mid a press of men
and vehicles, he passed a carriage containing four Congressmen who were
taking their time. Perhaps irritated by their coolness, he shouted to
them to make haste. "If we were in as big a hurry as you are," replied
Congressman Riddle, scornfully, "we would."

These four Congressmen played a curiously dramatic part before they got
back to Washington. So did a party of Senators with whom they joined
forces. This other party, at the start, also numbered four. They had
planned a jolly picnic--this day that was to prove them right in
hurrying the government into battle!--and being wise men who knew how
to take time by the forelock, they had taken their luncheon with them.
From what is known of Washington and Senators, then as now, one may risk
a good deal that the luncheon was worth while. Part of the tragedy of
that day was the accidental break-up of this party with the result amid
the confusion of a road crowded by pleasure-seekers, that two Senators
went one way carrying off the luncheon, while the other two, making the
best of the disaster, continued southward through those beautiful early
hours when Russell was admiring the scenery, their luncheon all to seek.
The lucky men with the luncheon were the Senators Benjamin Wade
and Zachary Chandler. Senator Trumbull and Senator Grimes, both on
horseback, were left to their own devices. However, fortune was with
them. Several hours later they had succeeded in getting food by the
wayside and were resting in a grove of trees some distance beyond the
village of Centerville. Suddenly, they suffered an appalling surprise;
happening to look up, they beheld emerging out of the distance, a
stampede of men and horses which came thundering down the country road,
not a hundred yards from where they sat. "We immediately mounted our
horses," as Trumbull wrote to his wife the next day, "and galloped to
the road, by which time it was crowded, hundreds being in advance on
the way to Centerville and two guns of Sherman's battery having already
passed in full retreat. We kept on with the crowd, not knowing what else
to do. We fed our horses at Centerville and left there at six o'clock....
Came on to Fairfax Court House where we got supper and, leaving there at
ten o'clock reached home at half past two this morning. . . . I am
dreadfully disappointed and mortified."(1)

Meanwhile, what of those other gay picnickers, Senator Wade and Senator
Chandler? They drove in a carriage.