The fatal influence of a
continued retreat had paralysed, however, the initiative of the
Federal generals. Intent only on getting away unscathed, they
neglected, like McClellan at Gaines' Mill, to look for opportunities,
forgetting that when an enemy is pursuing in hot haste he is very apt
to expose himself. Jackson had acted otherwise at Port Republic.
The loss of over 5000 men was not the worst which had befallen the
Confederates. "The next morning by dawn," says one of Ewell's
brigadiers, "I went off to ask for orders, when I found the whole
army in the utmost disorder--thousands of straggling men were asking
every passer-by for their regiments; ambulances, waggons, and
artillery obstructing every road, and altogether, in a drenching
rain, presenting a scene of the most woeful and disheartening
confusion."* (* Trimble's Report, O.R. volume 11 part 1 page 619.)
The reports of other officers corroborate General Trimble's
statement, and there can be no question that demoralisation had set
in. Whether, if the Federals had used their large reserves with
resolution, and, as the Confederates fell back down the slopes, had
followed with the bayonet, the demoralisation would not have
increased and spread, must remain in doubt.
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