them at Hilton Head, South Carolina. From this post, the 52nd Pennsylvanians were subsequently ordered to make periodic raids on South Carolina's Sea Islands, including one raid each at John's, Kiowa and Bull's. On April 22, the 52nd Pennsylvania was then ordered to Hilton Head, where it remained until being ordered back to Folly Island on June 13. On July 3, 1864, 125 men from the 52nd Pennsylvania, led by Colonel Henry M. Hoyt, attacked Fort Johnson on James Island, but the ill-fated assault suffered from poor execution by other participating Union troops of a strategic plan which had been badly designed by senior Union leaders. Finding themselves without their promised support and cut off from retreat, after having scaled a parapet and made it inside the fort, Hoyt and his detachment of 52nd Pennsylvanians were ultimately captured by CSA troops. The officers who became POWs were held at Macon before being transferred to Charleston, where they were at risk from friendly fire by Union troops stationed on Morris Island. The enlisted men who became POWs were sent to CSA prisons at Columbia and Florence, South Carolina and/or Andersonville, Georgia; more than 50 died before they could be freed. In addition, the regiment also sustained 23 casualties during the assault, including seven who were killed or mortally wounded in action (see "Casualties" below). Stationed on Morris Island during the summer and fall of 1864, the 52nd Pennsylvanians were assigned to heavy artillery duties during which they were directed to shell Charleston with rifled Parrott guns. 1865—1866 Assigned to the "boat infantry" during the winter of late 1864 and early 1865, according to Bates, this duty for the 52nd Pennsylvania Volunteers "was exceedingly difficult arduous," and was, essentially, the equivalent of "picket duty upon the harbor." All through the long, blustering, wintry nights the men sat with muskets, howitzers, and Requa batteries, peering across the iron-clad harbor; collisions with the enemy's pickets were frequent. On February 5, 1865, the 52nd Pennsylvania's John A. Hennessy was advanced in rank in order to fill the leadership vacuum created when Major John Conyngham was imprisoned as a POW. The newly commissioned Major Hennessy then led an expedition to Fort Sumter on February 18, but found it deserted. After hoisting the regimental flag over the ruins (the first U.S. flag over the fort in nearly four years), the party continued into Charleston, entering the city