two o'clock in the
morning
The South had lost almost as many . From the wildest panic into which the advance of his army had thrown Richmond , the Confederate Capital now swung to the opposite extreme of rejoicing for the deliverance , mingled with criticism of their leaders for allowing the Federal army to escape at all . The gloom in Washington was profound . An excited General rushed to the White House at two o'clock in the morning , roused the President from his bed and pleaded for the immediate dispatch of a fleet of transports to Harrison 's Landing as the only possible way to save the army from annihilation . The President soothed his fears and sent him home . He was not the man to be thrown into a panic . Yet the incredible thing had happened .