ADDENDA.

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, Numbers 123.
Hilton Head, S. C., August 23, 1864.

I. Proceedings of a general court-martial, which convened at Hilton Head, S. C., pursuant to Special Order, Numbers 243, from headquarters Department of the South, dated Hilton Head, S. C., June 16, 1864, and of which Colonel P. P. Brown, jr., One hundred and fifty-seventh New York Volunteers, is president, was arraigned and tried.

Colonel Thomas Bayley, Ninth U. S. Colored Troops.

CHARGE: Neglect of duty, to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.

Specification 1st.-In this, that the Said Thomas Bayley, colonel of the Ninth U. S. Colored Troops, being in command of said regiment and of the transport Edwin Lewis, and under orders to proceed up the Ashepoo River to the mouth of Mosquito Creek, did, to the great danger of his command, utterly neglect and fail to put a competent pilot at the helm, although he knew there was one on board of the Edwin Lewis, or a vessel close by, and subject to his orders, but proceeded up the river with a pilot unacquainted with the channel. This at Ashepoo River, S. C., on the night of the 25th of May, 1864.

Specification 2nd.-In this, that the said Thomas Bayley, colonel of the Ninth U. S. Colored Troops, being in command of said regiment and of the transport Edwin Lewis, which had been sent him by Brigadier-General Birney, commanding the expedition, to convey the said regiment of troops under command of said Colonel Bayley to the mouth of Mosquito Creek, on the Ashepoo River, did wholly neglect and fail to avail himself o the services of William C. Mandel, a competent pilot, although he was informed at that time by Acting Master C. M. Hancock, of said transport, that Brigadier-General Birney had placed the said competent pilot on board the Edwin Lewis for the purpose of piloting said vessel up the Ashepoo. This at the Ashepoo River, S. C., on the 25th day of May, 1864.

Specification 3rd.-In this, that the said Thomas Bayley, colonel of the Ninth U. S. Colored Troops, being in command of said regiment and of the transport Edwin Lewis, and under orders to proceed to the landing at the mouth of Mosquito Creek, on the Ashepoo River, did wholly neglect and refuse to inform the acting master and the pilot on said transport what landing they were to stop at, although the said master and the said pilot frequently expressed their desire to know; and did continue so to neglect and refuse until the said transport had gone up the river about 8 miles above the said landing, and past the pickets of the enemy, and under the guns of a rebel battery. This at the Ashepoo River, S. C., on the 25th day of May, 1864.

Specification 4th.-In this, that the said Thomas Bayley, colonel of the Ninth U. S. Colored Troops, being in command of his regiment and of the transport Edwin Lewis, in the Ashepoo River, and under orders to stop at the mouth of Mosquito Creek, about 8 miles from Saint Helena Sound, did negligently and carelessly proceed 6 or 8 miles farther up the Ashepoo River, and was there hailed by a rebel sentry, standing near a fire on the bank, with, "What boat is that?" or words to that effect, and that the said