ADJUTANT-GENERAL U. S. ARMY.


Numbers 2. Report of Major General Benjamin F. Butler of the arrival of the expedition at Ship Island.

WASHINGTON, December 19, 1861.

I have the honor to forward to the Commanding General a copy of the report of Brigadier-General Phelps of the landing of a portion of my division upon Ship Island, together with details of the state of the island and its needs for a defensive position.

I have not received from General Phelps any official copy of the proclamation to which he reefers, but from other resources have such information as renders at certain that the printed copies are substantially correct. I need hardly say that the issuing of any proclamation upon such occasion was neither suggested nor authorized by me, and most certainly not such a one. With that important exception I commend the report, and ask attention to its clear and business-like statements.

I have the honor to be, your most obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General, Commanding.

To the ADJUTANT-GENERAL U. S. ARMY.


Numbers 3. Report of Brigadier General J. W. Phelps, commanding.

SHIP ISLAND, MISSISSIPPI SOUND,

December 5, 1861.

SIR: A part of the Middlesex brigade, consisting of the Massachusetts Twenty-sixth and Connecticut Ninth Infantry Volunteers, with Captain Manning's battery of artillery (volunteers), numbering in all (servants included) 1,908, arrived off Fort Monroe, Va., on board steam transport Constitution, on the 26th November. In compliance with previous orders and instructions I received Colonel Jones, of the Massachusetts Twenty-sixth, in command, and we stood out to sea on the afternoon of the 27th. After a pleasant passage we reached Ship Island Harbor, Mississippi Sound, ont eh evening of the 3rd December. Dispatches for Flag-Officer McKean, with which I was intrusted were sent by Lieutenant Winslow, of the R. R. Cuyler, the same evening, to Pensacola Station, where the flag-officer then was, and to whom I made known my arrival.

Captain Smith, of the Massachusetts, offered us all the means within his power to facilitate our landing-an operation which we have not yet completed, and which we should have found very difficult, if not impossible, were it not for the zealous assistance rendered by Lieutenant Buchanan

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Page 465 Chapter XVI. OCCUPATION OF SHIP ISLAND, MISS.