À B. €. CHRIST to Fiftieth Regt. Pa. Vols., Comdg. Port Royal Ferry, December 15, 1861

December 15, 1861.

December 15, 1861. General ISAAC I. STEVENS, Commanding Port Royal District:

SrR: I have to report that no demonstration of a hostile character has occurred on the part of the enemy since my last dispatch, save a report (verbally) from Captain Elliott, Company I, Seventy-ninth New York Regiment, that 400 men appeared last evening on the shore occupied by the enemy about 1 mile above Seabrook. Captain Elliott reports, through Major Morrison, that he mounted a log on two cart-wheels and ran it on the beach, which had the effect to scatter the enemy in all directions.

Lieutenant-Colonel Brenholts, accompanied by Lieutenant Kellogg, Company K, Fiftieth Pennsylvania Regiment, with four men, left Port Royal Ferry yesterday morning at 9 o’clock and proceeded down the river (on our right) 23 miles, taking soundings of the channel 14 miles below the ferry (on right). Stockades were driven and timber sunk, so as to leave but 7 feet of water in the channel at low tide, but the obstruction does not extend half way aeross the river. Our side of the channel is clear (the enemy from some cause or other having abandoned the work before finishing it) I wish it distinctly understood that I am eorrect in this, that not one-half the channel is obstructed; that the obstructions are all on the enemy’s side, and, if necessary, could be easily removed; further, that Lieutenant-Colonel Brenholts reports outside of the obstructions a channel 112 feet wide, with 12 feet of water at low tide and 19 feet of water at high tide. This is reliable, and, so far as our observations extend, no other obstructions exist in the channels.

Our pickets are so posted as to command the shore from Seabrook to a point opposite a brick-yard 23 or 3 miles below the ferry (our right), said brick-yard being separated from that portion of the island we occupy by a stream, supposed to be the outlet of the stream crossed by a bridge 4 miles from Beaufort. Discovered that the point on which the brickyard is located is occupied by a detachment from the Eighth Michigan Regiment, under Captain Elder. Pickets have been posted from the point last indicated to Seabrook, and every precaution taken to guard against surprise. I would add that on the opposite shore, 2 miles below the ferry (our right), what was supposed at first to be a picket station of the enemy on a more careful examination proves to be an

entire regiment. _Nothing further or more definite than that contained in my previous dispatch has been ascertained relating to the guns supposed to be mounted opposite to and commanding the causeway.

The outer pickets (on our right) report that this morning at 8 o’clock a white steamer landed on the enemy’s shore about 34 or 4 miles below the ferry (our right), and remained there about one hour; what it unloaded, if anything, or what it took on board, they cannot say.

All of which is

respectfully submitted.

À B. €. CHRIST,

[Inclosure No. 2.]

December 15, 1861—9 o’clock.

General Isaac I. STEVENS,

Commanding Port Royal District :

SIR: Your dispatch just received. Have no knowledge of pile driving to the left (or right) of the ferry. The party who gave you the information must have mistaken the chopping of wood for the driving of