Today in History:

169 Series I Volume XIV- Serial 20 - Secessionville

Page 169 Chapter XXVI. SKIRMISH AT COOSAWHATCHIE, S.C., ETC.

I inclose the reports of the commanders of the regiments of my brigade.

I have the honor to be, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ALFRED H. TERRY,

Brigadier-General, Volunteers.

Captain LOUIS J. LAMBERT, Asst. Adjt. General, Hilton Head, S. C.


Numbers 13. Report of Colonel Joseph R. Hawley, Seventh Connecticut Infantry.


HEADQUARTERS SEVENTH CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS,
Camp Hitchock, Hilton Head, S. C., October 25, 1862

CAPTAIN: I submit, for the consideration of the brigadier-general commanding a report of the part taken by this regiment in the late expedition and the actions which took place near Pocotaligo on the 22nd instant:

General Terry ordered me to furnish a force of 500 men, including officers, and, in accordance with verbal instructions, I organized them into six companies, commanded by Captains Chamberlain (first company), Skinner (second company), Gray (third company), Dennis (fourth company), Tourtellotte (fifth company), and Burdick (sixth company). Captain Dennis being unable to walk, the command of his company fell to Lieutenant E. S. Perry. Captain O. S. Sanford acted as major, Lieutenant-Colonel Gardiner being ill and Major Rodman absent on recruiting service. Captain James A. Burns, acting quartermaster, and Captain C. C. Mills, both waived all questions of etiquette and went upon my staff, the latter as adjutant and rendered indispensable and constant aid in the field and elsewhere. Assist. Surg. Horace P. Porter, acting surgeon, accompanied us, Dr. Hine remaining in charge of the sick in camp. The other officers were Chaplain H. L. Wayland, First Lieuts. John Thompson, William E. Phillips, Edward S. Perry, and S. S. Atwell, and Second Lieutenants Wilson, Wildman, Hutchinson, Van Keuren, Barker, and Marble.

The entire force that left Hilton Head was: Field and acting staff officers, 6;non-commissioned staff, 3; company officers, 16; musicians and others (hospital attendants), 17; color bearers, 2; enlisted men bearing arms, 470. Aggregate, 514. This excludes a corporal and 5 men without arms, put in charge of our stores on the Boston.

We embarked on the Boston on the afternoon of the 21st. At 11 p.m. on the passage up Broad River, by General Terry's order, I detailed Captain Gray, Lieutenant Hutchinson and 74 men, to whom were added about 20 men of the Third New Hampshire, under Lieutenant Head, to proceed up the river in boats, manned by the Navy and guided by two negroes, past Mackay's Point and then landing on the main-land to cut off and capture the rebel picket, said to number about 60, on duty at that point. A barge with a howitzer from the Paul Jones accompanied them. They safely passed the point apparently without being noticed; but the negro in the leading boat with Captain Gray conducted them 2 or 3 miles beyond the proper landing place, where a causeway might have been reached and the rebels intercepted. This fact was ascertained by inquiring of the other negro in Lieutenant Hutchinson's boat


Page 169 Chapter XXVI. SKIRMISH AT COOSAWHATCHIE, S.C., ETC.