him he had turned defeat into complete victory, and had dealt a
stunning blow to the Southern Confederacy, which was never able like the
North to fill up its depleted ranks with fresh men.

Time alone could reveal to many the deadly nature of this blow, but
Dick, who had foresight and imagination, understood it now at least in
part. As he saw the hungry Southern boys sharing the food of their late
enemies his mind traveled over the long Southern line. Thomas had beaten
it in Eastern Kentucky, Grant had dealt it a far more crushing blow here
in Western Kentucky, but Albert Sidney Johnston, the most formidable
foe of all, yet remained in the center. He was a veteran general with
a great reputation. Nay, more, it was said by the officers who knew
him that he was a man of genius. Dick surmised that Johnston, after
the stunning blow of Donelson, would be compelled to fall back from
Tennessee, but he did not doubt that he would return again.

Dick soon saw that all his surmises were correct. The news of Donelson
produced for a little while a sort of paralysis at Richmond, and when it
reached Nashville, where the army of Johnston was gathering, it was at
first unbelievable. It produced so much excitement and confusion that
a small brigade sent to the relief of Donelson was not called back, and
marched blindly into the little town of Dover, where it found itself
surrounded by the whole triumphant Union army, and was compelled to
surrender without a fight.

Panic swept through Nashville. Everybody knew that Johnston would be
compelled to fall back from the Cumberland River, upon the banks of
which the capital of Tennessee stood. Foote and his gunboats would come
steaming up the stream into the very heart of the city. Rumor magnified
the number and size of his boats. Again the Southern leaders felt that
the rivers were always a hostile coil girdling them about, and lamented
their own lack of a naval arm.

Floyd had drawn off in the night from Donelson his own special command
of Virginians and when he arrived at Nashville with full news of the
defeat at the fortress, and the agreement to surrender, the panic
increased. Many had striven to believe that the reports were untrue, but
now there could be no doubt.

And the panic gained a second impetus when the generals set fire to
the suspension bridge over the river and the docks along its banks. The
inhabitants saw the signal of doom in the sheets of flame that rolled
up, and al