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

[213] the early hours, after a night disturbed only by the slow firing of the navy. As the day advanced, however, our vessels opened a terrific fire on Fort Pringle and Battery Tynes, which was continued for several hours, our fire overpowering that of the enemy and so exhausting the garrison of Pringle as to require its relief. There was a conference that afternoon between Generals Foster and Hatch and Admiral Dahlgren, when it was decided that the enemy's force, in connection with their works, was ‘too large to render further serious efforts profitable,’ and that General Hatch should withdraw from John's Island on the night of the 9th. The admiral records, ‘I am utterly disgusted,’ and in another place, speaking of General Foster, ‘The general remarked that he had done all he intended.’

In the afternoon a fire broke out in the hamlet of Legareville on John's Island. Lieutenant Spear, who came in a rowboat from Black Island, visited the regiment, and informed us that mortars were being planted there to fire upon James Island. At 7 P. M. Captain Emilio was placed in charge of a fatigue detail of two hundred men from the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts and Thirty-third United States Colored Troops, and began work on a road from the left of our line toward a point of woods in our front, designed to facilitate the advance of infantry and artillery in the event of an assault.

Early on the morning of the 8th at John's Island, there was an artillery duel between our field-pieces and those of the enemy on the hill. From the tree-tops our lookouts there saw reinforcements crossing the Ashley River to join the enemy. An attack was fully expected the next day; and the troops slept in position on their arms