| Lieutenant Colonel Louis Bell 4th New Hampshire Regiment Appointed Commander of St. Augustine by Gil Wilson |
| HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, Jacksonville, Fla., April 8, 1862. Lieut. Col. Louis BELL, Comdg. Fourth N. H. Regiment, Saint Augustine, Fla.: COLONEL: The major-general commanding the department having directed the abandonment of Jacksonville as a military post and the re-enforcement of the garrison at Saint Augustine, I send by the Belvidere four companies of your regiment and the regimental quartermaster to report to you. There will also be delivered at the same time subsistence and forage for about sixty days and 60,000 rounds of cartridges (caliber .69), for all of which Quartermaster Kelly has receipted. The remaining three companies of your regiment, under Major Drew, will go to Fernandina, to re-enforce the garrison at that point. The post at the mouth of the Saint Johus, at which Captain Sleeper, Fourth New Hampshire Volunteers, with his company, is now stationed, will also be abandoned. What the arrangements in regard to commands and brigades will be I am unable to say at present. Until further instructions are received you will therefore consider yourself as the commander of the post at Saint Augustine, and make your reports to the headquarters of General Benham, commanding the Northern District. Captain Ransoms battery, likewise on the Belvidere, is to proceed to Hilton Head on that vessel without delay. Please afford the steamer all dispatch in unloading. I shall advise that the Belvidere or some other light-draught steamer be sent back to ply between Fernandina and Saint Augustine. I go to Hilton Head with the Ninety seventh Pennsylvania Regiment. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, H. G. WRIGHT, Brigadier- General, Commanding. |
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| Lieut. Col. Louis Bell Fourth New Hampshire Regiment 1st Union Civil War Commander of St. Augustine |