oken-down
horses, succeeded not only in repulsing the attacks of the large and
excellently-mounted force under General Sheridan, but achieved over
them highly-honorable successes. One such incident took place on the
7th, when General Gregg attacked with about six thousand horse, but
was met, defeated, and captured by General Fitz Lee, to the great
satisfaction of General Lee, who said to his son, General W.H.F. Lee:

"Keep your command together and in good spirits, general--don't let
them think of surrender--I will get you out of this."

On the 8th and 9th, however, this hope seemed unwarranted by the
circumstances, and the commander-in-chief appeared to be almost the
only human being who remained sanguine of the result. The hardships
of the retreat, arising chiefly from want of food, began to seriously
impair the resolution of the troops, and the scenes through which they
advanced were not calculated to raise their spirits. "These scenes,"
declares one who witnessed them, "were of a nature which can be
apprehended only by men who are thoroughly familiar with the harrowing
details of war. Behind and on either flank, a ubiquitous and
increasingly adventurous enemy--every mud-hole and every rise in the
road choked with blazing wagons--the air filled with the deafening
reports of ammunition exploding, and shells bursting when touched
by the flames, dense columns of smoke ascending to heaven from the
burning and exploding vehicles, exhausted men, worn-out mules and
horses, lying down side by side--gaunt Famine glaring hopelessly
from sunken, lack-lustre eyes--dead mules, dead horses, dead
men everywhere--death many times welcomed as God's messenger in
disguise--who can wonder if many hearts, tried in the fiery furnace of
four unparalleled years, and never hitherto found wanting, should have
quailed in presence of starvation, fatigue, sleeplessness, misery,
unintermitted for five or six days, and culminating in hopelessness?"
It cannot, however, be said with truth, that any considerable portion
of the Southern forces were greatly demoralized, to use the military
phrase, as the fighting of the last two days, when the suffering
of the retreat culminated, will show. The men were almost entirely
without food, and were glad to find a little corn to eat; but those
who were not physically unable longer to carry their muskets--and
the number of these latter was large--still marched and fought with
soldierly cheerfulness and resolu