SPECIAL ORDERS,
DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS IN THE
FIELD, Numbers 482.
Morris Island, S. C., August 17, 1863.

Colonel Tilghman, Third U. S. Colored Troops, will disembark with his regiment and report for duty to Brigadier-General Terry, commanding forces on Morris Island, S. C.

By order of Brigadier General Q. A. Gillmore:

ED. W. SMITH,
Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

[28.]

FORT MONROE, VA., August 28, 1863-1.40 a. m.

(Received 2 a m.)

Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

The U. S. steamer Western World, Captain Gregory, arrived at 11 p. m. from the blockading squadron off Wilmington. Captain Gregory reports that he left the squadron at 4 o'clock on Monday evening, 24th; that during the night he encountered a gale which broke the rudder-head of the vessel and compelled him to put into Beaufort for temporary repairs. He left Beufort on Wednesday evening at 10 o'clock. On Monday evening at 3 o'clock, one hour before the Western World left, the U. S. steamer Florida arrived from the fleet off Charleston, which place she left on Sunday eve, the 23d, bringing the important report that Fort Wagner and Fort Sumter had been reduced, and that our own troops now occupied those forts. This report, Captain Gregory says, has also been received at the fleet off Wilmington from prisoners taken. The report was not contained in the Richmond papers of the 25th (the news from which was telegraphed you); still it may be true, as the rebels are slow to report bad news. The Western World also brings good news from the fleet off Wilmington. On Sunday, the 23rd Admiral Lee ran up the beach to the position where the English steamer Hebe had been driven on shore, and, forming in line of battle with the Minnesota, Niphon, Shokokon, James Adger, and Western World, attacked a battery supported by the rebels to protect her and the working parties engaged in removing her cargo. Engagement lasted about two hours, resulting in the dispersion of the rebel force of 300 men; killing of 8 men and the wounding of 1; the capture of 2 guns, one an Armstrong and the other a Whitworth, and the total destruction of the Hebe; the capture of army clothes and other things that the rebels had got ashore. In addition to this an expedition under Captain Cushing, an hour before this, captured a schooner of eighteen men near Old Topsail Inlet. The schooner was lying close in to shore; Captain Cushing ran in with six men in a boat, and by giving orders to an imaginary fleet of boats deceived the enemy and made them surrender.

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General.

(Copy for the President.)

[28.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS IN THE
FIELD, Numbers 563.
Folly Island, S. C., October 14, 1863.

* * * * *

IV. Colonel J. R. Hawley, Seventh Connecticut Volunteers, will proceed