lapped
brigade, company mixed with company, and officers lost their regiments.
The face of the country, covered with thick underbrush, added to this
result; so that when the enemy broke and the rout commenced, it was
hard to tell whether pursuers or pursued were the most disorganized
mass. The army of Manassas was almost entirely undisciplined, and had
never before felt the intoxication of battle. On that terrible day it
had fought with tenacity and pluck that belonged to the race; but it
had largely been on the principle prevalent at weddings in the "ould
country"--when you see a head, hit it! The few officers who desired a
disciplined resistance soon saw the futility of obtaining it, and felt
that as the men, individually, were fighting bravely and stubbornly, it
were better only to hold them to that. When the pursuit came, the men
were utterly worn and exhausted; but, burning with the glow of battle,
they followed the flying masses fast and far--each one led by his own
instincts and rarely twenty of a company together.

A major-general, who left his leg on a later field, carried his company
into this fight. During the pursuit he led it through a by-path to
intercept a battery spurring down the road at full speed. They overtook
it, mastered the gunners and turned the horses out of the press. In the
deepening twilight, he turned to thank the company, and found it
composed of three of his own men, two "Tiger Rifles," a Washington
artilleryman, three dismounted cavalry of the "Legion," a doctor, a
quartermaster's clerk, and the Rev. Chaplain of the First ----!

This was but a specimen of the style of the pursuit. There was but
little cavalry--one regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart and a few
single companies. No one brigade could be collected in anything like
order; night was deepening and the enemy's flight was approaching what
was reasonably supposed to be his reserve. Under these circumstances it
was apparent that prudence, if not necessity, dictated calling in the
pursuit by the disordered troops. General Bonham--the ranking officer
in front--saw this plainly; and on his own authority gave the order
that appeared most proper to him. I never heard that, _at this time_,
it was objected to by his superior officers.

Moreover, it was not only the demoralization caused by the pursuit
that was sufficient reason for not following up Manassas. The army,
ordinarily, was not in a condition to advance into an enemy's cou