Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/137

Rh Early the next morning, from Fairfax Court House, he again wired:

Of McDowell himself, Fry, his adjutant-general, wrote: "When the unfortunate commander dismounted at Arlington next forenoon in a soaking rain, after thirty-two hours in the saddle, his disastrous campaign of six days was closed. The first martial effervescence of the country was over. The three months' men went home, and the three months' chapter of the war ended—with the South triumphant and confident, the North disappointed but determined."

Blenker remained in position at Centreville, as rear guard, until about midnight, when he was ordered to fall back on Washington. He reported that the retreat of "great numbers of flying soldiers continued until 9 o'clock in the evening, the great majority in wild confusion, but few in collected bodies." He mentioned that he was several times attacked by squadrons of Confederate cavalry, before he left Centreville. Walt Whitman, a noted Northern writer, says:

Colonel Henderson, of the British Staff college, in his life of Stonewall Jackson, says:

Before twenty-four hours had passed reinforcements had increased the strength of Johnston's army to 40,000. Want of organization