Great indignation is expressed by the generals in the field
at the tales told of the heroism of the amateur fighters. They say stripped a dead
colonel, and was never in reach of the enemy's guns. Moreover, the civilians in
arms kept at such a distance from danger that their balls fell among our own
men, and wounded some of them! An order has been issued by one of the
major-generals, that hereafter any stragglers on the field of battle shall be
shot. No civilians are to be permitted to be there at all, unless they go into
the ranks.
Gen. Johnston is wounded — badly wounded, but not mortally.
It is his misfortune to be wounded in almost every battle he fights.
Nevertheless, he has gained a glorious victory. Our loss in killed and wounded
will not exceed 5000; while the enemy's killed, wounded, and prisoners will not
fall short of 13,000. They lost, besides, many guns, tents, and stores — all
wrung from them at the point of the bayonet, and in spite of their formidable
abattis. Prisoners taken on the field say: “The Southern soldiers would charge
into hell if there was a battery before them — and they would take it from a legion
of devils!” The moral effect of this victory must be great. The enemy have been
taught that none of the engines of destruction that can be wielded against us,
will prevent us from taking their batteries; and so, hereafter, when we charge
upon them, they might as well run away from their own guns.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 132-3
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