him to beat
off Forrest. It will raise the prestige of our cavalry, which needs it.
I believe it was you, Lieutenant Mason, who brought Grierson."

"It was chiefly, sir, a sergeant named Whitley. I rode with him and
outranked him, but he is a veteran of the plains, and it was he who did
the real work."

The general's stern features were lightened by a smile.

"I'm glad you give the sergeant credit," he said. "Not many officers
would do it."

He listened a while longer and then the three were permitted to withdraw
to their regiment, which was posted back of Grand Gulf, and which had
quickly become a part of an army flushed with victory and eager for
further action.

Before sunset Dick, Warner, and Pennington looked at Grand Gulf, a
little village standing on high cliffs overlooking the Mississippi,
just below the point where the dark stream known as the Big Black River
empties into the Father of Waters. Around the crown of the heights was a
ring of batteries and lower down, enclosing the town, was another ring.

Far off on the Mississippi the three saw puffing black smoke marking
the presence of a Union fleet, which never for one instant in the whole
course of the war relaxed its grip of steel upon the Confederacy. Dick's
heart thrilled at the sight of the brave ships. He felt then, as most of
us have felt since, that whatever happened the American navy would never
fail.

"I hear the ships are going to bombard," said Warner.

"I heard so, too," said Pennington, "and I heard also that they will
have to do it under the most difficult circumstances. The water in front
of Grand Gulf is so deep that the ships can't anchor. It has a swift
current, too, making at that point more than six knots an hour. There
are powerful eddies, too, and the batteries crowning the cliffs are
so high that the cannon of the gunboats will have trouble in reaching
them."

"Still, Mr. Pessimist," said Dick, "remember what the gunboats did at
Fort Henry. You'll find the same kind of men here."

"I wasn't trying to discourage you. I was merely telling the worst
first. We're going to win. We nearly always win here in the West, but it
seems to me the country is against us now. This doesn't look much like
the plains, Dick, with its big, deep rivers, its high bluffs along the
banks, and its miles and miles of swamp or wet lowlands. How wide would
you say the Mississippi is here?"

"Somewhere between a mile and a mile and a half."

"And th