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on the way, but did not reach
Jacksonville in season for me to get their names so as to send on by this mail.
The surgeons estimate three hundred wounded to have been left on the field.
The proportion of two hundred killed to one thousand wounded is that usually allowed.
This would make the aggregate of one thousand two hundred.
We also left on the field five guns, and not a small number of small-arms.
The road from
Barber's to
Baldwin was strewn with guns, knapsacks, and blankets.
At a station on the railroad between
Barber's and
Baldwin we burnt a building containing two thousand barrels of turpentine.
This we might have got away several days previous had transportation been accessible.
We also burnt a trestle-bridge on the railroad not far from
Barber's. At
Baldwin we burnt a large supply of commissary stores, knapsacks, and officers' baggage.
The wagons used to transport these things to the army were filled on the retreat with the wounded.
It is customary to make the enemy's list of casualties equal to that of our own. In this instance I believe I can follow the rule, and be not very far from the truth.
When we consider that the enemy had but four or five and we sixteen pieces of artillery, in position, it is not difficult to believe we inflicted upon him quite as much injury as he upon us. The fact that he did not follow rapidly is significant of the immense damage he sustained.
Our wounded, that is, those of them who were not left on the field, were all taken to
Jacksonville Sunday and Monday morning. We had seven cars running on the railroad.
During Sunday morning and afternoon, these cars were drawn by horses.
At night, a locomotive that the engineers had been trying to get in order for some days was at last got in running condition, at just the time its use was no longer required.
I do not consider the engineer at fault that the locomotive was not ready before, for it was an old concern, made up of half a dozen similar old refuse picked up at
Fernandina when our troops arrived there two years ago. It was out of order, and the engineers did not have the requisite material to repair it. Monday morning two hundred and sixty-four of the wounded left on the steamer
Cosmopolitan for
Beaufort.
Among the number was
Lieutenant-Colonel Reed, of the First North-Carolina (colored) regiment, who was in a critical condition.
In the absence of
Colonel Beecher, who had gone North with despatches,
Lieutenant-Colonel Reed took command of the regiment, and well and nobly did he act his part.
The wounded at
Jacksonville receive the best of attention from the surgeons in charge.
Dr. William A. Smith, of the Forty-seventh New-York, is Post Director, assisted by
Dr. Weeks.
Some of the surgeons remained on the field of battle to treat our wounded there.
Mr. Day, of the Sanitary Commission, and
Rev. Mr. Taylor, of the Christian Commission, also remained behind on the field.
These two gentlemen were at
Jacksonville when the news of the battle was telegraphed Saturday night. They immediately obtained a car, which they filled with medical and sanitary stores, and sent it forward to the front.
At eleven at night they followed the car, walking, before they overtook it, a distance of ten miles.
