his head taken off by a shell which
ploughed though the bank. Toward the
close of the afternoon they stopped & we
went back to the mill. The next
morning we threw up cover for ourselves
under cover of a heavy fog & the
rest of our brigade & one section of Art.
came over to us. That night the first
mail reached us & we had an opportunity
to write home the next morning which I improved.
On the 19th we took the initiative &
crossed in flats to the S.C. shore. Their
artillery, luckily for us, had withdrawn
and they opposed our passage only by a
few musket shots from their picket. This
was uncommonly stupid in them for
they could have smashed us to pieces
during the crossing with a few shell & we
could have made no effectual opposition.
Once ashore we threw out a skirmish
line & advanced through the inevitable
rice swamp. We went through field after
field, sometimes with the rice standing
higher than our heads, and taking the
numerous ditches like well trained hunters.
About a mile inland we struck their
skirmish line & halted. We remained here