nely and desolate contained a
majesty that impressed them all, heightened for these youths by the
knowledge that many of them were going on a campaign from which they
would never return.

"Looks as wild as the great plains on which I've hunted with my father,"
said Pennington.

"But we hunt bigger game than buffalo," said Dick.

"Game that is likely to turn and hunt us."

"Yes."

"Do you know where we're going?"

"Not exactly, but I can make a good guess. I know that we've taken on
Tennessee River pilots, and I'm sure that we'll turn into the mouth of
that river at Paducah. I infer that we're to attack Fort Henry, which
the Confederates have erected some distance up the Tennessee to guard
that river."

"Looks likely. Do you know much about the fort?"

"I've heard of it only since I came to Cairo. I know that it stands on
low, marshy ground facing the Tennessee, and that it contains seventeen
big guns. I haven't heard anything about the size of its garrison."

"But we'll have a fight, that's sure," said young Pennington. "I've
been in battle only once--at Columbus--but the Johnny Rebs don't give up
forts in a hurry."

"There's another fort, a much bigger one, named Donelson, on the
Cumberland," said Dick. "Both the forts are in Tennessee, but as the two
rivers run parallel here in the western parts of the two states, Fort
Donelson and Fort Henry are not far apart. I risk a guess that we attack
both."

"You don't risk much. I tell you, Dick, that man Grant is a holy terror.
He isn't much to look at, but he's a marcher and a fighter. We fellows
in the ranks soon learn what kind of a man is over us. I suppose
it's like the horse feeling through the bit the temper of his rider.
President Lincoln has stationed General Halleck at St. Louis with
general command here in the West. General Halleck thinks that General
Grant is a meek subordinate without ambition, and will always be sending
back to him for instructions, which is just what General Halleck likes,
but we in the ranks have learned to know our Grant better."

Dick's eyes glistened.

"So you think, then," he said, "that General Grant will push this
campaign home, and that he'll soon be where he can't get instructions
from General Halleck?"

"Looks that way to a man up a tree," said Pennington slowly, and
solemnly winking his left eye.

They were officer and private, but they were only lads together, and
they talked freely with each other. Dick, after