It is no time, when the tide of victory bears him forward, for a general “to take counsel of his fears.”  It is no time to count numbers, or to conjure up the phantoms of possible reserves; the sea itself is not more irresistible than an army which has stormed a strong position, and which has attained, in so doing, the exhilarating consciousness of superior courage.  Had Stuart, with his 2000 horsemen, followed up the pursuit towards the bridges, the Federal reserves might have been swept away in panic.  But Stuart, in common with Lee and Jackson, expected that the enemy would endeavour to reach the White House, and when he saw that their lines were breaking he had dashed down a lane which led to the river road, about three miles distant.  When he reached that point, darkness had already fallen, and finding no traces of the enemy, he had returned to Old Cold Harbour.

On the night of the battle the Confederates remained where the issue of the fight had found them.  Across the Grapevine road the pickets of the hostile forces were in close proximity, and men of both sides, in search of water, or carrying messages, strayed within the enemy’s lines.  Jackson himself, it is said, came near capture.  Riding forward in the darkness, attended by only a few staff officers, he suddenly found himself in presence of a Federal picket.  Judging rightly of the enemy’s morale, he set spurs to his horse, and charging into the midst, ordered them to lay down their arms; and fifteen or twenty prisoners, marching to the rear, amused the troops they met on the march by loudly proclaiming that they had the honour of being captured by Stonewall Jackson.  These men were not without companions. 2830 Federals were reported either captured or missing; and while some of those were probably among the dead, a large proportion found their way to Richmond; 4000, moreover, had fallen on the field of battle.* (* O.R. volume 11 part 1 pages 40 to 42.)

The Confederate casualties were even a clearer proof of the severity of the fighting.  So far as can be ascertained, 8000 officers and men were killed or wounded.

               Longstreet 1850
               A.P.  Hill 2450
               Jackson........ 8700

Jackson’s losses were distributed as follows:—­

Jackson’s own Division   600
Ewell                    650
Whiting                 1020
D.H.  Hill               1430

The regimental losses, in several instances, were exceptionally severe.  Of the 4th Texas, of Hood’s brigade, the first to pierce the Federal line, there fell 20 officers and 230 men.  The 20th North Carolina, of D.H.  Hill’s division, which charged the batteries on McGehee’s Hill, lost 70 killed and 200 wounded; of the same division the 3rd Alabama lost 200, and the 12th North Carolina 212; while two of Lawton’s regiments, the 31st and the 38th Georgia, had each a casualty list of 170.  Almost every single regiment north of the Chickahominy took part in the action.  The cavalry did nothing, but at least 48,000 infantry were engaged, and seventeen batteries are mentioned in the reports as having participated in the battle.