General Wright thought "we could take the battery." Third, General Hunter had left the Stono while this battery was daily shelling our camps, and encampment which he ordered me to make secure. No alternative remained but to abandon James Island, this key to Charleston, which General Hunter had not authorized when I represented it to him, or to take this battery, and for which he had previously approved, as the did again verbally, while his written order appeared expressly to require it. Moreover, after our battering it for two days ineffectually, deserters informed me (as was confirmed afterward) that seven more heavy guns were ready to be put up, it was garrisoned only by two battalions. For holding our position, therefore, an attack was necessary, and for success, and immediate one. Fourth, ad to the plan, I ordered the assault to be made at the earliest daylight, and with loaded muskets, with the bulk of Stevens' command (his adjutant-general told me he took 4,000 men), whole i guarded his left with 3,000 more, the most of which I sent to protect and aid him. The two battalions in the fort appear, by the rebel accounts I have, to have numbered only 550 men, while the only driven by my column on our left. Our force seemed sufficient to crush our all opposition, and if it had come up at the time, and as I ordered, it must have done so, and thus secured our foothold against Charleston. But my column waited over one hour, till after 5 o'clock and after sunrise, before the fire of the fort opened upon Stevens' command, and thought I have praised him on his won reports, after accounts showed to me fully that the he started in open light, with this muskets for the great part unloaded; that his supports, as his own dispatch shows, were "not close enough," while his advance was on the parapet, and that his men wavered and ware in confusion in part, while he himself was at no time nearer than 500, if even nearer than 800, yards of this earthwork, and this was, in my belief, the main cause of the repulse. I would ask, Mr. President, if, after a most unsullied reputation, both personal and official, for twenty-four years of service before this war, and after commanding as a general in four of the most successful affairs previously in this contest-at the rout and death of Garnett, where i was in sole commanded the leading and only brigade in action; and in the rout of Floyd in Fayette County in November, where I pursued him till recalled, with commendation by General Schenck, having caused, as the rebel accounts stated, "the most disgraceful rout their armies had suffered during the ear;" and at the capture of Fort Pulaski I was in full command of al the troops engaged, and was night and day in the batteries until that work surrendered-I would ask is it not most unjust, most crier, that I should now be stricken down and my name dishonored, without a trial, without a hearing, and without the knowledge even (for I have as yet but a suspicion) of the accusations against me, as brought by the very man who did the wrong.

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,

H. W. BENHAM,

Major of Engineers.

I respectfully inclose copies of the order of General Hunter* to me and of Captain Drayton's letter; also the extract from General Stevens; letter of July 20, which contradicts General Hunter; also copies of Gen-

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*See p. 46.

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