one regiment and the battery may be sent back soon, if you desire it, still retaining an adequate garrison at this point.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. G. WRIGHT,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

General THOMAS W. SHERMAN,

Commanding Exped'y Corps, Hdqrs. Hilton Head, S. C.

[Indorsement.]

General Wright will be instructed to put the place in as good a state of defense as his means will permit, so that it can be held by a regiment or less. He is also instructed to have a detailed estimate made for the thorough completion of Fort Clinch, and submit the same at as early a day as practicable.

T. W. SHERMAN.

MARCH 7-11, 1862.-Reconnaissance up the Savannah River and to Elba Island.

Report of Lieutenant Colonel John H. Jackson, Third New Hampshire Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD REGIMENT N. H. VOLS.,
Port Royal, S. C., March 13, 1862.

I have the honor to report that in compliance with instructions received from Brigadier General T. W. Sherman, March 7, I left this camp at 6 p.m. on that date, and proceeded to Seabrook with 20 officers and 371 men, with Surgeon Moulton and 4 hospital attendants. I arrived at Seabrook at 8 p.m., and found there six boats, two of them of small size. I made every effort to obtain more boats, and after waiting an hour Captain Dunbar arrived from Hilton Head with four boats, making ten boats with which to transfer my command to Daufuskie Island. The boats were crowded full, and I was compelled to leave behind Company A, with 2 officers, and a part of Company F, with 1 officer, a total of 91 men and 3 officers. Just as we were about to leave Seabrook, Captain Dunbar was taken sick, and I placed the whole charge of the boats and boatmen with Lieutenant Cornelius, of Company D, who discharged his duties in a prompt and efficient manner during the whole time of our absence. We left Seabrook at 10 p.m., some of the boats leaking badly. When I arrived opposite Buckingham's Ferry, and several times before reaching there, I was fired on by rebel pickets. I found we had lost our way, and having no countersign, were being fired on by our own pickets as well as by the rebels. I thought it advisable to land and wait till daylight, it then being very dark. Quite a number of shots were fired at us, none hitting either the men or boats.

It was 2 in the morning when I landed, two of the boats not coming up till daylight, having lost their way during the night. At daylight I started again, having procured a guide-Private Alonzo Borden, Company I, Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers. At 7.30 a.m. we came up with the two boats we had missed during the night, and at 9 a.m.

7 R R-VOL VI