66           
           Gen. Stevens Encampment.
ed us considerable hospitality in the form of
cigars, cider and whiskey.  My aid-de-camp
friends were a Lieut. Richard Thompson &
Charles Hay � captain by courtesy � of 
whom more anon.  Loafed away the sultry
morning, dined and arriving at the Stone
River desembarked in a boat.  Here we
found an encampment and I was introdu-
ced to Brigadier-General Isaac Ingalls
Stevens, in command there.  He impressed
me as an able, pushing, active man, not at
all particular in his toilet, but likely to be
a brave soldier, as indeed he was.  At the
little pier I found the Julia Halleck, which
had preceded us with my baggage.  Return-
ing with it to the tent of Gen. Stevens, I 
sat there doing a little writing and waiting the
return of Hay.  Had supper.  The heat
dull, dead, oppressive and clammy, the place
all mud and marsh, smelling unpleasant-
ly; a few earthworks appertaining, I was
told, to the war of the revolution, the soldiers
tents shabby and dirty and �nothing stirring
but stagnation.�  Presently learning that Hay
had gone aboard the Cosmopolitan I follow-
ed, getting rowed thither.  After a bottle of
claret, Honeywell returned in company with