ard Gen. Lee severely
reprimand Gen. A.P. Hill in these words: "Gen. Hill, your line was too
short and thin." I presume Gen. Lee thought if Gen. Hill had extended
his line farther out, he might have captured the entire force in our
front.

In this battle Rev. A.W. Green (to whom I have already referred as being
captured at Harper's Ferry by Jackson) had one of his fingers shot off.
I have often joked him and said it was I who shot it off. Just as I am
writing this Mr. Green, whom I have not seen for 10 years, came into my
office, and I told him what I was doing. He held up his hand, minus one
finger, and said, "Yes, you did that."

We followed the retreating enemy some distance below Manassas, but could
not overtake them. We halted for awhile, and a few days afterward the
whole army, cavalry, infantry and artillery, marched slowly back toward
the Rapidan.

The expedition was fruitless. The infantry, as is nearly always the
case, marched with the wagon-trains, while the cavalry, in nearly every
instance, leaves the wagons behind, depending upon whatever can be
picked up from the farmers or the enemy.

In this particular section at this time, the farmers had no chance to
plant crops. The trees had already been stripped of fruit. We could not
even find a persimmon, and we suffered terribly with hunger. Of course,
there was plenty of grass for the horses, but the men were entirely
destitute of provisions.

We were looking forward to Manassas with vivid recollections of the rich
haul that we had made there just prior to the second battle of Manassas,
and everybody was saying, "We'll get plenty when we get to Manassas." We
were there before we knew it. Everything was changed. There was not a
building anywhere. The soil, enriched by the debris from former camps,
had grown a rich crop of weeds that came half way up to the sides of our
horses, and the only way we recognized the place was by our horses
stumbling over the railroad tracks at the junction. It was a grievous
disappointment to us.

While fighting just below Manassas, the enemy threw a shell in among the
led horses, which burst and killed several of them.

A short time after that, while lying in camp, our stomachs crying
bitterly for food, someone suggested we try horse flesh. I remember
pulling out my knife and sharpening it on a stone preparatory to cutting
a steak from one of the dead horses, but just at this point a caravan on
horseback arrived with a supp