It was 4 P. M. when the ‘De Molay’ started for Beaufort, leaving the storehouses, quarters, and long pier making up the military station of Hilton Head. The steamer crossed the grand harbor with some seventy sail moored upon its waters, including the frigates Wabash and ‘Vermont,’ a monitor, several gunboats, and a French steamer, and reached Beaufort before dark. Col. James Montgomery, with the Second South Carolina Colored, was just debarking from a successful foray up the Combahee River, bringing several hundred contrabands. Brig.--Gen. Rufus Saxton was temporarily absent, and Col. W. W. H. Davis was in command of the district. June 4, at 5 A. M., the regiment landed too early in the day to attract the attention of any but a few loiterers. Passing through the
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