the town, but outside of Buzzard Roost Island, the Potomska still higher up, and her guns commanded the railroad beyond the town. The following morning I sent the Potomska into the branch opposite the town. Neither this ship nor the Pocahontas can well get in, as at high-water but twelve feet of water was found in the bulkhead, and between the wharf and Buzzard Roost Island the river is but about four hundred feet wide. With the Potomska, Lieut. Balch took charge of a landing-party, consisting of twenty-five marines, from this ship and the Pocahontas, and the two twelve-pounder guns, with forty riflemen from the different vessels, landed and hoisted the flag. The place was deserted, and most of the furniture of the houses removed. Still there was much private property about, some in scows on the wharf, ready to be removed. After a careful examination of such buildings as might be supposed to contain public property, and a careful survey was had, I visited the town, and then directed the command to retire into the ship, having posted a notice, urging the inhabitants to return, and promising protection to all property for all good citizens. I enclose Lieut. Balch's report of his landing, etc. Nothing in the place was touched by the landing-party, and such houses as were not open, were not even entered. I sincerely hope that some good citizens at least may be found willing to resume their homes under my public notice, and I shall not allow the place to be visited, except on duty. UNITED STATES STEAMER MOHICAN, ST. SIMON'S LELAND, March 16, 1862. } SIR: I have the honor to report that on the thirteenth inst. I started in the Potomska, accompanied by the Pocahontas, with the launch and howitzer of this ship in charge of Lieut. Miller in tow, and proceeded through the inland passage toward the Altamaha River. I had heard that there were one or two rebel steamers at Darien, and I hoped that I might get possession of them. About five miles from the anchorage at this place, and where I had left the Mohican, between the batteries we found, as I had learned from contrabands, that the river was staked entirely across. We reached the spot at low-water, and found a double row of heavy piles, with their heads just above water. I at once got to work with both vessels, and in a few hours hauled enough out of each row to allow a passage for both vessels-say forty feet and here for the first time I learned that about five miles beyond another obstruction of the same kind had been placed. We reached the second difficulty at midnight, placed our hawser, as the tide was rising, but unfortunately the hawser disen gaged itself from the pile, and in the night, with the rising tide, we could not find them to go on with the fork, and my hope of passing through during the night was lost. My object was to get into the river so as to make a dash up to Darien by early daylight. We, however, worked hard that day, and by twelve o'clock got through this last obstruction. Between the two obstructions The fire we noticed, was the work of the re-midways, a battery had been built of mud, with tiring soldiers, and proved to be the railroad dé- the seeming object of firing at the vessels empôt and wharf. The lenses belonging to the ployed in removing the piles, but which could lighthouses, were not found. The channel-buoys not be observed from those vessels. As we passare in the river, but out of place, and the light-ed the second obstruction and turned the river, house destroyed. we saw the steamers moving off from the wharf at Darien, with full head of steam, going up the Altamaha River. The town is closely surrounded by woods, is generally well built, and extends over a considerable space. Several contrabands have come on At sundown I anchored both vessels at Doboy board. Soldiers are said to be in the woods, not Island, passing, to reach that spot, which is on very distant, and most of the inhabitants are said the Altamaha River, through Mud River at highto be fourteen or sixteen miles back, encamped. water, with just twelve feet. We remained that I have sent the Pocahontas and Potomska up the day at Doboy, the wind blowing quite a gale from river, as far as they could go, to reconnoitre. south-west to west. As I had lost all hope of There is a schooner of considerable size on the the capture of the steamers, and observing sev stocks, unfinished. Fires have been burning eral large fires in the neighborhood of Darien, I about us, but I believe it is the brush being con- determined to proceed no further at this time, sumed; nor have I noticed, as far as the people more particularly as I found that the brasses of are concerned, that they are willing to follow the the Potomska's shaft-bearing had broken, and I advice of Messrs. Toombs and Cobb, by placing feared she might become disabled. I had indeed the torch in the hands of the children, to con- accomplished my object, which was to open the sume their property. All that is done in that inland passage to Darien, and if the Potomska way, seems to be done by the order of military had not been in what I fear a crippled condition, commanders, who, having no local interest in the I should have placed her at Doboy, which com neighborhood of their command, have the hero-mands the river outlet, or at Sapelow Island, ism to consume the property in which they have no immediate interest. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, To Flag-Officer S. F. DU PONT, which commands the entire entrance to the Altamaha and the inland passage to Savannah. Darien has been deserted as was Brunswick; this we learned from some contrabands who came off to us; a company of horsemen only re maining in town, with the intention of firing the place should we approach it. . . . . I have been 66 mission of his commanding officer, landed with a boat's crew near the town, for the purpose of procuring some fresh beef for the ships. Having accomplished his object, the boat was returning to the Pocahontas, but had scarcely gone twenty yards from the beach, when they were suddenly fired upon by a body of rebels concealed in a thicket, and I regret to report that two men, John Wilson, ordinary seaman, and John Shuter, ordiwounded-one, William Delaney, mortally, and two seriously, namely, William Smith, second first-class fireman, and Edward Bonsall, coxswain. After the rebels had fired their first volley, they called out in most offensive language to surrender;" but this demand was refused by Dr. Rhoads, who, with the assistance of Acting Paymaster Kitchen and his wounded boat's crew, pulled as rapidly as they could toward the Pocahontas, the enemy continuing their fire. In a few minutes, a shell from one of the eleven-inch guns of the Mohican dropped among them, and quite near to another company of about sixty men, who were advancing rapidly. The rebels scattered and fled in all directions. Several shells were also fired at a locomotive and train observed in the distance, it is supposed with effect. Throughout this cowardly assault, Dr. Rhoads displayed great coolness and courage, and in his report of the occurrence, whilst commending the crew generally, he especially mentions the bravery exhibited by Daniel Harrington, landsman, into which I shall make further inquiry. Enclosed are the reports of Commander Godon, Lieut. Commanding Balch, and Assistant Surgeon Rhoads. I am sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, from one end of St. Simon's Island to the other. But one white man is I saw him. He is with his aged mother and little child. He had never been in the army, refused to leave his house, and was in mortal dread of our coming, as the military had informed him that we came for the purpose of destroying even the women and children. We procured beef for the vessels at his plantation, for which we paid the price he asked, and furnished the family with some articles, such as cof-nary seaman, were instantly killed, and several fee, salt, etc., which articles they had not even seen for months. We stopped at one or two other plantations on our way back; all were deserted, but had been tenanted by the military at various times, for as late as November, some one thousand five hundred troops were quartered on St. Simon's. We found some of the places to contain large quantities of cattle, and at Kind's plantation, not three miles from this anchorage, we counted some fifty head near where we landed. All the blacks have been removed from St. Simon's, and at Doboy we met the only negro seen, who was old, and alone on the place. He had been the father of thirteen children, but he informed me that every one had been sold as they reached about eighteen years of age, and as he graphically expressed it, "for pocket-money for his master." Your orders did not embrace the reconnoissance I have just made, and which has caused a delay of several days in communicating to you my progress to Brunswick. I hope, however, you will approve my conduct in the matter. I have now cleared the passage to Darien from inside, which can be performed rapidly by gunboats of ten feet draft. The draft of the Pocahontas and Potomska is rather great, as they might be caught and delayed for higher tides. I now beg leave, sir, to express myself in warm terms of commendation for the energy and skill of Lieutenant Commanding Balch and Acting Lieut. Commanding Watmough, and for the aid they have rendered me in the active work we have been engaged in for the last eight days; and I take equal pleasure in mentioning the cheerfulness in the work of the officers and crews of the three vessels engaged. I have the honor to be, etc., S. W. GODON, Commander. Flag-Officer S. J. DU PONT, FLAG-OFFICER DU PONT'S REPORT. FLAG-SHIP WABASH, } OFF ST. JOHN'S, FLA., March 20, 1861. SIR: I have to inform the Department that I have heard, from Commander Godon, of a dastardly and concealed attack made upon a boat's crew of the Pocahontas. As I have informed the Department, Lieut. Commanding Balch visited the town of Brunswick, without anywhere discovering an enemy. A reconnoissance had also been made for some miles up Turtle Creek, with the same results. The rebels apparently fled into the interior. On the afternoon of the eleventh instant, Assistant Surgeon A. C. Rhoads, of the Pocahontas, by per S. F. DU PONT, Flag-Officer Commanding South-Atlantic Blockading Squadron Hon. GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of Navy. Doc. 126. THE FALL OF FORT PULASKI, GA. APRIL 11, 1862. ON Wednesday, April ninth, the batteries on Tybee being completed, order was given to open fire on the following morning, (Thursday,) April tenth. The following special and general orders explain themselves: GENERAL ORDERS-No. 17. } HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES FORCES, TYBEE ISLAND, GA., April 9, 1862. The batteries established against Fort Pulaski will be manned and ready for service at break of day to-morrow. The signal to begin the action will be one gun from the right mortar of battery Halleck, (two thousand four hundred yards from the work,) fired under the direction of Lieut. Horace Porter, Chief of Ordnance; charge of mortar eleven pounds, charge of Shell eleven pounds, elevation fifty five degrees, and length of fuse twenty-four seconds. This battery (two thirteen-inch mortars) will continue firing at the rate of fifteen minutes to each mortar alternately, varying the charge of mortars and length of fuse, so that the shells will drop over the arches of the north and north-east faces of the work, and explode immediately after striking, but not before. for battery Grant have been determined, and firing at the rate of fifteen minutes for each piece, alternating from the right; charge of shell seven pounds, elevation forty-five degrees, charge of mortar and length of fuse to be fixed to suit the range as determined from battery Grant. The shells should drop over the arches of the north and north-east faces. The other batteries will open as follows, namely: Battery Stanton, (three thirteen-inch mortars, three thousand four hundred yards distant,) im-inch columbiad, one thousand six hundred and mediately after the signal, at the rate of fifteen minutes for each piece, alternately from the right; charge of mortar fourteen pounds, charge of shell seven pounds, elevation forty-five degrees, and length of fuse twenty-three seconds, varying the charge of mortar and length of fuse as may be required. The shells should drop over the arches of the south face of the work, and explode immediately after striking, but not before. Battery Scott, (three ten-inch and one eightseventy-seven yards from the work,) firing solid shot, and commencing immediately after the barbette fire of the works has ceased. Charge of teninch columbiads twenty pounds, elevation four and a half degrees; charge of eight-inch colum. biad ten pounds, elevation five degrees. This battery should breach the pancoupé between the south and south-east faces, and the embrasure next to it in the south-east face; the elevation to be varied accordingly, the charge to remain the same. Until the elevation is accurately deter mined, each gun should fire once in ten minutes, Battery Grant, (three thirteen-inch mortars, three thousand two hundred yards distant,) immediately after the ranges for battery Stanton have been determined, at the rate of fifteen min-after that, every six or eight minutes. utes for each piece, alternately from the right; charge of shell seven pounds, elevation forty-five degrees, charge of mortar and length of fuse to be varied to suit the range, as determined from battery Stanton. The shells should drop over the arches of the south face of the work, and explode immediately after striking, but not before. Battery Lyon, (three ten-inch columbiads, three thousand one hundred yards from the work,) with a curved fire, immediately after the signal, allowing ten minutes between the discharges for each piece, alternating from the right; charge of guns seventeen pounds, charge of shell three pounds, elevation twenty degrees, and length of fuse twenty seconds; the charge and length of fuse to vary as required. The shell should pass over the parapet into the work, taking the gorge and north face in reverse, and exploding at the moment of striking or immediately after. Battery Lincoln, (three eight-inch columbiads, three thousand and forty-five yards from the work,) with a curved fire, immediately after the signal, allowing six minutes between discharges for each piece, alternating from the right; charge of gun ten pounds, charge of shell one and a half pounds, elevation twenty degrees, and length of fuse twenty seconds, directed the same as battery Lyon, upon the north face and gorge in reverse, varying the charge and length of fuse accordingly. Battery Burnside, (one thirteen-inch mortar, two thousand seven hundred and fifty yards from the work,) firing every ten minutes, from the range as obtained for battery Sherman; charge of shell seven pounds, elevation forty-five degrees, charge of mortar and length of fuse varying as required from those obtained for battery Sherman. The shells should drop on the arches of the north and north-east faces, and explode immediately after striking, but not before. Battery Sherman, (three ten-inch mortars, two thousand six hundred and fifty yards from the work,) commencing immediately after the ranges Battery Sigel, (five thirty-pounder Parrotts and one twenty-four pounder James, one thousand six hundred and twenty yards from the work,) to open with four and three fourth seconds fuse on the barbette guns of the Fort at the second discharge from battery Sherman. Charge for thirtypounders, three and one fourth pounds; charge for twenty-four pounder, five pounds; elevation, forty degrees for both calibres. As soon as the barbette fire of the works has been silenced, this battery will be directed, with percussion-shells, upon the walls, to breach the pancoupé between the south and south-east faces, and the embrasure next to it in the south-east face; the elevation to be varied accordingly, the charge to remain the same. Until the elevation is accurately determined, each gun should fire once in six or eight minutes; after that, every four or five minutes. Battery McClellan (two forty-two and two thirty-two-pounders James, one thousand six hundred and twenty yards from the work) opens fire immediately after battery Scott. Charge for forty-two-pounder, eight pounds; charge for thirtytwo-pounder six pounds; elevation of forty-twopounder four and one fourth degrees, and thirtytwo-pounder, four degrees. Each piece should fire once every five or six minutes after the eleva tion has been established; charge to remain the same. This battery should breach the works in the pancoupé between the south and south-east faces, and the embrasure next to it in the southeast face. The steel scraper for the grooves should be used after every fifth or sixth discharge. Battery Totten (four ten-inch siege-mortars, one thousand six hundred and eighty-five yards from the work) opens fire immediately after battery Sigel, firing each piece about once in five minutes; charge of mortar three and a half pounds, charge of shell three pounds, elevation forty-five degrees, and length of fuse eighteen and a half seconds. The charge of mortar and length |