It was really no easy matter to bring everything to bear, especially as every projected raid must be kept a secret so far as possible.

However, we were now somewhat familiar with such undertakings, half military, half naval, and the thing to be done on the Edisto was precisely what we had proved to be practicable on the St.Mary's and the St.John's,--to drop anchor before the enemy's door some morning at daybreak, without his having dreamed of our approach.
Since a raid made by Colonel Montgomery up the Combahee, two months before, the vigilance of the Rebels had increased.

But we had information that upon the South Edisto, or Pon-Pon River, the rice plantations were still being actively worked by a large number of negroes, in reliance on obstructions placed at the mouth of that narrow stream, where it joins the main river, some twenty miles from the coast.
This point was known to be further protected by a battery of unknown strength, at Wiltown Bluff, a commanding and defensible situation.

The obstructions consisted of a row of strong wooden piles across the river; but we convinced ourselves that these must now be much decayed, and that Captain Trowbridge, an excellent engineer officer, could remove them by the proper apparatus.

Our proposition was to man the John Adams, an armed ferry-boat, which had before done us much service,--and which has now reverted to the pursuits of peace, it is said, on the East Boston line,--to ascend in this to Wiltown Bluff, silence the battery, and clear a passage through the obstructions.