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What of the Regulars? Patterson telegraphed the Adjutant General: "With the existing feeling and determination of the three-months men to return home, it would be ruinous to advance or even to stay here."

The three-months volunteers expressed determination not to serve one hour after their time expired. General Patterson began a movement to the front, and was assailed with earnest remonstrances against being detained beyond their terms of service. Even if he should capture Winchester he would be without men, and compelled to retreat. He appealed to the regiments to stand by their country for a week or ten days. History was repeating itself, as Col. Biddle subsequently testified. General Patterson had seen precisely the same thing happen to General Scott at Puebla, Mexico. After making fruitless appeals to his men, one-half to two-thirds of them refused to remain. Three days afterwards, July 21, 1861, on the morning of the battle of Bull Run, while the Secretary of War and the commanding General vainly [133]