The Colonel forgot them.
We remained on the north side of Bull Run for two or three days, not less than eight miles in advance of General Jackson's corps, who, in the mean time, after destroying the stores at Manassas, had taken position near the Stone Bridge, where the battle of July 21, 1861, had been fought and won; and there awaited the approach of the enemy. General Pope had by this time recovered from the stupor into which he had been thrown by Jackson's advance to his rear, and was concentrating his forces to attack Jackson before the arrival of General Lee, who was hastening to his relief with Longstreet's corps. While we were on the north side of Bull Run we had one active, small skirmish with the enemy, in which not much damage was done on either side, as well as I can remember. On one occasion five of us were left on picket while the regiment was moving forward. The colonel forgot to relieve us, or, perhaps, could not because of the interposition of the enemy between us. The enemy were all around us. We soon found it was unsafe to remain where we were, and almost equally so to keep the road; so, unlike the boy on the burning deck, and remembering the old adage that ‘He who fights and runs away, will live to fight another day,’ we left our post without orders, and concealed ourselves in the woods for the balance of the night, and waited for the morning with some anxiety; and then continued our march, and, after passing several small parties of the enemy, whose acquaintance we did not stop to make, rejoined our regiment late in the evening, much to their relief. They had begun to think we were gone up. We recrossed Bull Run and joined the army, which was then fiercely engaged in the battles of the 29th and 30th of August, and did little more during those two days than guard the left flank of Jackson's corps and report the movement of the enemy.In Jackson's corps there was a company of railroad men, which had been organized in 1861 at Harper's Ferry and its vicinity. When talking with some of them while we were lying around Manassas idle and inactive for so long a time—more than seven months— [82] they were asked how they liked soldiering. ‘Oh, very well, very well indeed,’ they said. ‘It has one great advantage over railroading: 'tis not nearly so dangerous.’ We think these battles of the 29th and 30th of August disabused their minds of such an erroneous belief. They were among the most obstinately and stubbornly contested of the war, and on one occasion at least, our men, when their ammunition was exhausted, hurled rocks and stones at their opponents. The losses were heavy, and many valuable lives were sacrificed—if any distinction can be made where nearly all were alike useful to their country.
On freedom's battle-ground they died;
Fame's loudest trump shall proudly tell
How bravely fought—how nobly fell.
