fall back a minute too soon. As I rose from the comfortable log
from behind which a bunch of us had been firing, I saw men in gray
and brown clothes, with trailed muskets, running through the camp
on our right, and I saw something else, too, that sent a chill all
through me. It was a kind of flag I had never seen before. It was a
gaudy sort of thing, with red bars. It flashed over me in a second
that that thing was a Rebel flag. It was not more than sixty yards
to the right. The smoke around it was low and dense and kept me
from seeing the man who was carrying it, but I plainly saw the
banner. It was going fast, with a jerky motion, which told me that
the bearer was on a double-quick. About that time we left. We
observed no kind of order in leaving; the main thing was to get out
of there as quick as we could. I ran down our company street, and
in passing the big Sibley tent of our mess I thought of my knapsack
with all my traps and belongings, including that precious little
packet of letters from home. I said to myself, "I will save my
knapsack, anyhow;" but one quick backward glance over my left
shoulder made me change my mind, and I went on. I never saw my
knapsack or any of its contents afterwards.

Our broken forces halted and re-formed about half a mile to the
rear of our camp on the summit of a gentle ridge, covered with
thick brush. I recognized our regiment by the little gray pony the
old colonel rode, and hurried to my place in the ranks. Standing
there with our faces once more to the front, I saw a seemingly
endless column of men in blue, marching by the flank, who were
filing off to the right through the woods, and I heard our old
German adjutant, Cramer, say to the colonel, "Dose are de troops of
Sheneral Hurlbut. He is forming a new line dere in de bush." I
exclaimed to myself from the bottom of my heart, "Bully for General
Hurlbut and the new line in the bush! Maybe we'll whip 'em yet." I
shall never forget my feelings about this time. I was astonished at
our first retreat in the morning across the field back to our camp,
but it occurred to me that maybe that was only "strategy" and all
done on purpose; but when we had to give up our camp, and actually
turn our backs and run half a mile, it seemed to me that we were
forever disgraced, and I kept thinking to myself: "