al cavalry, and in ignorance that
the Northern infantry had become a mere panic-stricken mob, it would
have been imprudent in the extreme for such a handful of cavalry to
undertake the pursuit of an army.

Many of the Confederates were of opinion that this decisive victory
would be the end of the war, and that the North, seeing that the South
was able as well as willing to defend the position it had taken up,
would abandon the idea of coercing it into submission. This hope was
speedily dissipated. The North was indeed alike astonished and
disappointed at the defeat of their army by a greatly inferior force,
but instead of abandoning the struggle, they set to work to retrieve the
disaster, and to place in the field a force which would, they believed,
prove irresistible.

Vincent Wingfield saw but little of the battle at Bull Run. As they were
impatiently waiting the order to charge, while the desperate conflict
between Jackson's brigade and the enemy was at its fiercest, a shell
from one of the Federal batteries burst a few yards in front of the
troop, and one of the pieces, striking Vincent on the side, hurled him
insensible from his horse. He was at once lifted and carried by Dan and
some of the other men-servants, who had been told off for this duty, to
the rear, where the surgeons were busily engaged in dressing the wounds
of the men who straggled back from the front. While the conflict lasted
those unable to walk lay where they fell, for no provision had at
present been made for ambulance corps, and not a single man capable of
firing a musket could be spared from the ranks. The tears were flowing
copiously down Dan's cheeks as he stood by while the surgeons examined
Vincent's wound.

"Is he dead, sah?" he sobbed as they lifted him up from his stooping
position.

"Dead!" the surgeon repeated. "Can't you see he is breathing, and did
you not hear him groan when I examined his side? He is a long way from
being a dead man yet. Some of his ribs are broken, and he has had a very
nasty blow; but I do not think there is any cause for anxiety about him.
Pour a little wine down his throat, and sprinkle his face with water.
Raise his head and put a coat under it, and when he opens his eyes and
begins to recover, don't let him move. Then you can cut up the side of
his jacket and down the sleeve, so as to get it off that side
altogether. Cut his shirt open, and bathe the wound with some water and
bit of rag of any sort; it i