CHAP.XIII.] BURNING OF HAMPTON, VA.

until daybreak, an hour before which time troops were embarked in a steamer which came to the fort during the same night, but a large number remained behind. He could not ascertain whether this steamer brought troops or not. He, however, induced one of our farmers to visit the fort next day on business, and learned the departure of a Vermont regiment and the arrival of another, Colonel Phelps, of the Vermont regiment, late of the Regular Army, remaining behind in command. Send also Private Joseph Philips to reconnoiter the shipping and another part of the work, which he successfully did. He repreproaches to the works, which were extremely strong, and garrisoned with twenty-five guns. The next morning I displayed my force within a mile and a half of (Newport News) the work, with the open of drawing the enemy out, but he remained close within his entrenchments. Disappointed in my expectations that the enemy would give me battle, I moved the left flank to within a mile of Hampton, and there a late copy of a Northern paper, the Tribune, containing an official report of General Butler, commanding at Old Point, to the Federal Secretary of War, was placed in my hands. I have not the report with me, but will forward it by the next mail. In it General Butler announces what his intention are with respect to Hampton, about one-third of which, however, had been burned by the enemy when they evacuated it. He states in substance that this evacuation was the consequence of the withdrawal of 4,000 of his best troops to go to Washington; that he intended to fortify and make it so strong as to be easily defended by a small number of troops; that he did not know what to do with the many negroes in his possession unless he possessed Hampton; that they were still coming in rapidly; that as their master had deserted their homes and slaves, he should consider the latter free, and would colonize them at Hampton, the home of most of their owners, where the women could support themselves by attending to the clothes of the soldiers, and the men by working on the fortifications of the town.

Having known for some time past that Hampton was the harbor of runaway slaves and traitors, and being under the guns of Fort Monroe, it could not be held by us even it taken, I was decadently under the impression that it should have been destroyed before; and when I found from the above report its extreme importance to the enemy, and that the town itself would lend great strength to whatever fortifications they might erect around it, I determined to burn it at once.

The gentlemen at Hampton, many of whom are in the army under my command, seemed to concur with me as to the propriety of this course. I also hoped that the sight of the conflagration might draw the troops from Newport News at night, and made dispositions accordingly. The Old Dominion Dragoons, under Captain Phillips, one company of cavalry, under Captain Goode, and one company from York and one from Warwick, were selected to burn the town. The former and the two latter of these companies were composed of persons from this portion of the country and many of them from Hampton. To support this party the Fourteenth Regiment, under Colonel Hodges, was detailed, and ordered to take post near Hampton, to defend the party in the town from an attack from an unexpected quarter. New Market Bridge, between Hampton and Newport News, new again taken possession of, and the remainder of the force so disposed as to feel, while advancing upon, any troops coming from Newport News to the relief of Hampton. Several thousand of the enemy's troops were encamped between Hampton and Fort Monroe, and had a strong picket guard on the bridge, connecting their positions with Hampton.