The expedition was placed under the command of Brigadier-General Viele, and consisted of the Forty-eighth New York Volunteers, Colonel Perry, two companies of volunteer engineers, and two companies of the Third Rhode Island artillery. The troops, with six large guns, (thirty-two pounders,) were embarked in flatboats at Dawfuskie Island, and in tow of light-draught steamboats. The expedition reached Jones Island, a preliminary reconnoissance was made of all the points on the island, and a site at Venus Point was selected for the erection of a fortification. The swampy character of the soil seemed to forbid the landing of troops on the island, much more to erect batteries and mount heavy guns thereon. It was determined, however, to erect the battery at the point already designated, and to carry the guns a distance of a mile through the swamp. To facilitate matters, Colonel Perry undertook the construction of a corduroy road from the place where the troops landed on the Mud river side of Jones Island to Venus Point. The road was constructed, and by the untiring labor of the troops, the guns were at last placed in battery. While the construction of the road was going on, another detachment of Colonel Perry’s regiment attempted to erect breastworks to cover the guns. The mud, as fast as it was piled up for the battery, slipped and sunk away; but the platforms were laid and the guns mounted. The guns were landed on a wharf made of bags filled with sand, and long planks laid across them. Tramways were laid along the marsh, constructed of planks thirty feet long, placed in parallel lines; two sets of these parallels were used for each gun, and as fast as the pieces were taken over one set, it was taken up and placed still further in advance. Holes were drilled in the planks, and ropes looped through the holes, so that the planks might be more easily dragged by the troops. In this manner the guns were conveyed across Jones Island to the chosen position. Colonel Perry, Lieutenant J. H. Wilson, of the United States Engineers, and Lieutenant Horace Porter, of the Ordnance Department, superintended the removal of the guns. On the first night the heavy guns were dragged two hundred yards. The second night the work proceeded, and the guns were dragged the remainder of the route, and before morning all were in position. The work of tugging the guns was performed entirely by the Forty-eighth New York regiment, commanded by Colonel Perry. In the morning a rebel gunboat came down the river to reconnoitre, and doubtless was amazed to find the Federal fort confronting her; but by hugging the western shore she was enabled to pass the guns on Jones Island without serious injury. This demonstrated the necessity of another battery on the west end of Bird Island, in the middle of the river opposite, which was subsequently erected, and the river thus effectually blockaded. On the 15th, four rebel gunboats attacked the