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All suspense regarding the employment of the Fifty-fourth ended July 8, with the receipt, about noon, of orders to move at an hour's notice, taking only blankets and rations.
Three hours after, the regiment began to embark, headquarters with seven companies finding transportation on the steamer
Chasseur, the remaining ones on the steamer
Cossack, with
Colonel Montgomery and staff.
Lieutenant Littlefield, with a guard of one hundred men, was detailed to remain at St. Helena in charge of the camp.
Assistant-Surgeon Bridgham also remained with the sick.
Captain Bridge and
Lieutenant Walton were unable to go on account of illness.
A start was made late in the afternoon in a thunder-storm, the ‘
Cossack’ stopping at
Hilton Head to take on
Captain Emilio and a detail of ninety men there.
The following night was made miserable by wet clothes, a scarcity of water, and the crowded condition of the small steamers.
About 1 A. M. on the 9th, the transports arrived off
Stono Inlet; the bar was crossed at noon; and anchors were cast off
Folly Island.
The inlet was full of transports, loaded with troops, gunboats, and supply vessels, betokening an important movement made openly.
General Gillmore's plans should be briefly stated.
He desired to gain possession of
Morris Island, then in the
