charge, which they did with admirable spirit, breaking the enemy's line, capturing both the pieces of Artillery and 375 prisoners, amongst whom were Colonel Simonton, commanding the brigade, and nearly all the officers. The pursuit was continued till dark. Colonel Moore did not succeed in getting his brigade across to the old public road, finding a difficult swamp in his way, which he did not succeeded in passing before night coming on made farther advance in the pathless thicket impracticable, and the remainder of the enemy's force escaped in utter rout and confusion. During the night the bridge over Town Creek was repaired to permit the Artillery and Henderson's brigade to pass, and on the morning of the 21st I advanced with my command under orders from the general commanding the department to move cautiously forward toward Wilmington with a view to ascertain the condition of the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, and, if practicable, to get possession of the crossing of Brunswick River, as the arm of Cape Fear River on the west side of Eagle Island is called.

About noon we reached Mill Creek, six miles from Town Creek, where we were delayed two hours to reconstruct the bridge which had been burned. This repair completed, the column moved forward to Brunswick Ferry without opposition. The Manchester railroad bridge was in ruing, having been burned by the rebels during the morning. They had also scuttled the boats of a pontoon bridge which had been at the ferry, and cutting the lashings had set the material adrift, not having time to destroy it. A few shots were fired from some rebel vedettes on Eagle Island, but they immediately retires across the island toward Wilmington. Some of the pontoons were found so Little injured that they were soon made serviceable, and I at once ordered fifty men of the Sixteenth Kentucky across to the island, which was found to be a mile and a half in width, crossed by a single road, on either side of were entirely impassable. More of the pontoon-boats were soon repaired and the whole of the Sixteenth Kentucky Regiment was put over on the island. These advanced rather more than half way over when they were fired upon by a battery at the river's edge in Wilmington, so placed as to enfilade the road. Fortunately but a single man was killed, and the regiment was ordered to throw up a traverse of earth across the road to cover them, and to endeavor to find ways through the swamp by which skirmishers might be deployed and advanced across the island. A few long-range shots were also fired from our rifled battery, which proved that the town was within reach. But few shots were fired by the rebels and no further injury done us. They immediately set fire to immense amounts of naval stores and cotton, both on the island immediately in front of the town and in the city itself. Satisfied by these indications, as well as by reports of citizens living in the vicinity, that the enemy were about to evacuate, I ordered the One hundred and seventy-several Ohio, Colonel Wilcox commanding, to assist the New York Engineers, under Lieutenant O'Keefe, in getting together and repairing the pontoons and bridge material left by the enemy, and in relaying the bridge. Considerable progress had been made in this before dark, when, at 6 p. m., I received a dispatch from the commanding general, dated at noon, informing me that General Terry had information that Hardee's forces had joined Hoke in his front, and directing me to return to Town Creek for the purpose of crossing at daybreak to General Terry's assistance.

Feeling confident from the indications before me, and from what I regarded as reliable information, that Hardee had not arrived and that the evacuation had already begun, and knowing that my own dispatches