ARCHIE left the cruiser when she was once more at anchor, and, going
ashore to the American camp, he found things in a very lively
condition at the close of the afternoon's battle. Every man was very
jubilant over the retreat which had been turned into a great victory,
and Archie was congratulated on having been the lucky man to carry the
news of the coming of the rebels to the admiral. The officers were all
in the best of humour, except the colonel, who felt somewhat sad on
account of the death of his five faithful servants, as the men first
shot turned out to have been.
"There were never any better men than they," said the colonel, "and I
would almost as soon my own men had been shot." But he bore the ship's
company no malice for their mistake, which he said was a very natural
one.
After the capture of so many rebels, and the killing of so many
others, it was felt that the rebel army in this part of the island was
pretty well disbanded, and that it would soon disappear altogether. It
had been known, from the very beginning of hostilities, that there was
a large force of insurgents somewhere in this neighbourhood, but not
until to-day had the colonel seen anything of them. But it was
impossible, all the officers said, that there could be any more troops
about, for these two thousand represented a very considerable portion
of the entire rebel army.
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