Lincoln, the unknown

132 •LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNFrom mouth to mouth ran the report, "Johnston's army hascome."A panic ensued.Twenty-five thousand soldiers, refusing to obey orders, brokefrom the field in mad confusion. McDowell and scores of officersmade frantic efforts to stem the rout, but it was useless.Quickly the Confederate artillery shelled the road, alreadyjammed with fleeing soldiers and commissariat wagons and ambulancesand the carriages of silk-hatted, sightseeing Congressmen.Women screamed and fainted. Men shouted and cursedand trampled on one another, A wagon was upset on a bridge.The highway was clogged. Plunging and kicking horses were cutfrom wagons and ambulances and artillery pieces; and frightenedmen in red turbans and yellow trousers leaped upon themand dashed away, the traces trailing in the dust, the harnessdragging at their heels.They imagined that the Confederate cavalry was in closepursuit. The cry of "the cavalry! the cavalry!" convulsed themwith fear.The grand debacle had now become a terror-stricken mob.Nothing like it had ever before been witnessed on any Americanbattle-field.Maddened men threw away their guns, coats, caps, belts,bayonets, and fled as if driven by some unknown fury. Somesank on the road in utter exhaustion and were crushed beneaththe oncoming horses and wagons.The day was Sunday, and the distant roar of the cannontwenty miles away reached Lincoln's ears as he sat in church.At the close of the services, he rushed to the War Department,to read the telegrams that had already begun to pour infrom different parts of the field. Fragmentary and incompleteas they were, Lincoln was eager to discuss them with GeneralScott; so he hurried to the old general's quarters, and foundhim taking a nap.General Scott awoke, yawned, rubbed his eyes; but he wasso infirm he couldn't get up without help. "He had some sortof harness with a pulley arrangement attached to the ceiling ofthe room; and, grasping the strap, he pulled his vast bulk intoan upright position and swung his feet off the lounge upon thefloor.""I don't know," he said, "how many men are in the field,where they are, how they are armed, how they are equipped, or