11 o'clock at night when we reached the house of one Ned Bunkley, the place where I had been informed there would be a wedding that night. The distance from Todd's battery to this house is about two miles. Arriving there, the house was first surrounded, then searched. No one was there except three women, some small children, and a few colored servants. The parlor showed signs of a recent festivity of some kind, it being decked around with evergreens, &c. I learned from one of the negroes that the wedding had taken place at 3 p.m.; that the hour had been changed from 6 to 3; that the very party I was searching for had been there, the man Heins among them; that they were armed with revolvers and rifles. The party broke up soon after the ceremony was over, only a few of them remaining till after dark. The delay in making a landing in the creek was in a measure a cause of failure, but the principal cause was the unexpected change of hour for the wedding. Having accomplished all that was possible to accomplish then we returned to Fort Monroe.

There are doubtless about thirty armed men who frequent that vicinity and roam from the Nansemond to Hog Island, giving information to the enemy and committing depredations upon Government property. They are aided and protected by the residents of that section. There is not a move in Hampton Roads that is not known to the enemy through these very men.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES B. KING,

Captain, Third Pennsylvania Artillery, Commanding Company C.

First Lieutenant M. C. GRIER,

Acting Adjutant Third Pennsylvania Artillery.