A rush of panic-stricken cattle; hence a rush of frightened soldiers or other persons. The word was much used in the Civil War.
1846. A stampede sometimes seizes the herd, and then, with upturned heads and glaring eyes, the animals rush along, making the earth tremble beneath their feet.—T. B. Thorpe, ‘Mysteries of the Backwoods,’ p. 15 (Phila.).
1848. Old Hicks, shouting, “A stampede!” glided behind the trunk of a huge tree.—C. W. Webber, ‘Old Hicks the Guide,’ p. 107 (N.Y.).
1852. Nearly a hundred slaves of different ages, sexes, and colours, most of them house-servants in the best families, had made a stampedo, as the Western men say.—C. A. Bristed, ‘The Upper Ton Thousand,’ p. 62 (N.Y.). (Italics in the original.)
1853. It is not the intention of this article to alarm the hotel proprietors of Saratoga by this impending stampede in fashionable life.—Putnam’s Mag., ii. 264/2 (Sept.).
1854. In consequence of a stampede of the dimocracy [sic] for the mountains, the boat did not leave at the time appointed.—Weekly Oregonian, June 10.
1854. Such a fluttering of muslin, such a screeching, and such a general stampede, I never heard or witnessed.—Oregon Weekly Times, Aug. 12.
1858. The wild and mysterious hyperbolical phantasm of enthusiasts would create a furor and stampede, run riot over the safe-guard of American liberty—the constitution—stab to the very vitals the great incentives which clustered round the spot that gave birth to the mighty instrument, mock their primitive fathers and mothers, sing the requiem to the death-knell of Liberty, and gormandize over the destruction of the confederacy.—Knick. Mag., li. 209: a piece of “tall talk” extracted from the Madisonian (Jackson, Tenn.).
1858. [There seems] to have been a considerable stampede of slaves from the border valley counties of Virginia.—Baltimore Sun, April 9 (Bartlett).
1859. “Almost a Stampede.” Heading in the Rocky Mountain News, Auraria and Denver, Oct. 6, when the miners at Gregory were surprised by a snow-storm.
1860. An old horse, which otherwise could hardly be whipped along, will sometimes, in a stampede, dash off so furiously as not to be possibly overtaken.—T. H. Hittell, ‘Adventures of J. C. Adams,’ p. 173 (S.F.).
1860. The result has been a tremendous stampede of German voters in Southern Indiana.—Oregon Argus, Aug. 4.
1861. “The Prospective Stampede from Virginia.” Heading of an item relating to the threat of certain gentlemen in Amelia County to join the Southern Confederacy.—Richmond Enquirer, Feb. 28, p. 2/2.
*** See also Appendix XXIV.
