28, 1864 .-- 8.30 P.M.
The Wilmington expedition has proven a gross and culpable failure.

Many of the troops are back here.

Delays and free talk of the object of the expedition enabled the enemy to move troops to Wilmington to defeat it.
After the expedition sailed from Fort Monroe, three days of fine weather were squandered, during which the enemy was without a force to protect himself.

Who is to blame will, I hope, be known.
U.S.GRANT, Lieutenant-General.
Porter sent dispatches to the Navy Department in which he complained bitterly of having been abandoned by the army just when the fort was nearly in our possession, and begged that our troops might be sent back again to cooperate, but with a different commander.

As soon as I heard this I sent a messenger to Porter with a letter asking him to hold on.
I assured him that I fully sympathized with him in his disappointment, and that I would send the same troops back with a different commander, with some reinforcements to offset those which the enemy had received.
I told him it would take some little time to get transportation for the additional troops; but as soon as it could be had the men should be on their way to him, and there would be no delay on my part.