Emilio, Luis F., History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry , 1863-1865

General Hatch on the 5th moved forward some miles and took post at the ‘Huts.’ He occupied a good defensive line behind a creek, crossed at one point by a bridge. The failure to push on to the head of John's Island that day, before the enemy had concentrated there, was unfortunate, for they posted several guns of the Marion Artillery on a hill supported by infantry, and on the 6th shelled Hatch's lines.

All the day-hours of the 6th the Fifty-fourth was resting in bivouac. At 8 P. M., a picket of four officers and 132 men under Captain Bridge went out in front of the right. The weather was more comfortable. It was very apparent that the enemy was stronger. The succeeding day, on the lines, only an occasional shell from the enemy disturbed the quietness. A mail came in the afternoon. Supplies were more abundant; and from sutlers at Cole's Island some additions to the army fare were procured. In the morning the naval vessels shelled Pringle and the woods until later, when they concentrated upon the battery. During the ensuing evening Colonel Montgomery with Birney's brigade was sent to join General Hatch. General Birney had returned to Florida.

At John's Island on the 7th, Colonel Silliman, with his regiment, the Twenty-sixth United States Colored Troops, supported by Lieutenant Wildt's section of Battery B, Third New York, made a gallant but unsuccessful attempt to capture the enemy's field-guns on the hill beyond the lines. Some ninety-seven men were killed and wounded. General Jones was considerably reinforced by this date from Atlanta and Wilmington. He also stripped Sullivan's Island of troops to confront us.

Quietness reigned at James Island on the 8th during