one of this class, a coward in
captain's uniform, and one of our own officers, Captain Deyoe, as brave
a fellow as ever drew a sword. The demoralized captain, his sword thrown
away and its sheath after it, came hurriedly upon the bridge, where
Deyoe was sitting, coolly filling his pipe. The fugitive captain turned
his face, pale with fright, to the imperturbable Deyoe, and, striking
him on the shoulder, said with as much composure as he could muster,
"Captain, we have had hard times of it out there, but _don't be afraid,
don't be afraid_." Deyoe, turning his face toward that of the straggler
with a look of unruffled coolness and unmitigated contempt, replied,
"Well, who the d--is afraid? Oh, yes, I see, _you are_. Well, you had
better get away from here then!"

The corps remained at Cub Run until nightfall, when it was ordered to
return to Centreville, where it encamped. Regiments from our Third
brigade were sent to the rear of Centreville to arrest stragglers, who
were hurrying toward Alexandria in great numbers.

The regiments were drawn up in line across the turnpike, where they
remained all night, turning back hundreds of stragglers at the point of
the bayonet.

The scene at Centreville on the next day was one of the utmost
confusion. Thousands of stragglers wandered about without knowing or
caring what had become of their commands; long columns of shattered
regiments and batteries filed past to take up new positions, either
within the intrenchments or on the flanks. The appearance of these
skeletons of regiments and batteries gave evidence of the terrible
experiences of this long series of engagements. Their ranks, thinned by
the fortunes of battle, and still more by the disgraceful skulking which
had become so universal, the worn and weary appearance of the men, their
flags, each surrounded by only enough men to constitute a respectable
color-guard, all showed that even the hard experiences of the Army of
the Potomac had never had so demoralizing an effect as this.

The skulkers were loud-mouthed in their denunciations of General
McDowell. Hundreds of them, who had in all probability not been near
enough to the front during the whole retreat to know anything that was
going on there, declared that they had seen him waving that mystic white
hat as a signal to the rebels; and all knew that it was through his
treachery that the army had been destroyed. Others declared positively
that they had seen, with their own