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346 like an equality of force, running is properly considered disgraceful; but as we were situated, our strength was entirely inadequate for successful opposition, and we found ourselves drawn into a trap from which we could only be extricated by skill and celerity. Considering the matter calmly now, I am perfectly willing to bear all the stigma which inconsiderate and ignorant persons may deem connected with it, especially since I well know that all the hardships to be endured and difficulties to be surmounted in a military life are not confined to the battlefield. The man who dies in his tent from fever or freezes while on picket, may suffer infinitely more than he who is pierced by a bullet or blown to atoms by a shell, though the latter attracts more public attention from the éclat with which it is attended. If I am capable of judging at all of my own mind, I would in any part of the time have preferred an engagement to the retreat, notwithstanding I might have had occasion to change my opinion had we been brought into a severe struggle, and though I believe Colonel Jennings deserves the highest praise not only for having adopted the sole proper course of action but for the dexterity with which it was conducted.

A large proportion of the men had taken off and lost their knapsacks during the skirmish, and others already tired with the labors of the day and seeing the prospect of a long march ahead, were one after another throwing them aside. I carried mine until pretty late, when Lieutenant Richards came to me and said that we still had a tramp of indefinite length to make, and thinking that it was probably costing me more than it was worth, I unstrapped it and left it behind some bushes. It was the object of the Colonel to keep the regiment undercover, if possible, until we could get beyond the reach of the rebels, and several times their scouts were in very close proximity. About