Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/557

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Operations Before Charleston.
545

dead on the ground; indications that he suffered further. A section of Preston's battery did some firing. No loss on our side. A prisoner brought into camp.

June 7.—Alarm in evening; troops to the front. Everything soon quiet. Enemy moving about Grimball's, on the Stono.

June 8.—Enemy evidently in force at Grimball's. A prisoner brought in this evening.

June 10.—During a reconnoisance in some force this afternoon, under General Smith, a part of the troops—the Forty-seventh Georgia Volunteers, Colonel Williams commanding—were repulsed in the woods, at Grimball's, after a gallant onset upon the enemy, advantageously posted, supported by artillery and aided by his gunboats in the Stono. Our loss serious; Captain Williams killed. The wood through which the Forty-seventh advanced so dense that order, it was said, could not be preserved, nor could commands be properly extended. Great regret for the loss of the brave Georgians. Heavy firing nearly all night from gunboats in the Stono.

June 14.—Brigadier-General N. G. Evans arrived on the island to assume command. Heavy firing of shot and shell upon Secessionville, from enemy's gunboats and from a battery erected at Legare's Point. Vigorous replies of Colonel Lamar's guns. Firing nearly all day. One man killed in his tent, at Secessionville, by a shell.

June 15.—Similar firing upon Secessionville. Colonel Lamar replies more deliberately. Firing very slow towards night. Two men wounded on our side.

June 16.—Attack of the enemy at daylight on the earth-work at Secessionville; Brigadier-General Stevens in command of assaulting column of six regiments—Eighth Michigan, Seventh Connecticut, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, Seventy-ninth Highlanders, Forty-sixth New York, and One Hundredth Pennsylvania. Brigadier-General Williams in command of brigade operating to flank the work on its right by an advance on Hill's place; Brigadier-General Benham in command of whole. Our work a simple "priest cap," covering a neck of land about fifty (50) yards wide, flanked right and left by a creek, and defended by four guns and about six hundred men. Enemy repulsed with fearful loss. Colonel T. G. Lamar in immediate command of our batteries, assisted by the no less brave Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas M. Wagner, Captain Reid, Lieutenant Humbert, and others, and supported by the brave Colonel Gaillard and the infantry. Colonel C. H. Stevens and Colonel Simonton showed promptitude and skill, repulsing the flank movement on our right. Enemy's fire from gunboats