eration. Both the negroes
and the white men were merciless in their slaughter of the marauding
highwaymen. Once, in the _melee_, Guilford Duncan endeavored to check
their enthusiasm as a barbarity, but his men responded in quick,
bullet-like words, indicating their idea that these men were not
soldiers entitled to be taken prisoners, but were beasts of prey,
rattlesnakes, mad dogs, enemies of the human race, whose extermination
it was the duty of every honest man to seek and to accomplish as quickly
as possible.

This thought was conveyed rather in ejaculations than in statements
made, and Guilford Duncan saw that there was neither time nor occasion
for argument. The men under his command felt that they were engaged in
defending the lives and the honor of women and children, and they were
in no degree disposed to hesitate at slaughter where so precious a
purpose inspired them. Their attitude of mind was uncompromising. Their
resolution was unalterable. Their impulse was to kill, and their victims
were men of so despicable a kind that after a moment's thought Guilford
Duncan's impulse was to let his men alone.

The contest lasted for a very brief while. The number of the slaughtered
in proportion to the total number of men engaged was appalling. But this
was not all. To it was immediately added the hasty hanging of men to the
nearest trees, and Guilford Duncan was powerless to prevent that. The
negroes, loyal to the mistresses whom they had served from infancy, had
gone wild in their enthusiasm of defense. They ran amuck, and when the
morning came there was not one man of all those marauders left alive to
tell the story of the conflict.

* * * * *

In the meanwhile Guilford Duncan, by means of his men, had gathered
information in every direction. He knew now that all hope was gone of
his joining Johnston's army, even if that army had not surrendered, as
by this time it probably had done. He therefore brought his men
together. Most of them lived in those mountains round about, or in the
lower country east of them, and so he said to them:

"Men, the war is over. Most of you, as I understand it, live somewhere
near here, or within fifty miles of here. As the last order that I shall
ever issue as a captain, I direct you now to return to your homes at
once. My advice to you is to go to work and rebuild your fortunes as
best you can. We've had our last fight. We've done our duty like men.
W