Directly all was changed. Older troops would not have stood, and
these untried ones were defeated as soon as they were attacked. Speedily
retreat became rout, and rout became panic. At a great speed the
frightened soldiers, resolved into a mere disorganized mob of
individuals, made their way back to the camps on the Potomac; many
thought Washington safer, and some did not stop short of their distant
Northern homes.
The Southerners, who had been on the point of running away when the
Northerners anticipated them in so doing, now triumphed immoderately,
and uttered boastings magniloquent enough for Homeric heroes. Yet they
were, as General Johnston said, "almost as much disorganized by victory
as were the Federals by defeat." Many of them also hastened to their
homes, spreading everywhere the cheering tidings that the war was over
and the South had won.
In point of fact, it was a stage of the war when defeat was more
wholesome than victory. Fortunately, too, the North was not even
momentarily discouraged. The people had sense enough to see that what
had happened was precisely what should have been expected. A little
humiliated at their own folly, about as much vexed with themselves as
angry with their enemies, they turned to their work in a new spirit.
Persistence displaced excitement, as three years' men replaced three
months' men. The people settled down to a long, hard task.
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