February 10th, General Schemmelfinnig threw his command of about 3,000 strong across a bridge laid over the creek separating Folly and Cole Islands from James Island, and fastened with firm foothold upon the latter, only three miles from Charleston. The Fifty-fourth New York, acting as skirmishers, encountered the enemy a mile farther, at Grimball’s, on Stono River, up which the iron-clads _Augusta_ and _Savannah_, and the mortar schooner _Commodore McDonough_, made their way to protect our forces on the flank, shelling the rebels. Toward night General Hartwell advanced with his brigade, the columns double in front dashing upon the rifle-pits with a shout that assured him of victory. The bloody struggle was brief. The foe returned to his main works, leaving less than a hundred of our troops killed and wounded, and their own, with twenty prisoners, in our hands. This was the first time these works had been taken by our troops. General Potter moved toward Bull’s Bay to cut the railroad north of the city. General Hatch moved across the Ashepoo, toward the South Edisto. General Hardee, with General Sherman, master of Columbia, shutting him on that side, had been watching with eagle eye the manœuvres of General Potter, endangering his last highway from the city, and resolved upon flight. Friday, February 17th, his preparations for it began. In the night the garrisons of Sullivan’s Island and Point Pleasant withdrew, just in time to escape General Potter’s advance on the road by Christ’s Church. For the movements of Hardee had been discovered by General Schemmelfinnig’s watchful scouts and signal officers, and he barely slipped from the grasp of his antagonist. The troops in the city marched out by the Northeastern Railroad on Saturday. Wrote Mr. O. G. Sawyer from the gates of the city: