been taken so
gallantly by the navy, and Grant, his generals, and Commodore Foote,
were in anxious consultation. Most of the troops were soon camped on
the height, where the Southern force had stood, and there was great
exultation, but Dick, who had now seen so much, knew that the high
officers considered this only a beginning.

Across the narrow stretch of land on the parallel river, the Cumberland,
stood the great fort of Donelson. Henry was a small affair compared with
it. It was likely that men who had been stationed at Henry had retreated
there, and other formidable forces were marching to the same place. The
Confederate commander, Johnston, after the destruction of his
eastern wing at Mill Spring by Thomas, was drawing in his forces and
concentrating. The news of the loss of Fort Henry would cause him to
hasten his operations. He was rapidly falling back from his position
at Bowling Green in Kentucky. Buckner, with his division, was about to
march from that place to join the garrison in Donelson, and Floyd, with
another division, would soon be on the way to the same point. Floyd had
been the United States Secretary of War before secession, and the Union
men hated him. It was said that the great partisan leader, Forrest, with
his cavalry, was also at the fort.

Much of this news was brought in by farmers, Union sympathizers, and
Dick and his comrades, as they sat before the fires at the close of
the short winter day, understood the situation almost as well as the
generals.

"Donelson is ninety per cent and Henry only ten per cent," said Warner.
"So long as the Johnnies hold Donelson on the Cumberland, they can build
another fort anywhere they please along the Tennessee, and stop our
fleet. This general of ours has a good notion of the value of time and
a swift blow, and, although I'm neither a prophet nor the son of a
prophet, I predict that he will attack Donelson at once by both land and
water."

"How can he attack it by water?" asked Pennington. "The distance between
them is not great, but our ships can't steam overland from the Tennessee
to the Cumberland."

"No, but they can steam back up the Tennessee into the Ohio, thence to
the mouth of the Cumberland, and down the Cumberland to Donelson. It
would require only four or five days, and it will take that long for the
army to invade from the land side."

Dick had his doubts about the ability of the army and the fleet to
co-operate. Accustomed to the ene