patients, and in consequence of the hasty
retreat of the enemy were fortunately not carried off.

After the battle Meade had not the slightest desire to recommence
the struggle. It is a military maxim that to a flying enemy must
be given a wall of steel or a bridge of gold. In the present
instance it was unmistakably the bridge of gold that was presented.
It was hard to convince him that Lee was actually gone, and at
first he thought it might be a device to draw the Union army from
its strong position on the heights.

Our cavalry were sent out on the 4th to ascertain where the enemy
were, and what they were doing. General Birney threw forward a
reconnoitering party and opened fire with a battery on a column
making their way toward Fairfield, but he was checked at once and
directed _on no account to bring on a battle._ On the 5th, as it
was certain the enemy were retreating, Sedgwick received orders to
follow up the rear of the rebel column. He marched eight miles to
Fairfield Pass. There Early, who was in command of the rear guard,
was endeavoring to save the trains, which were heaped up in great
confusion. Sedgwick, after a distant cannonade, reported the
position too strong to be forced. It was a plain, two miles wide,
surrounded by hills, and it would not have been difficult to take
it, but Sedgwick knew Meade favored the "bridge of gold" policy,
and was not disposed to thwart the wishes of his chief. In my
opinion Sedgwick should have made an energetic attack, and Meade
should have supported it with his whole army, for our cavalry were
making great havoc in the enemy's train in rear; and if Lee, instead
of turning on Kilpatrick, had been forced to form line against
Meade, the cavalry, which was between him and his convoys of
ammunition, in all probability might have captured the latter and
ended the war. Stuart, it is true, was following up Kilpatrick,
but he took an indirect route and was nearly a day behind. I do
not see why the force which was now promptly detached from the
garrisons of Washington and Baltimore and sent to Harper's Ferry
could not have formed on the Virginia side of the Potomac opposite
Williamsport, and with the co-operation of General Meade have cut
off the ammunition of which Lee stood so much in need. As the
river had risen and an expedition sent out by General French from
Frederick had destroyed the bridge at Falling Waters, everything
seemed to favor such a plan. The moment