New Victories and old wrongs.
To the Editors of the Evening Post:
On the 2d of July, at James Island, S. C., a battery was taken by three regiments, under the following circumstances:
The regiments were the One Hundred and Third New York (white), the Thirty-Third United States (formerly First South Carolina Volunteers), and the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts, the two last being colored.
They marched at one A. M., by the flank, in the above order, hoping to surprise the battery.
As — usual the rebels were prepared for them, and opened upon them as they were deep in one of those almost impassable Southern marshes.
The One Hundred and Third New York, which had previously been in twenty battles, was thrown into confusion; the Thirty-Third United States did better, being behind ;the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts being in the rear, did better still.
All three formed in line, when Colonel Hartwell, commanding the brigade, gave the order to retreat.
The officer commanding the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts, either misunderstanding the order, or hearing it countermanded, ordered his regiment to charge.
This order was at once repeated by Major Trowbridge, commanding the Thirty-Third United States, and by the commander of the One Hundred and Third New York, so that the three regiments reached the fort in reversed order.
The color-bearers of the Thirty-Third United States and of the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts had a race to be first in, the latter winning.
The One Hundred and Third New York entered the battery immediately after.
These colored regiments are two of the five which were enlisted in South Carolina and Massachusetts, under the written pledge of the War Department that they should have the same pay and allowances as white soldiers.
That pledge has been deliberately broken by the War Department, or by Congress, or by both, except as to the short period, since last New-