pushed forward and came near to Fort Fisher, capturing the small garrison at what was called the Flag Pond Battery.  Weitzel accompanied him to within a half a mile of the works.  Here he saw that the fort had not been injured, and so reported to Butler, advising against an assault.  Ames, who had gone north in his advance, captured 228 of the reserves.  These prisoners reported to Butler that sixteen hundred of Hoke’s division of six thousand from Richmond had already arrived and the rest would soon be in his rear.

Upon these reports Butler determined to withdraw his troops from the peninsula and return to the fleet.  At that time there had not been a man on our side injured except by one of the shells from the fleet.  Curtis had got within a few yards of the works.  Some of his men had snatched a flag from the parapet of the fort, and others had taken a horse from the inside of the stockade.  At night Butler informed Porter of his withdrawal, giving the reasons above stated, and announced his purpose as soon as his men could embark to start for Hampton Roads.  Porter represented to him that he had sent to Beaufort for more ammunition.  He could fire much faster than he had been doing, and would keep the enemy from showing himself until our men were within twenty yards of the fort, and he begged that Butler would leave some brave fellows like those who had snatched the flag from the parapet and taken the horse from the fort.

Butler was unchangeable.  He got all his troops aboard, except Curtis’s brigade, and started back.  In doing this, Butler made a fearful mistake.  My instructions to him, or to the officer who went in command of the expedition, were explicit in the statement that to effect a landing would be of itself a great victory, and if one should be effected, the foothold must not be relinquished; on the contrary, a regular siege of the fort must be commenced and, to guard against interference by reason of storms, supplies of provisions must be laid in as soon as they could be got on shore.  But General Butler seems to have lost sight of this part of his instructions, and was back at Fort Monroe on the 28th.

I telegraphed to the President as follows: 

CITY POINT, VA., Dec. 28, 1864.—­8.30 P.M.

The Wilmington expedition has proven a gross and culpable failure.  Many of the troops are back here.  Delays and free talk of the object of the expedition enabled the enemy to move troops to Wilmington to defeat it.  After the expedition sailed from Fort Monroe, three days of fine weather were squandered, during which the enemy was without a force to protect himself.  Who is to blame will, I hope, be known.

U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General.