The Federal lines had at one time been within a mile of the Orangery.

The slaves had some days before been all sent into the interior, and Mrs.Wingfield and her daughters had moved into Richmond, where they joined in the work, to which the whole of the ladies of the town and neighborhood devoted themselves, of attending to the wounded, of whom, while the fighting was going on, long trains arrived every day at the city.
Vincent himself had taken no active part in the fighting.

Magruder's division had not been engaged in the first attack upon McClellan's force; and although it had taken a share in the subsequent severe fighting, Vincent had been occupied in carrying messages from the general to the leaders of the other divisions, and had only once or twice come under the storm of fire to which the Confederates were exposed as they plunged through the morasses to attack the enemy.

As soon as it was certain that the attack was finally abandoned, and that McClellan's troops were being withdrawn to strengthen Pope's army, Vincent resigned his appointment as aid-de-camp, and was appointed to the 7th Virginia Cavalry, stationed at Orange, where it was facing the Federal cavalry.

Major Ashley had fallen while protecting the passage of Jackson's division, when hard pressed by one of the Federal armies in West Virginia.
No action in the war had been more brilliant than the manner in which Stonewall Jackson had baffled the two armies--each greatly superior in force to his own--that had been specially appointed to destroy him if possible, or at any rate to prevent his withdrawing from the Shenandoah Valley and marching to aid in the defense of the Confederate capital.
His troops had marched almost day and night, without food, and depending entirely upon such supplies as they could obtain from the scattered farmhouses they passed.
Although Richmond was for the present safe, the prospect of the Confederates was by no means bright.