He found about one thousand of us aboard, and singling me out made me the non-commissioned officer in command.

I was put in charge, of issuing the rations and of a barrel of milk punch which the Sanitary Commission had sent down to be dealt out on the voyage to such as needed it.

I went to work and arranged the boys in the best way I could, and returned to the deck to view the scenery.
Wilmington is thirty-four miles from the sea, and the river for that distance is a calm, broad estuary.

At this time the resources of Rebel engineering were exhausted in defense against its passage by a hostile fleet, and undoubtedly the best work of the kind in the Southern Confederacy was done upon it.

At its mouth were Forts Fisher and Caswell, the strongest sea coast forts in the Confederacy.