er the confidence in themselves which a winning
army must have. I doubt if many of them could be got to cross the
Monongahela a second time."

Yes, that was also true, and we fell silent, each busy with his own
thoughts. It seemed too horrible, too utterly fantastic. At last came the
dawn, and the light of the morning disclosed us to each other. As I
looked about me, I wondered if these scarecrows, these phantoms of men,
could be the same who had gone into battle in all the pride of manhood
and pageantry of arms the day before. Orme was ghastly, with his bandaged
head and torn, mud-stained uniform, and as I looked at him, I recalled
sadly the gallant figure I had met at Fort Necessity. Nor were the others
better. Haggard faces, bloodshot eyes, lips drawn with suffering, hair
matted with blood,--all the grim and revolting realities of defeat were
there before us, and no longer to be denied. And I realized that I was
ghastly as any. A bullet had cut open my forehead, leaving a livid gash,
from which the blood had dried about my face. I had lost my hat, and my
uniform was in tatters and stained with blood.

We soon met the men who had gone forward with Waggoner to secure us some
supplies, and halted by a little brook to wash our injuries. Captain Orme
and some others attended as well as they were able to the general, and
gave him a little food, which was all too scarce, barely sufficient for a
single meal. Fortunately, Doctor Craik, who had learned that the general
was wounded, came up soon after, and made a careful examination of the
injury. He came away, when he had finished, with grave face, and told us
there was little hope, as the wound was already much inflamed and
fevered, and the general was able to breathe only with great agony. He
said there could be no question that the ball had entered the lung. The
general fancied that he would be easier on horseback, so when the march
was begun again, he was mounted on the horse Orme had been riding, but
after half an hour his pain grew so intense that he had to be taken down.
It was evident that he could not endure the jolting of the cart, and we
finally rigged up a sort of litter out of a portion of the tumbrel top,
and the men took turns in bearing him on this between them.

Daylight banished much of the terror of the night, and as we toiled
onward, we began to talk a little, each to tell what part he had seen
of the battle. It was here that I heard the story of Harry Gor