The rebel steamer Governor Milton, captured by the U.S. flotilla in St. John’s River, Florida, Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper). Courtesy: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory Project (public domain).

HEADQUARTERS TENTH ARMY CORPS,
Hilton Head, S.C., December 30, 1862.

CAPTAIN: For the information of the general  commanding I have the honor to report the facts in regard to the case of the captured steamer Governor Milton.

On October 6 last, in obedience to orders, I proceeded with the expedition sent from Jacksonville, Fla., up the Saint John’s River, in search of rebel steamers.

At 9 p.m. the next day, October 7, discovered the steamer Governor Milton in a small creek 9 miles above Hawkinsville; boarded her in a small boat, and found that she had been run in there but a short time before, as her fires were not yet out. Her engineer and mate, then in charge, were asleep on board at the time of her capture. They informed us that owing to the weakness of the steamer’s boiler we found her where we did, as they had intended to take her up as far as Enterprise. We returned with our prize the next day.

When the expedition returned from the Saint John’s River the Governor Milton was left with Captain Steedman, who was in command of the naval forces in the Saint John’s, and was used by him for nearly two weeks after making some repairs to her boiler and machinery, when she was sent to Hilton Head, and there appraised by the Navy at $2,000, and turned over to the Quartermaster’s Department, in whose employ she has been ever since. The Governor Milton is now at Beaufort, S.C., for the purpose of having her boiler and machinery repaired, she being entirely unfit for use in her present condition.

I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. W. BACON,
Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp.

Capt. LOUIS . LAMBERT,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Tenth Army Corps.

Source:

Report of Lieut. George W. Bacon, Aide-de-Camp, of capture of the Governor Milton, in Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861-1865 (Microfilm M262). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.