urselves that these must now be much decayed, and that
Captain Trowbridge, an excellent engineer officer, could remove them by
the proper apparatus. Our proposition was to man the "John Adams," an
armed ferry-boat, which had before done us much service,--and which has
now reverted to the pursuits of peace, it is said, on the East Boston
line,--to ascend in this to Wiltown Bluff, silence the battery, and
clear a passage through the obstructions. Leaving the "John Adams" to
protect this point, we could then ascend the smaller stream with two
light-draft boats, and perhaps burn the bridge, which was ten miles
higher, before the enemy could bring sufficient force to make our
position at Wiltown Bluff untenable.

The expedition was organized essentially upon this plan. The smaller
boats were the "Enoch Dean,"--a river steamboat, which carried a
ten-pound Parrott gun, and a small howitzer,--and a little mosquito of a
tug, the "Governor Milton," upon which, with the greatest difficulty, we
found room for two twelve-pound Armstrong guns, with their gunners,
forming a section of the First Connecticut Battery, under Lieutenant
Clinton, aided by a squad from my own regiment, under Captain James. The
"John Adams" carried, if I remember rightly, two Parrott guns (of twenty
and ten pounds caliber) and a howitzer or two. The whole force of men
did not exceed two hundred and fifty.

We left Beaufort, S. C., on the afternoon of July 9th, 1863. In former
narrations I have sufficiently described the charm of a moonlight ascent
into a hostile country, upon an unknown stream, the dark and silent
banks, the rippling water, the wail of the reed-birds, the anxious
watch, the breathless listening, the veiled lights, the whispered
orders. To this was now to be added the vexation of an insufficient
pilotage, for our negro guide knew only the upper river, and, as it
finally proved, not even that, while, to take us over the bar which
obstructed the main stream, we must borrow a pilot from Captain Dutch,
whose gunboat blockaded that point. This active naval officer, however,
whose boat expeditions had penetrated all the lower branches of those
rivers, could supply our want, and we borrowed from him not only a
pilot, but a surgeon, to replace our own, who had been prevented by an
accident from coming with us. Thus accompanied, we steamed over the bar
in safety, had a peaceful ascent, passed the island of Jehossee,--the
fine estate of Governor Aiken,