February 1.
We all went to the Wilkes’s Friday evening–a very pleasant little party. General McClellan could not come, but there were five other generals, FitzJohn Porter, Stoneman, Barry and Butterfield; also Commodore Shubrick, Commodore Wilkes, Judge Loring and family, the Prussian minister and family, and a good many lesser lights. General Seth Williams was the most modest man in the room, in plain skimpy citizen’s clothes.