Some of our soldiers, misunderstanding the order, "Fix bayonets," were actually _charging_ with them, dashing off into the dim woods, with nothing to charge at but the vanishing tail of an imaginary horse,--for we could really see nothing.

This zeal I noted with pleasure, and also with anxiety, as our greatest danger was from confusion and scattering; and for infantry to pursue cavalry would be a novel enterprise.

Captain Metcalf stood by me well in keeping the men steady, as did Assistant Surgeon Minor, and Lieutenant, now Captain, Jackson.

How the men in the rear were behaving I could not tell,--not so coolly, I afterwards found, because they were more entirely bewildered, supposing, until the shots came, that the column had simply halted for a moment's rest, as had been done once or twice before.

They did not know who or where their assailants might be, and the fall of the man beside me created a hasty rumor that I was killed, so that it was on the whole an alarming experience for them.