detachment, under Captain Gould, and effectively worked. There was no loss on our side.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EGBERT L. VIELE,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Captain L. H. PELOUZE,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

FEBRUARY 23-26, 1862.-Reconnaissance up Bull River and Schooner Channel, S. C.

Report of Brigadier General Isaac I. Stevens, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, EXPED'Y CORPS,
Beaufort, S. C., February 27, 1862.

SIR: I have to report, for the information of the commanding general, that in pursuance to instructions from these headquarters Captain Ely, Eighth Regiment Michigan Volunteers, and commanding on Ladies and Saint Helena Islands, with 22 men of his own company and that of Lieutenant Doyle, and accompanies by Lieutenants Doyle, Badger, and Brown, all of the Eighth Michigan Regiment, left Ladies Island on the morning of Sunday, February 23, to make an examination of Bull River and the enemy's force in that vicinity. The party employed three row-boats. The services of a negro belonging to Robert Barnwell, who had lately come down the river, were secured as guide. From Coosaw Island another negro, named Cyas, was obtained, who subsequently proved of great service from the intimate knowledge he possessed of the country under examination.

Captain Ely reports substantially as follows: After leaving Ladies' Island at Brick-yard Point, and passing down the Coosaw to the mouth of Bull River, a distance of 9 miles, he ascended the stream to Schooner Channel until he came to the mouth of the creek which passes by Wilmar's Island. There he landed, placed his men under cover of the woods, and with a small party passed over the island and found it entirely uninhabited. Starting at nightfall he passed up the creek to near within 80 rods of its intersection with North Wimbee River, which is about 12 miles from the mouth of Bull River. Here he left the bulk of his party, and in his own boa, with only 3 men, passed into and up the North Wimbee branch to the landing at Barnwell's plantation, a mile distant. This landing is on the right bank. This point was entirely unguarded. He landed, examined the shore for some distance, and visited Robert Barnwell's plantation. There he found an old plantation negro, who came to Robert Barnwell's from Pocotaligo by way of Garden's Corner on the 22nd instant, and who reported that he saw but few troops at the latter place, probably not a hundred all told; that the greater part of the troops had been withdrawn to Pocotaligo, and that the boats at the bridge near Garden's Corner were guarded by 2 men. These boats were row-boats and flats, at least fifty in number (some negroes estimated the number as high as one hundred). Captain Ely also met another negro, who had come down from Walterborough the same day with a loaded team. From him he learned that the nearest picket, composed of 6 men, was 1 1/2 miles distant, at the fork of the roads connecting respectively with Garden's Corner and Combahee Ferry. He likewise said he had seen no soldiers between that point and the ferry.

With this information Captain Ely brought his whole party together