I Had Never Seen Five Thousand People
Surrender To One Man, And It Seemed That, If I Were To Witness That
Ceremony, My Best Plan Was To Abandon The Artillery And, As Quickly
As Possible, Pursue The Second Wisconsin.
I did not want to share
the spectacle of the surrender with my brother correspondents, so I
tried to steal away from the three who were present.
They were
Thomas F. Millard, Walstein Root of the Sun, and Horace Thompson. By
dodging through a coffee central I came out a half mile from them and
in advance of the Third Wisconsin. There I encountered two "boy
officers," Captain John C. Breckenridge and Lieutenant Fred. S.
Titus, who had temporarily abandoned their thankless duties in the
Commissariat Department in order to seek death or glory in the
skirmish-line. They wanted to know where I was going, and when I
explained, they declared that when Coamo surrendered they also were
going to be among those present.
So we slipped away from the main body and rode off as an independent
organization. But from the bald ridge, where the artillery was still
hammering the town, the three correspondents and Captain Alfred
Paget, Her Majesty's naval attache, observed our attempt to steal a
march on General Wilson's forces, and pursued us and soon overtook
us.
We now were seven, or to be exact, eight, for with Mr. Millard was
"Jimmy," who in times of peace sells papers in Herald Square, and in
times of war carries Mr. Millard's copy to the press post.
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