No. 29. Report of Colonel Elijah Walker,

Fourth Maine Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH MAINE VOLUNTEERS, May 6, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to render the following report of my proceedings since halting and preparing for action at or about 3 o'clock p.m. of yesterday, the 5th instant:

In pursuance of orders received from Brigadier General D. B. Birney, commanding brigade, I marched my regiment to the left, and reported to General Emory. I was shortly afterward ordered to follow the Sixty-third Pennsylvania Regiment to the scene of action. On arriving where the engagement was going on it was nearly dark, and I was ordered by General Kearny, commanding the division, to bivouac for the night in the wood on the right of the road.

At 5 o'clock this morning I was ordered by General Birney to post my regiment as a picket line in the edge of the woods immediately in front of the rebel fortifications. Having arrived on this line, I observed in the open field between the woods and the fortifications Generals Heintzelman, Kearny, Jameson, and Birney, and accordingly advanced my men, and by command of General Heintzelman took possession of the fort and planted my colors upon the ramparts. The fort appeared to have been but a short time evacuated. The bodies of 5 men lay unburied there, and in the smaller work on the right we found 3 wounded men and 2 or 3 move dead bodies in the vicinity. The only article of consequence discovered in the fort was a rebel banner. This flag was of blue silk, about 3 feet square, embordered by a crimson fringe. On one side was the device of the palmetto tree encircled by a serpent; the whole surrounded by a crimson belt bearing seven stars and the motto, "Animis opibusque parati;" a white crescent in the upper left-hand corner. On the reserve of the flag, inclosed in a wreath of laurel, is the following;

Pickens Sentinels.

Preserve.

Southern Institutions,
or

Perish with them.

January 10, 1861.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. WALKER,

Colonel, Commanding Fourth Maine Volunteers.

P. S.-I have to add that one of my men, Corpl. S. M. Perkins, of Company K, having got separated from the regiment while going through the woods, took part in the action with the Second Michigan Regiment, and received a wound in the left hand, rendering amputation of his thumb necessary.

E. WALKER.

Captain G. W. MINDIL,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.