services before and after, as well as during the battle, was eminently useful. I desire to recommend him to you as a highly deserving officer. The artillery, as might have been expected, performed its part with great honor; guns were never better served, or under more trying circumstances. Exposed greatly to sharpshooters this force suffered correspondingly. Captain Hamilton (chief of artillery), badly wounded, refused to quit the field, and with admirable coolness and fortitude continued his duties, and I must place on record here that this officer, well known to us as on of the most deserving and valuable of our service, should, as a mere act of justice, be advanced to a brigadier-generalship. Captains Langdon and Elder also deserve the most decided appropriation. Lieutenants Myrick, Third Artillery, and McCrea, First Artillery, severely wounded, exhibited courage and devotion of the highest order. The officers of my staff performed their duties to my unqualified satisfaction. Lieutenant-Colonel Hall, provost-marshal-general of the department, was very efficient, and I am much intended to him and to Major Eddy, Forty-eighth New York, assistant inspector-general, for constant and valuable aid. Lieutenant Michie, U. S. Engineers, was always ready, always brave, always skillful. My personal aides, Lieutenant C. N. Jackson and Lieutenant Bradshaw, were conspicuously active, and both are to be commended for energy and courage. Captain Dana, of the Signal Corps, was of great assistance to me, and to Surgeon Major, for careful attention to his duties and medical director, on behalf of the wounded. I desire to express especial gratitude. To the reports of subordinate commanders, herewith inclosed, I must necessarily refer for mention of my other gallant officers whose conduct should not be overlooked or forgotten.

The colored troops behaved creditably-the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts and First North Carolina like veterans. It was not in their conduct that can be found the chief cause of failure, but in the unanticipated yielding of a white regiment from which there was every reason to expect noble service, and at a moment when everything depended upon its firmness. The misfortune arose, doubtless, from this regiment having lately been filled with conscripts and substitutes of a very inferior class. The issue, so finely drawn that the battle was nearly equal to its very close, the enemy's losses as heavy as my own, ground firmly held to the last, the admirable temper of the command all indicate that but for the disparity arising from the causes indicated, this might fairly have been a victory.

Respectfully, general, your most obedient servant,

T. SEYMOUR,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.

Brigadier General J. W. TURNER,

Chief of Staff.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
Hilton Head, S. C., November 1, 1865.

In the foregoing report of Brigadier-General Seymour he says he moved forward on February 20-

With the intention of advancing on Lake City, and, if successful, of destroying the railroad communication between East and West Florida at the Suwannee River, such being the general plan of operations upon which the occupation and control of East Florida had been founded.