It was a singular ordeal for more than one of that incongruous

the depths of ignorance as to the true condition of affairs, and this

tended to increase our anxiety. Then, too, the accounts of the

conflicts that had taken place were greatly exaggerated by the

Eastern papers, and lost nothing in transition. The news came by the

pony express across the Plains to San Francisco, where it was still

further magnified in republishing, and gained somewhat in Southern

bias. I remember well that when the first reports reached us of, the

battle of Bull Run--that sanguinary engagement--it was stated that