rout in the morning
and the stampede in the evening, and all had to laugh. Some few took
to the mountains and roamed for days before finding an opportunity to
return; others lay in thickets or along the river banks, waiting until
all was still and quiet, then seek some crossing. Hundreds crowded
near the stone bridge (the Federal pickets were posted some yards
distance), and took advantage of the darkness to cross over under the
very nose of the enemy. One man of the Fifteenth came face to face
with one of the videttes, when a hand to hand encounter took place--a
fight in the dark to the very death--but others coming to the relief
of their comrade beat the Confederate to insensibility and left him
for dead. Yet he crawled to cover and lay concealed for a day and
night, then rejoined his regiment in a sickening plight.

A man in my company, Frank Boozer, was struck by a glancing bullet on
the scalp and fell, as was thought, dead. There he lay, while hundreds
and hundreds trampled over him, and it was near day when he gained
consciousness and made his way for the mountain to the right. There he
wandered along its sides, through its glens and gorges, now dodging a
farm house or concealing himself in some little cave, until the enemy
passed, for it was known that the mountains and hills on either side
were scoured for the fugitives.

Captain Vance, of the Second, with a friend, Myer Moses, had captured
a horse, and they were making their way through the thickets, Moses
in front, with Vance in rear, the darkness almost of midnight on them.
They came upon a squad of Federal pickets. They saw their plight in
a moment, but Moses was keen-witted and sharp-tongued, and pretended
that he was a Yankee, and demanded their surrender. When told that
they were Federals, he seemed overjoyed, and urged them to "come on
and let's catch all those d----n Rebels." But when they asked him a
few questions he gave himself away. He was asked:

"What command do you belong to?"

"Eighty-seventh New York," Moses answered, without hesitation.

"What brigade?" "What division?" etc. "We have no such commands in
this army. Dismount, you are our prisoners."

But Captain Vance was gone, for at the very outset of the parley he
slid off behind and quietly made his escape. In such emergencies it
was no part of valor to "stand by your friend," for in that case both
were lost, while otherwise one was saved.

What was the cause of our panic, or who was