It went on March 11th to the village of Mt. Pleasant, near Charleston, and remained there until April 2nd, when it went to Georgetown. Major Eliphas Smith being in command of companies A, B, C, D and E of the 56th. A and B remained in Georgetown as a part of the garrison. C was sent as guard of a transport up the Santee River, and E and D were attached to the 157th regiment, and went with it on the "Kingsville expedition." Kingsville was about 135 miles from Georgetown, and the rebels had run in there from points on Sherman's march as many as 25 locomotives and 200 cars, with large quantities of stores and ammunition. After a troublesome march, with some hard fighting, the expedition reached Kingsville April 10. On the 9th companies B and D of the 56th had gallantly charged a rebel battery, in the face of a fusillade, and captured it, but with a loss in killed and wounded of fifteen men. [Illustration: G. W. Kern] The next day news was received of the fall of Petersburgh and the surrender of General Lee's army. In General Potter's order announcing it he returned "special thanks to Lieutenant-Colonel Carmichael of the 157th New York and detachment of the 56th New York for the skillful and gallant manner in which they carried the enemy's battery and drove him in confusion from the field." The locomotives and cars at Kingsville were destroyed, and the expedition marched back happy to their old camp at Mt. Pleasant. The fightings and severe hardships were ended at last. April 14 the men witnessed the raising of the Union flag at Fort Sumter on the 4th anniversary of its surrender. Soon the regiment was united again at Summerville, and remained near there until the men were paid up. It started homeward October 6th, and was disbanded and mustered out on Hart's Island, New York Harbor, November 10th, but a number of the men whose terms had expired had been discharged on July 5th. During its last campaign in South Carolina the distances the regiment had traversed were about as follows: Beaufort to Morris Island, seventy miles; to Coosawatchie by way of Honey Hill and Deveaux Neck, ninety miles; to Charleston, seventy miles; to Santee River and return, eighty miles; Kingsville raid, 390 miles; to Newberry by way of Orangeburg and Columbia, 166 miles; to Chester, forty-five miles; to Charleston by way of Winsboro, Columbia and Florence, 205 miles--all during the regiment's last year of service. The regiment arrived in New York City October 20, 1865, was quartered in the Battery barracks until November 9, was paid up and discharged November 10. From first to last there were 2,176 men and boys enlisted and assigned to the 56th regiment. The incomplete record shows the names of forty-one killed in battle, twenty-three died of wounds; 216 died of disease; 170 wounded and recovered; 415 discharged for disability and wounds; sixty-seven transferred to other commands; five captured and paroled.