the Northeast river, 9 miles east of Wilmington, and fortified the position and the roads approaching it.
The month of December passed, and the expected attack upon Wilmington was not made. The expedition under General Banks did not move inland and the fleet did not appear off Cape Fear. General Whiting wrote General Beauregard that a storm at sea, which had lost the fleet three of its monitors, had saved Wilmington from the threatened attack. About January 1, 1863, the division under Gist was returned to General Beauregard, except Harrison’s Georgia regiment, Nelson’s battalion, the Twenty-fourth South Carolina, and the three batteries, Preston’s, Waities’ and Culpeper’s. These, with Clingman’s brigade, sent from Goldsboro, and three North Carolina light batteries, made up the whole of General Whiting’s disposable force for the defense of Wilmington, after Gist’s division was returned to Beauregard.
Returning these troops, Whiting wrote to General Beauregard: "I send you this note by your able Brigadier-General Gist, of South Carolina.... I beg you will receive my true and real thanks for the promptness with which you sent your magnificent troops to my assistance at a time when it was thought they were needed. He made a special request that he might have General Gist s personal services, and accordingly that general was ordered to return and report to General Whiting for special duty, for which favor Whiting expressed his thanks, referring to Gist as always "cool, sensible and brave," characteristics which that officer manifested throughout his career.
During January, 1863, the Twenty- fourth South Carolina, with Preston s battery, under Col. C. H. Stevens, occupied the vicinity of Island creek, on the Holly Shelter road, as an outpost in advance of the Northeast bridge, fortifying the position and obstructing the roads. The expected attack not being made, the South Carolina troops were returned, to resume their positions on the coast of their own State early in February.
