d suggestion of Captain Baldwin, to
the Clifton, and being made as comfortable as circumstances admitted,
was put under care of Dr. Nestell, the surgeon of the boat. The
warm-hearted commander of that vessel will always retain the sincere
gratitude of every member of the Coast Survey party for his endeavors in
behalf of their brave associate. The doctor probed the wound of Mr.
Oltmanns, but was unable to discover the ball, which, by the by, was
extracted six months later, by Dr. Lieberman, in Washington City, after
it had gradually moved from the breast to the right shoulder blade. Dr.
Nestell had no great hopes at the time he took charge of the wounded
officer, but thought that with proper care and attention, it might be
possible for him to recover. At eight o'clock P. M. the vessels anchored
in Lake Borgne, and the next morning, the 16th of May, the whole
expedition returned to Ship Island. Captain (now Admiral) Porter visited
Mr. Oltmanns, and made suitable arrangements at once for his removal to
his friends in New York in the spacious and comfortable steamer Baltic,
Captain Comstock.

Between the 16th and 22d of May, the boilers of the Sachem were cleaned,
and some repairs made in her machinery, at the end of which time Mr.
Gerdes was directed by the commander to repair to the Southwest Pass of
the Mississippi, and there to replace the missing buoys and stakes, and
to survey the entrance.

Leaving Ship Island on the 22d of May, the Sachem entered the Pass a
l'Outre mouth of the Mississippi, and reached Fort Jackson on the 23d in
the evening. Here the can buoys and five or six anchors and chains which
had been removed by the confederates were found, and brought down and
replaced by the Sachem in their original locations at the Southwest
Pass. This important inlet of the Mississippi, at present the most
accessible and best, was surveyed, a manuscript chart was made by the
officers of the Coast Survey, and copies of the same were sent at once
to Flag-officer Farragut, Captain Porter, Major-General Butler, and to
the Coast Survey office in Washington; at the latter place the chart was
lithographed immediately, and extensively distributed in New York and
New Orleans.

When Flag-officer Farragut directed Captain Porter to ascend the
Mississippi with his mortar flotilla as far up as Vicksburg, the party
in the Sachem was again called for. The vessel got under way on the 8th
of June, in charge of Acting Assistant Joseph