The rebel chief improved his opportunity, and suddenly decamped under cover of night, defiling along the causeway while our weary troops were resting on their arms. He had stationed his iron-clads near Hutchinson’s Island, which, with the battalions on its lower end, protected the highway of the flying thousands whose arms reflected the glare of the burning Navy Yard, fired during the evacuation. The thunder of exploding iron-clads, destroyed by the rear-guard, was the last signal of his retreat from the boastful Hardee: “The night was exceedingly propitious for such an operation. It was dark and a heavy wind was blowing from the west, conveying the sound of trampling feet over the pontoons away from our lines. But during some of the lulls that occurred General Geary, commanding the Second division, Twentieth Corps, the extreme left of our lines resting on the Savannah River, heard the movement across the bridge, but could not decide in which direction the troops were passing. He ordered his division to be ready at a moment’s notice to move, and then watched the progress of affairs. At midnight General Geary became convinced in his own mind that the enemy were evacuating the town, and notified the commanding general of this fact. The enemy’s skirmish line continued a fusilade on our pickets, and did not cease until two or three o’clock, when they were drawn in, and not many moments after our picket line was advanced, and meeting no opposition, rushed still further on, crawled through the abatis, floundered through the ditches, and scrambled over the parapets and found the first line deserted. General Geary immediately advanced his division, occupied the line and pushed on toward the city. The second line was found abandoned as well, and General Geary, at the head of a small body of men, hurried on.”