The light
was faint, and I had only one glance--discretion suggested a quick
retreat.
I just grazed capture--passing through the door, in rear of the
mansion, at the very moment when a number of the enemy, who had hastily
dismounted, rushed in at the front door.
Tom was mounted, and holding my horse, which the good boy had saddled
with his own hands. I leaped to saddle, and had scarcely done so, when
a pistol bullet whizzed by my head. It had crashed through a pane of
the window from within--and a loud shout followed. We had been
perceived.
Under these circumstances, my dear reader, we always ran in the late
war. Some persons considered it disgraceful to run or dodge, but they
were civilians.
"Don't run until you are obliged to, but then run like the ----!" said
a hard-fighting general.
And one day when a lady was telling General R.E. Lee, how a friend of
hers had dodged once, the general turned to the laughing officer, and
said in his deep voice, "That's right captain, dodge all you can!"
I have often dodged, and more than once have--withdrawn rapidly. On
this occasion, Tom and I thought that retreat was the wisest course. In
a moment we had disappeared in the woods, followed by pistol shots and
some of the enemy.
They did not pursue us far. The Federal cavalry did not like the
Virginia woods.
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