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Accordingly, I ran at full speed to our train; and leaving a strong guard with the baggage, I double-quicked the rest of the regiment up to the boat, just in time to board her as she came into the quay, and then to hold her against the Second Regulars and the Seventy-first, who had arrived a little too late, being a shade less ready than we were in the matter of individual initiative.
All day long they manoeuvred and double-quicked; all day and all night herds of surprised farm horses destined for cavalry, light artillery, and glory, clattered toward the docks; files of brand-new army waggons, gun-carriages, smelling of fresh paint, caissons, forges, ambulances bound South checked the city traffic and added to the city's tumult as they jolted in hundreds and hundreds toward the wharves materially contributing to Berkley's entertainment.
They were faced about, and, Beauregard with them, double-quicked back to MacLean's Ford to find no Miles or Richardson or Runyon for them to attack! It was a mistake and a confusion of identity. The crossing troops were Confederates D. R. Jones returning from the position he had held throughout the day to the southern bank of Bull Run.
Christy hurried up the men at the fasts, but they had about finished their task. "All clear, Mr. Passford," called Mr. Flint, as the soldiers double-quicked across the railroad to the wharf, upon which there was still a huge pile of bales of cotton. "Back her, Mr. Amblen," said Christy, as he hastened aft to avoid a collision with the other schooner.
Many saw you turn Selinus up the crossroad the viarii had taken. Many saw their officer on Selinus when the cavalrymen charged down the highroad and scattered the bandits. Many saw you afoot among the infantrymen when they turned from the crossroad into the highway and as they double-quicked down it.
It was their destination. The train jolted and jerked to a halt. Regiment by regiment, out poured the First Brigade, fell into line, and was double-quicked four miles to Mitchell's Ford and a pine wood, where, hungry, thirsty, dirty, and exhausted, the ranks were broken. This was the night of the nineteenth.
Have you heard what one of the boys said after the chaplain preached the sermon to us last Sunday about leading the children of Israel forty years through the wilderness?" "No, George; what was it?" "Forty years going through the wilderness," he growled. "Why, Stonewall Jackson would have double-quicked 'em through in three days, and on half rations, too."
Coming very near us at 4 P.M. the long roll beat and without packing up and hardly having time to put on our equipments, we double-quicked up the mountain and took position in ambush, where we staid till the morning of the 11th, when we returned to the old camp. For several days rations had been very scarce, hard crackers selling as high as twenty-five cents each.
Immediately afterward I found that it had already been allotted to two other regiments. It was then coming to the dock. Colonel Wood boarded it in mid-stream to keep possession, while I double-quicked the men down from the cars and got there just ahead of the other two regiments. One of these regiments, I was afterward informed, spent the next thirty-six hours in cars in consequence.
I had double-quicked right into the midst of the "blue bellies." "Surrender," came in tones of thunder. I stood amazed, astonished beyond conception. "Surrender," again came the command. There was absolutely no alternative. There was no chance to fight and less chance to run. My brave boys and I were prisoners of war.
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