Whatever might be the truth as regards the troops, there could be no
question but that the general was demoralised; and, preceded by
thousands of stragglers, the army fell back without further delay to
the Potomac. It was not followed except by Stuart. "It was found,"
says Lee, in his official dispatch, "that the enemy had conducted his
retreat so rapidly that the attempt to interfere with him was
abandoned. The proximity of the fortifications around Alexandria and
Washington rendered further pursuit useless."
On the same day General McClellan was entrusted with the defence of
Washington, and Pope, permitted to resign, was soon afterwards
relegated to an obscure command against the Indians of the
North-west. His errors had been flagrant. He can hardly be charged
with want of energy, but his energy was spasmodic; on the field of
battle he was strangely indolent, and yet he distrusted the reports
of others. But more fatal than his neglect of personal reconnaissance
was his power of self-deception. He was absolutely incapable of
putting himself in his enemy's place, and time after time he acted on
the supposition that Lee and Jackson would do exactly what he most
wished them to do.
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