landed here yesterday morning & unload the ship & went into camp in the suberbs of the citty in the afternoon, night before last we lay at anchor outside of the bar & in sight of the citty - I was seasick the first night we were out of course - but got tolerably well over it the next day & enjoyed the the trip very well.
This has the apearance of being a new place, about the size of all DesMoines. Streets wide & laid off square.  There are some large brick buildings in the buisness part of the citty, gardens look well, the soil is good, not so sandy as on Matagorda Island.  There is said to be a fine freeze here except in the early part of the day.  I am writing on my knee under the shade of my "dog tent" quite comfortable.  There are many of the citizens about in the interior which give the place a quiet & dull appearance.  It is certainly a pitty for so fine a citty to be abandoned by its ocupants, but this terible rebellion has desolated many homes in various ways - but who lives to see Galveston in a few years will see one of the most thriving citties in the Union.  The camp is in considerable confusion.  We start for Houston in less than an hour.  The bells of the R R cars are ringing.  I am not certain whether we go on the Carrs or by Steamboat, & it is uncertain whether this reaches you if if it does whether you can read it.
