eneral Banks reports (page 326):

"The whole of the reserves were now ordered up, and in turn we drove the
enemy, continuing the pursuit until night compelled us to halt. The
battle of the 9th was desperate and sanguinary. The defeat of the enemy
was complete, and his loss in officers and men more than double that
sustained by our forces. There was nothing in the immediate position and
condition of the two armies to prevent a forward movement the next
morning, and orders were given to prepare for an advance. But
representations subsequently received from General Franklin and all the
general officers of the 19th corps, as to the condition of their
respective commands for immediate active operations against the enemy,
caused a suspension of this order, and a conference of the general
officers was held in the evening, in which it was determined to retire
upon Grand Ecore the following day. The reasons urged for this course
were: 1. That the absence of water made it absolutely necessary to
advance or retire without delay. General Emory's command had been
without rations for two days, and the train, which had been turned to
the rear during the battle, could not be put in condition to move
forward upon the single road through dense woods, in which it stood,
without great difficulty and much loss of time."

Again, on page 13, General Banks states:

"The enemy was driven from the field. It was as clear a rout as it was
possible for any army to suffer. After consulting with my officers, I
concluded, against my own judgment, to fall back to Grand Ecore and
reorganize. We held the field of battle. Our dead were buried. The
wounded men were brought in and placed in the best hospitals we could
organize, and surgeons were left with them, with provisions, medicines,
and supplies; and at daybreak we fell back to Grand Ecore."

Here the proportion of fiction to fact surpasses that of sack to bread
in Sir John's tavern bill; and it may be doubted if a mandarin from the
remotest province of the Celestial Empire ever ventured to send such a
report to Peking. General Fessenden's testimony, given above, shows that
the army marched during the night of the 9th, and continued to Grand
Ecore, where it intrenched; and General A.L. Lee's, that the main army
joined him at that place on the evening of the 10th. Twenty of the
thirty-six miles between Pleasant Hill and Grand Ecore were passed on
the 10th by my cavalry before the rear of the enemy's