It was too much for Mr.Johnny Reb's nerves.

They all seemed to about face' at once, and they lit out of there as if they had been sent for in a hurry.

We chased after 'em as fast as we could, and picked up just lots of 'em.

Finally it began to be real funny.

A Johnny's wind would begin to give out he'd fall behind his comrades; he'd hear us yell and think that we were right behind him, ready to sink a bayonet through him'; he'd turn around, throw up his hands, and sing out: "I surrender, mister! I surrender!' and find that we were a hundred feet off, and would have to have a bayonet as long as one of McClellan's general orders to touch him.
"Well, my company was the left of our regiment, and our regiment was the left of the brigade, and we swung out ahead of all the rest of the boys.
In our excitement of chasing the Johnnies, we didn't see that we had passed an angle of their works.