id quietly. "I could not remain
home and remain inactive while every man in the South is fighting for
the defense of his country, so I will take my chance of being
exchanged."

"I am sorry you choose that alternative," McClellan said. "I hate to see
brave men imprisoned if only for a day; and braver men than those across
yonder stream are not to be found. My officers and men are astonished.
They seem so thin and worn as to be scarce able to lift a musket, their
clothes are fit only for a scarecrow, they are indeed pitiful objects to
look at; but the way in which they fight is wonderful. I could not have
believed, had I not seen it, that men could have charged as they did
again and again across ground swept by a tremendous artillery and
musketry fire; it was wonderful! I can tell you, young man, that even
though you beat us we are proud of you as our countrymen; and I believe
that if your General Jackson were to ride through our camp, he would be
cheered as lustily and heartily by our men as he is by his own."

Some fifty or sixty other prisoners had been taken; they had been
captured in the hand-to-hand struggle that had taken place on some parts
of the field, having got separated from their corps and mixed up with
the enemy, and carried off the field with them as they retired. These,
for the most part, accepted the offered parole; but some fifteen, like
Vincent, preferred a Northern prison to promising to abstain from
fighting in defense of their country, and in the middle of the day they
were placed together in a tent under a guard at the rear of the camp.

The next morning came the news that Lee had fallen back. There was
exultation among the Federals, not unmingled with a strong sense of
relief; for the heavy losses inflicted in the previous fighting had
taken all the ardor of attack out of McClellan's army, and they were
glad indeed that they were not to be called upon to make another attempt
to drive the Confederates from their position. Vincent was no less
pleased at the news. He knew how thin were the ranks of the Confederate
fighting men, and how greatly they were worn and exhausted by fatigue
and want of food, and that, although they had the day before repulsed
the attacks of the masses of well-fed Northerners, such tremendous
exertions could not often be repeated, and a defeat, with the river in
their rear, approachable only by one rough and narrow road, would have
meant a total destruction of the army.