It was with difficulty that I could make my way along the narrow
corduroy, for hundreds of wounded were limping from the field to the
safe side, and ammunition wagons were passing the other way, driven by
reckless drivers who should have been blown up momentarily. Before I had
reached the north side of the creek, an immense throng of panic-stricken
people came surging down the slippery bridge. A few carried muskets, but
I saw several wantonly throw their pieces into the flood, and as the
mass were unarmed, I inferred that they had made similar dispositions.
Fear, anguish, cowardice, despair, disgust, were the predominant
expressions of the upturned faces. The gaunt trees, towering from the
current, cast a solemn shadow upon the moving throng, and as the evening
dimness was falling around them, it almost seemed that they were
engulfed in some cataract. I reined my horse close to the side of a
team, that I might not be borne backward by the crowd; but some of the
lawless fugitives seized him by the bridle, and others attempted to pull
me from the saddle.

"Gi' up that hoss!" said one, "what business you got wi' a hoss?"

"That's my critter, and I am in for a ride; so you get off!" said
another.

I spurred my pony vigorously with the left foot, and with the right
struck the man at the bridle under the chin. The thick column parted
left and right, and though a howl of hate pursued me, I kept straight to
the bank, cleared the swamp, and took the military route parallel with
the creek, toward the nearest eminence. At every step of the way I met
wounded persons. A horseman rode past me, leaning over his pommel, with
blood streaming from his mouth and hanging in gouts from his saturated
beard. The day had been intensely hot and black boys were besetting the
wounded with buckets of cool lemonade. It was a common occurrence for
the couples that carried the wounded on stretchers to stop on the way,
purchase a glass of the beverage, and drink it. Sometimes the blankets
on the stretchers were closely folded, and then I knew that the man
within was dead. A little fellow, who used his sword for a cane, stopped
me on the road, and said--

"See yer! This is the ball that jes' fell out o' my boot."

He handed me a lump of lead as big as my thumb, and pointed to a rent in
his pantaloons, whence the drops rolled down his boots.

"I wouldn't part with that for suthin' handsome," he said; "it'll be
nice to hev to hum."

As I cantere