21st-22nd he opened very briskly and fired 50 shots in quick succession at Fort Putnam, killing 1 man of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, who was on outpost duty.

It seems that the enemy did not know what to make of the many steamers coming and going last week; was constantly in expectation of an attack and became nervous.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. SCHIMMELFENNIG,

Brigadier-General, Commanding District.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, Numbers 187.
Hilton Head, S. C., April 27, 1864.

I. The following-named regiment of the Tenth Army Corps will proceed to Fortress Monroe, and the commanding officer will report to Major General B. F. Butler, commanding Department of Virginia and North Carolina: Fifty-second Pennsylvania Volunteers. They will take their camp and garrison equipage and 100 rounds of ammunition, 40 rounds with the men and 60 in boxes. The quartermaster's department will furnish transportation.

II. So much of paragraph 4 of Special Orders, Numbers 184, current series, from these headquarters, as directs the Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteers to proceed to Jacksonville and report to Brigadier General William Birney, commanding District of Florida, is hereby countermanded. The regiment will disembark at Hilton Head and report to the post commander.

* * *

By command of Major General Q. A. Gillmore:

ED. W. SMITH,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,

Hilton Head, S. C., April 27, 1864.

Brigadier General J. P. HATCH,

U. S. Volunteers:

GENERAL: In compliance with orders from the General-in-Chief, I shall in a few days turn over the command of this department to you.

I take with me a portion of the command, by the same authority, leaving behind between 18,000 and 19,000 effective men of all arms, including 800 veterans due from furlough. I deem this force more than sufficient to hold all the positions we now occupy upon this coast, besides conducting to a considerable extent effective operations in Florida.

The force left behind occupied three distinct district of country, each intended to be independent of the other for its defense. With our facilities for water transportation, troops can rapidly be moved from one district to another in case of necessity. The districts referred to are as follows:

First. The position in front of Charleston, comprising Morris and Folly Islands and the outposts or pickets supplied from them. These islands are both strongly fortified with works capable of resisting an assault, and the force left there is more than sufficient for their