e to risk something, in
the effort to hold Florida, and perhaps bring it back into the Union.

My chief aim in the negotiation was to get the men into action, and that
of the Florida Commissioners to get them into Florida. Thus far
coinciding, we could heartily cooperate; and though General Hunter made
some reasonable objections, they were yielded more readily than I had
feared; and finally, before half our logical ammunition was exhausted,
the desired permission was given, and the thing might be considered as
done.

We were now to leave, as we supposed forever, the camp which had thus
far been our home. Our vast amount of surplus baggage made a heavy job
in the loading, inasmuch as we had no wharf, and everything had to be
put on board by means of flat-boats. It was completed by twenty-four
hours of steady work; and after some of the usual uncomfortable delays
which wait on military expeditions, we were at last afloat.

I had tried to keep the plan as secret as possible, and had requested to
have no definite orders, until we should be on board ship. But this
larger expedition was less within my own hands than was the St. Mary's
affair, and the great reliance for concealment was on certain counter
reports, ingeniously set afloat by some of the Florida men. These
reports rapidly swelled into the most enormous tales, and by the time
they reached the New York newspapers, the expedition was "a great
volcano about bursting, whose lava will burn, flow, and destroy,"--"the
sudden appearance in arms of no less than five thousand negroes,"--"a
liberating host,"--"not the phantom, but the reality, of servile
insurrection." What the undertaking actually was may be best seen in the
instructions which guided it.[B]

In due time, after touching at Fernandina, we reached the difficult bar
of the St. John's, and were piloted safely over. Admiral Dupont had
furnished a courteous letter of introduction,[C] and we were cordially
received by Commander Duncan of the Norwich, and Lieutenant Watson,
commanding the Uncas. Like all officers on blockade duty, they were
impatient of their enforced inaction, and gladly seized the opportunity
for a different service. It was some time since they had ascended as
high as Jacksonville, for their orders were strict, one vessel's coal
was low, the other was in infirm condition, and there were rumors of
cotton-clads and torpedoes. But they gladly agreed to escort us up the
river, so soon as our own ar