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. [Esq?] Vigeur de' Monteil witnessed. Lt. Col. Maggi, Captain Cipriani Captain [blank] Major [Caritan?], Capt. [Willard?] Lt. [?], Capt. W.W. Armstrong - Board LtCols 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 pleasentest kind of an evening. The major is a jolly fat man: the [Abbe?], Capt Cipriani Capt [Grifian?] We had music. The Col sang - Capt Cipriani & the Cl'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 - [?] eggs = lozenges: the Maj Cantel was a short clumsy man with a bald head and rat tail mustachios. He put me in mind of [the Maj?] in Capt [C Matley?].
