Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/140

 134 Southern Historical Society Papers.

that were acting in concert with us to report at Bamberg counter- manded.

On Wednesday, the 28th of April, 1862, I again left home with the Wee Nee Volunteers and reported for duty in Charleston. The com- pany was sent into quarters at Chisholm's Mill, where it remained for a day or two, and then went to Secessionville to join the battalion. I proceeded at once to Columbia for the purpose of presenting to the Governor and Council the rolls of seven companies, and to ask that they be organized into a battalion. I reached that city on the 2gth of April and had an interview with Colonel James Chesnut, who was acting as Chief of the Military Department of the State Government?* The Council readily granted the request of the companies which I represented, and orders were issued to organize them into a battalion of the Twenty-fifth South Carolina volunteers, to be known as the Eutaw battalion. Commissions were issued by General Wilmot G. DeSaussure, then acting as Adjutant-General of the State, to Charles H. Simonton, as Lieutenant-Colonel, and John G. Pressley, as Major. The companies received and assigned to this battalion were : Wash- ington Light Infantry, Co. A, Captain James M. Carson; Washing- ton Light Infantry, Co. B, Captain E. W. Lloyd; Wee Nee Volun- teers, Captain Thomas J. China; St. Matthew's Rifles, Captain Martin A. Sellers; Edisto Rifles, Captain John V. Glover; Beauregard Light Infantry, Captain R. D. White, and Ripley Guards, Captain W. B. Gordon. The Washington Light Infantry and Beauregard Light Infantry represented Charleston; the Edisto Rifles and St. Matthew's Rifles were from Orangeburg District, and the Wee Nee Volunteers and Ripley Guards from Williamsburg.

On the ist of May I reached Secessionville, on James Island, where the two Orangeburg companies and Wee Nees were encamped. These were soon joined by the three Charleston companies, and be- fore the end of the month by the Ripley Guards and the Marion Rifles, Captain W. J. McKerral, and Yeaden Light Infantry, Captain Samuel L. Hammond, the last two companies having been, at their own request, attached to the battalion since its organization. Very few of the men in either of these two companies had ever been in the field before. All of the other companies of the battalion had seen more or less service.

On the I3th of May the enemy commenced operations against James Island. Their gunboats came into Folly river and up the Stono. Cole's Island was taken possession of, and they began to push their way up to James Island. F. N. Bonneau, who had com-