I ordered them to come to my side, and then to take command of the men and march them away.
The real danger was over as soon as the first impulse was checked.
[Footnote: Dispatch to Rosecrans, August 29.] The men then began to feel some of their natural respect for their commander, and yielded probably the more readily because they noticed that I was unarmed.

I thought it wise to be content with quelling the disturbance, and did not seek out for punishment the men who had met me at the gap.

Their excitement had been natural under the circumstances, which were reported with exaggeration as a wilful murder.

If I had been in command of a larger force, it would have been easy to turn out another regiment to enforce order and arrest any mutineers; but the Second Kentucky was itself the only regiment on the spot.

The First Kentucky was a mile below, and the Eleventh Ohio was the advance-guard up New River.