From H. W.
July 31. In at our open door walked Captain Hooper, and with him Captain Rand of the First Cavalry, now on General Saxton’s staff. Captain Rand told us that our wounded who came down from Charleston had been miserably cared for—the rebels acknowledged that they could not take care of them. The surgeon said but one man had been properly operated upon, and his wound had been dressed by one of the navy surgeons, a prisoner. No men or officers of the Fifty-Fourth among them: they said the officers we should hear of by way of Richmond; the men, I suspect, are not. No one knows who are among the dead or living—only that Colonel Shaw is dead, and probably Cabot Russel. It is said to have been a very imposing sight, when, in the midst of heavy firing from every fort, battery, and gunboat on each side, the Cosmopolitan, with the rebel wounded on board, her hospital flag and flag of truce flying, steamed up toward the city. Instantly every gun ceased, and white flags appeared from each fort and ship till she had passed, met the rebel steamer (a very fine one, which had run the blockade in the morning!), exchanged her wounded cargo, and returned.
To give complete the story of the siege of Charleston as seen from St. Helena Island, some letters have been included in advance of their chronological place in the series. Therefore the next letter goes back to an earlier date.