The little army
which had fought so gallantly the day before now amounted to only
one-fourth of the whole. McDowell, Sigel and many other generals joined
Pope, who, with the strange faculty of always seeing his enemy too small,
while McClellan always saw him too large, began to feed upon his own
sanguine anticipations, and to regard as won the great victory that he
intended to win. He sent telegrams to Washington announcing that his
triumph at Cedar Run was only the first of a series that his army would
soon achieve.
It was late in the afternoon when Dick awoke, and he was amazed to see
that the sun was far down the western sky. But he rubbed his eyes and,
remembering, knew that he had slept at least ten hours. He looked down
at the relaxed figures of Warner and Pennington on either side of him.
They still slumbered soundly, but he decided that they had slept long
enough.
"Here, you," he exclaimed, seizing Warner by the collar and dragging him
to a sitting position, "look at the sun! Do you realize that you've lost
a day out of your bright young life?"
Then he seized Pennington by the collar also and dragged him up.
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