CHAP. XIII.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

[Indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, September 24, 1861.

General SCOTT:

Two regiments leave Baltimore for Fort Monroe September 24, p. m. The Navy Department, I presume, will furnish boats, as desired.

Yours, respectfully,

THOMAS A. SCOTT, Assistant Secretary of War.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.] HEADQUARTERS FORT CLARK, Hatters Inlet, North Carolina, September 19, 1861.

Major General JOHN E. WOOL, Commanding Department of Virginia, Fort Monroe, Va.:

SIR: I have the honor to report that your communication of the 18th ultimo is at hand and contents duly noted.

On the 12th instant I ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Betts to take four companies of my regiment and proceed 2 miles up the west side of the island and there to establish a camp. My reasons for this step were that I had no place for them elsewhere. I wanted an advance post, for the purpose of checking any approach of the enemy by land, securing good water, and a healthy location. A picket is thrown out some 2 miles beyond this camp, thus bringing under my immediate observation and control some 6 miles of the lower end of the island. This camp, in honor of yourself, has been named Camp Wool.

On the 15th instant I learned through one of the citizens that the enemy were carrying off the guns from Beacon Island. On the morning of the 16th instant an expedition, consisting in part of the Union Coast Guard, under the charge of Lieutenants Rowe and Patten, and a detachment from the crew of the steamer Pawnee, under the charge of Lieutenant Maxwell, U. S. Navy, the whole under the command of Lieutenant Eastman, of the steamer Pawnee, embarked on board the steamer Fanny and one of the launches belonging to the Pawnee, and proceeded immediately to Beacon Island, where they found a large battery, mounting twenty-two guns, four of which had been taken away the day previous on the steamer Washington to New Berne. Eighteen guns still remained, four 8-inch navy guns and fourteen navy 32s, all of which were destroyed and left in a perfectly useless condition by the men under the charge of Lieutenant Eastman. A boat's crew of the expedition then proceeded to the town of Portsmouth, where they found four more guns, one mounted and three buried in the sand on the beach. There were also destroyed.

The bomb proofs at the battery, four in number, were then destroyed. All the wood work of the battery, together with a large pile of lumber was then burned. A light-ship, which had been towed from its moorings by the rebels, with the intention of taking it to Washington, was also burned. The expedition then returned, bringing with it some eighty shells taken from the battery.

While deprecating the loss of property, I rejoice in the belief that we have with little expense and labor inflicted another most serious blow upon the enemy, and too much credit cannot be awarded to the officers and men composing this expedition.

I am more and more confirmed in my belief of the entire loyalty of the people of this part of the State. Doubtless as you approach the