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

[266] reveille and playing national airs. Captain Emilio, in charge of the line, at once sent word to brigade headquarters that a part of Sherman's army was near. Colonel Hallowell, at 11 A. M., with the Fifty-fourth and Thirty-third, moved to the Steuart house, and coming to the Mackay Point and Pocotaligo road, turned into it. Captain Tucker, with Companies A, G, H, and I, preceded the column, skirmishing. It was a fine bright day, and we moved on over high rolling land on the route pursued by Gen. J. M. Brannan's force, when, in October, 1862, he attacked the enemy at Pocotaligo. Remains of fires and the debris of picket posts were seen as we advanced. Coming near lower ground, we could see a strong line of works beyond a swamp with heavy woods in rear, the road running along the front of the low ground bordering Framton Creek. It had been fortified since Brannan's attack, and could have been held by a small force against an army. Halting our column on the higher ground, Colonel Hallowell sent the skirmishers forward, and they soon occupied the abandoned works. Moving onward past the intrenchment, we at last gained the State road, coming in from the left. A mile and a half farther on we arrived near a bridge and Pocotaligo, where the strong works were found in possession of a division of the Seventeenth Corps; near there we halted. The Fifty-fourth had formed a junction with Sherman's army, the first body of Eastern troops in the field to meet the stalwart Westerners.

On the morning of January 14, the larger part of the Seventeenth Corps, under Maj.-Gen. Frank Blair, crossed from Port Royal Island to the main on a pontoon bridge, and moved toward Pocotaligo, twenty-five miles from Beaufort. They encountered Colonel Colcock, our old