Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/169

 The Wee Nee Volunteers of Williamsburg District. 1 63

General Gilmore, of the Federal army, and Admiral Dahlgren, of the navy, was transmitted by our signal officers to General Beauregard in the city, and such as he desired us to know were then sent to Colonel Keitt for his information and guidance. One of these dis- patches, which was read by Colonel Keitt to a few of us who were in his confidence, detailed the plan of attack on Battery Gregg, which had been agreed upon between Gilmore and Dahlgren. An arrange- ment was made by which Dahlgren was to furnish the boats and Gilmore the men, and Battery Gregg, at Cummins Point, was to be surprised. But for this information, it seems almost certain that Gregg would have fallen, and the Confederates on Morris Island cut off from all hope of escape. The expedition was to come in boats, with muffled oars, from the creek which separates Morris from James Island, and when the keels of the boats struck the beach, the men were to jump out and charge the battery. Captain Martin A. Sel- lers, with his Company (F), and Company E, under the command of Lieutenant A. J. Mims, with a detachment of fifty men from the Twenty-eighth Georgia, under the command of Captain Hayne, were detailed as reinforcements for Battery Gregg. The whole de- tachment was put under the command of Captain Sellers. Com- pany B, of the Twenty fifth South Carolina volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant R. A. Blum, was a part of the force in charge of the flank wall on the outside of the fort, and was nearest to the sally-port. When the Georgians marched out they missed Captain Sellers, and Captain Hayne halted his detachment and entered into conversation with Lieutenant Blum, expecting, probably, to be able to learn something of Sellers and the rest of the detail. The flank wall and the ground behind it were as much exposed to fire as any part of the interior of the fort, and upon this occasion there was a perfect storm of shot and shell. Blum and Hayne were both killed by the same shell, and at the same instant. The Georgians were left without a commander, and if they had not been men of the most indomitable courage would have sought shelter in the sally-port. I went out to see whether Captain Sellers had gone, and found these brave men seated quietly on the sand amid this terrific shelling. I did not at first know why so many men were sitting idly there, and inquired of one of them what it meant.

" We are the Georgians," said he, "sent to report to Captain Sel- lers, and we have missed him."

" Where is your officer?" I inquired.

" He has been killed, sir ; and we have no one to command us."