to
conceal him. There were settlements ahead, daylight was approaching, and
what a figure we would cut! It was too much for me, and I said, "No, get
on behind," feeling that the specter might retard the pursuing foe. But
my tall horse solved the difficulty. Withdrawing my foot from the
stirrup, Brown would put his in and try to climb up, when suddenly the
horse would "swap ends," and down he'd go. Again he would try and almost
make it, and the horse not wheeling quickly enough I would give him the
hint with my "off" heel. My relief can be imagined when an ambulance
arrived and took Brown in. I accompanied him for a short distance, then
quickened my pace and overtook the train. Presently another clatter
behind and the popping of pistols. Riding at my side was a horseman,
and by the flash of his pistol I saw it pointing to the ground at our
horses' feet.

Reaching the foot of a hill, my horse stumbled and fell as if to rise no
more. I expected to be instantly trampled out of sight. I heard a groan,
but not where the horse's head should have been. Resting my feet on the
ground, thus relieving him of my weight, he got his head from under him
and floundered forward, then to his feet and away. Farther on, a swift
horse without a rider was dashing by me. I seized what I supposed to be
his bridle-rein, but it proved to be the strap on the saddle-bow, and
the pull I gave came near unhorsing me.

The pursuit continued no farther. Not having slept for two days and
nights, I could not keep awake, and my game old horse, now wearied out,
would stagger heedlessly against the wheels of moving wagons. Just at
dawn of day, in company with a few horsemen of our battalion, I rode
through the quiet streets of Hagerstown, thence seven miles to
Williamsport.

The wounded of our battalion had all been captured. A few, however, were
not carried off, but left until our army came up. Some of the cooks,
etc., escaped by dodging into the brush, but many a good horse and rider
had been run down and taken. At Williamsport I exchanged horses with an
infantryman while he was lying asleep on a porch, and had completed the
transaction before he was sufficiently awake to remonstrate.

We were now entirely cut off from our army, and with what of the wagons,
etc., that remained were at the mercy of the enemy, as the Potomac was
swollen to a depth of twenty feet where I had waded a year before. Most
of the horses had to be _swum over_, as there was litt