96
                 Ship Island, Mississippi.
Prospects of Ship Island by tomorrow mor-
ning.   Presents of champagne from Herbert.  An
evening scribbling in the cabin.   A. G. Hills ner-
vously miserable about his letter to the Boston
Journal: he well for the first day since the be-
ginning of the voyage.  Hamilton reads his letter
aloud to us.      An irruption of fellows; whiskey,
talk, singing.         Subsequently wrote a private let-
ter to Gay, telling him what I had learnt from
Herbert; the plans to bring Texas back into the
Union which Gen. Hamilton and his party hoped
and believed that the Banks expedition was de-
signed to carry out.    These I got in confidence,
nor were they to be published unless hereafter.
  13.  Saturday.   Ship Island, Mississippi.
A long curvalinear island of fine white sand,
perhaps seven miles in extent, its eastern end
rendered picturesque with live oaks and cedars,
its surface intersected with sandy ravines and
ditches, a bayou almost dividing it, and on
the western extremity a few palms and a scanty
growth of coarse grass.       A fort commanding
the only channel by which the harbor can be
approached, and, to the east, a lighthouse.
Half a dozen buildings of the sutler�s store
order, all extemporized during the war.  Ves-
sels arriving, crowded with soldiers; I count-
ed sixteen of them.    Gen. Banks and Gen.