CHAPTER XXIII.
_Another mission--General Banks' expedition--To Galveston--Sunday the 11th of January--A small mistake--Preparing for action -- The Hatteras--A fight in the dark--Sharp and decisive--Surrender -- Rescue of the crew--Sunk!--Casualties--Out of the hornet's nest._ Contrary to her usual aspirations, the principal wish of the Alabama, as she started on this fresh cruise, was to reach her destination without having seen a single vessel.

She was now in fact on a service of a kind altogether different from that which had yet occupied her.

In his address to the crew, upon taking command off Terceira, Captain Semmes had promised that the first moment they were in a condition of training and discipline, to enable them to encounter the enemy, they should have an opportunity of doing so.

That time had come, and laying aside for a short period her more especial _role_ of annihilating as rapidly as possible the enemy's commerce, the Alabama set steadily out in search of a fight.
The grand expedition of General Banks, which had been the subject of so much speculation in the United States, and of which their newspapers had long before duly informed the Confederate cruiser, seemed to offer the most favourable opportunity possible for such an enterprise.

The expedition would, of course, be accompanied by one or more armed vessels, but the principal portion of it would be composed of troop-ships, crowded with the enemy's soldiers; and should the Alabama but prove victorious in the fight, these transports would be a prize of more practical importance than all the grain and all the oil ever carried in a merchantman's hold.
It was a daring adventure certainly.