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[188] Michigan regiment in the extreme advance.1 While these were pressing along the narrow strip of land by which, only, the battery might be reached, Lamar, who had been watching the movement, opened upon the column a murderous storm of grape and canister-shot from six masked guns. At the same time heavy volleys of musketry were poured upon their right flank. A severe struggle ensued, in which General Wright's troops participated.2 It was soon found that the battery, protected by a strong abatis, a ditch seven feet in depth, a parapet seven feet in height, and a full garrison well armed, could not be carried by assault, and the Nationals fell back, with a loss, in a short space of time, of about six hundred men.3

The battle of Secessionville, in which Benham was in general command, in the field, was marked by great prowess on both sides. It was fatal to the plan of an immediate advance upon Charleston. The National troops withdrew from James's Island, and no further attempt to capture the capital of South Carolina was made for some time.

General O. M. Mitchel, who, as we have observed, was called to Washington City from Tennessee,4 was appointed to succeed General Hunter in command of the Department of the South. He reached Hilton Head on the 16th of September, made his Headquarters in the building occupied by General Hunter, and began, with his usual vigor, to plan and execute measures for the

Headquarters of Hunter and Mitchel.

public good. He found Hilton Head Island swarming with refugee slates, disorganized and idle, and he at once took measures for their relief, and to make them useful. On the plantation of the Confederate General Drayton, a short mile from Hilton Head, he laid out a village plot, and caused neat and comfortable huts to be built along regular and wide streets. They were constructed chiefly of pine saplings, uniform in size and style, and each had a garden plot attached. Into these he gathered the refugee families to the aggregate of full five thousand souls, and made the labor of the men regular and useful in some way. When the writer visited Mitchelville, as the little town was called, in the spring of 1866, it contained between a three and four thousand inhabitants. The houses and

House at Mitchelville.

1 Companies C and E, led by Lieutenant B. R. Lyons, of General Stevens's staff, and guided by a negro.

2 His command consisted of the brigades of Acting Brigadier-General Williams, composed of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania troops, with a section of artillery; of Colonel Chatfield, composed of Connecticut and New York troops, and of Colonel Welsh, composed of Pennsylvania and New York troops, two sections of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry. To Williams's brigade were added the Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment and a section of Hamilton's battery, which did good service.

3 The Confederate loss was a little over two hundred. Among the wounded were Colonel Lamar, their commander, and Lieutenant-Colonel Gaillard.

4 See page 304, volume II.

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R. M. T. Hunter (3)
A. S. Williams (2)
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J. G. Lamar (2)
Horatio G. Wright (1)
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