Vincent was no less pleased at the news.

He knew how thin were the ranks of the Confederate fighting men, and how greatly they were worn and exhausted by fatigue and want of food, and that, although they had the day before repulsed the attacks of the masses of well-fed Northerners, such tremendous exertions could not often be repeated, and a defeat, with the river in their rear, approachable only by one rough and narrow road, would have meant a total destruction of the army.
The next morning Vincent and his companions were put into the train and sent to Alexandria.

They had no reason to complain of their treatment upon the way.

They were well fed, and after their starvation diet for the last six weeks their rations seemed to them actually luxurious.

The Federal troops in Alexandria, who were for the most part young recruits who had just arrived from the North and West, looked with astonishment upon these thin and ragged men, several of whom were barefooted.