CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX. 131 



drawn to their rear, where we were joined by 

 one after another of the defeated or exhausted 

 infantry regiments. Little by little the enemy 

 pressed upon us, gaining rod after rod of our 

 position, until finally our last arriving troops, a 

 splendid colored regiment, reached the field of 

 battle at double-quick, breathless and beaten by 

 their own speed, barely in time to check the 

 assault until we could cross the creek and move 

 toward the rear. The retreat was but fairly be- 

 gun when we came upon our train of two hundred 

 wagons piled pell-mell in a small field and blocked 

 in beyond the possibility of removal. With sad 

 eyes we saw John Ellard cut his traces and leave 

 all that was dear to us — tents, camp-chest, poker- 

 table, and all that we cherished — to inevitable 

 capture. The train was our tub to the whale; 

 and while Forrest's men were sacking our treas- 

 ures, and refilling the caissons of all our batteries, 

 which they had captured, we had time to form 

 for the retreat, more or less orderly according 

 as we had come early or late off the field. The 

 demoralizing roar of our own guns, and the howl- 



