A Secretary of the Navy, a southern sympathizer, had accumulated ships and material at Gosport worth not less than $10,000,000, for the express purpose of allowing them to fall into Confederate hands. It was the duty of Commodore Paulding and Col. Wardrop to prevent such a disastrous consummation. Both officers felt that the Yard could be held against hostile attack; but their orders were explicit--to destroy and abandon. History has decided that the destruction might have been avoided. As, however, the leaders of the expedition had no choice, they endeavored to make the destruction complete. The “Merrimac” was set afire and sunk. Everything that would not burn was thrown overboard. At 3 A. M. Sunday, the men of the 3d, tired and smoke-begrimed, reembarked on the “Pawnee”; and towing the “Cumberland,” with the Navy Yard garrison on board, started down the Elizabeth river, leaving a raging hell of flames behind them. While the regiment had not been permitted to remain and hold Gosport as they desired, they had been the first northern troops to engage actively in military operations within hostile territory. By the middle of May the four additional companies had arrived and joined the regiment. Gen. B. F. Butler, having completed his task of pacifying Baltimore, came to Monroe as Major General in command of the “Department of Virginia and North Carolina.” On May 24, Private Charles R. Haskins of Co. G (Assonet) had the honor of bringing in the first escaped negro slaves who reached the Union lines, Haskins being on guard at the time in Hampton. By one of the happy flights of practical genius for which he was distinguished, Gen. Butler decided that he could not return the run-aways because they were “contraband of war.” The north had been waiting in anxious suspense to know what would happen when southern slave-owners should demand the return of their property. Very much depended upon the decision of the question. Men certainly would refuse to enlist in the Union armies if they were thereby to become slave-drivers. Butler’s decision caused a sigh of relief thruout the loyal states. It must not be forgotten that this first long step toward ultimate emancipation was taken in connection with the activity of the 3d Regiment.