He had been
compelled to abandon or burn stores valued at millions. The South had
captured thirty-five thousand stand of arms and fifty-two pieces of
artillery.
Lee in his report modestly expressed his disappointment that greater
results had not been achieved.
"Under ordinary circumstances," he wrote, "the Federal army should have
been destroyed. Its escape was due to causes already stated. Prominent
among them was the want of correct and timely information. The first,
attributable chiefly to the character of the country, enabled General
McClellan skillfully to conceal his retreat and to add much to the
obstructions with which nature had beset the way of our pursuing column.
But regret that more was not accomplished gives way to gratitude to the
Sovereign Ruler of the Universe for the results achieved."
Jackson, the grim soldier, whose habit was to pray all night before
battle, wrote with the fervor of the religious enthusiast.
"Undying gratitude is due to God for this great victory--by which
despondency increases in the North, hope brightens in the South and the
Capital of Virginia and the Confederacy is saved."
A wave of exultation swept the South--while Death stalked through the
streets of Richmond.
Instead of the tramp of victorious hosts, their bayonets glittering in
the sunlight, which Socola had confidently expected, he watched from the
windows of the Department of State the interminable lines of ambulances
bearing the wounded from the fields of McClellan's seven-days' battle.
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