This was a bright fine day though cold. I put on my full uniform and went to the Navy Yard, and attended the Court of Inquiry. The Col Lionel Robert d'Epineuil, Lt. Col. A.J. Vigeur de' Monteil witnessed. Lt. Col. Maggi, Captain Cipriani Captain [blank] Major Cameron, Capt. Willard, Lt.Merriam, Capt. W.W. Armstrong - Board Lt Cols Bell, 51st Penn, Lt. Col. Potter 37st N.Y. & Lt. Col. Martin 11th Penn. Maggi was counsel for Lt. Col. Monteil. He is an Italian. We had an interpreter Lt. Col. Legendre. We sat until near three o'clock and adjourned. I came out in time for dress-parade. Col D'Epineuil invited me to tea. I went over to Mr Welsh, where he has his quarters, & spent the pleasantest kind of an evening. The major is a jolly fat man: the Abbe, Capt Cipriani Capt Griffin. We had music. The Col sang - Capt Cipriani & the Col's wife - a french woman, who says her mother was English. They all speak English very well. I find what Tom told us about the Col's wife wearing Zouave uniform was a hoax - though I suspected it when I told it. I kept it up when I came home giving a full description of her. It was an eminently social evening. The lady sent for a little box - french particolored fancy box - and it was batted around - it had various colored confectionary - birds eggs = lozenges: the Maj Cartel was a short clumsy man with a bald head and rat tail mustachios. He put me in mind of the Maj. in Capt O'Malley.
