rible raiders led by Forrest should strike them again they
could make but little defense.

They came the next morning upon a good road and followed it without
interruption until nearly noon, when they saw the glint of arms across a
wide field. Colonel Winchester drew his little troop back into the edge
of the woods, and put his field glasses to his eyes.

"There are many men, riding along a road parallel to ours," he said.
"They look like an entire regiment, and by all that's lucky, they're in
the uniforms of our own troops. Yes, they're our own men. There can be
no mistake. It is probably the advance guard of Buell's army."

They still had a trumpet, and at the colonel's order it was blown long
and loud. An answering call came from the men on the parallel road, and
they halted. Then Colonel Winchester's little troop galloped forward
and they were soon shaking hands with the men of a mounted regiment from
Ohio. They had been sent ahead by Buell to watch Johnston's army, but
hearing of the abandonment of Nashville, they were now riding straight
for the city. Colonel Winchester and his troop joined them gladly and
the colonel rode by the side of the Ohio colonel, Mitchel.

Dick and his young comrades felt great relief. He realized the terrible
activity of Forrest, but that cavalry leader, even if he had not now
gone south, would hesitate about attacking the powerful regiment with
which Dick now rode. Warner and Pennington shared his feelings.

"The chances are ninety per cent in our favor," said the Vermonter,
"that we'll ride into Nashville without a fight. I've never been in
Tennessee before, and I'm a long way from home, but I'm curious to see
this city. I'd like to sleep in a house once more."

They rode into Nashville the next morning amid frowning looks, but the
half deserted city offered no resistance.

CHAPTER XIII. IN THE FOREST

Dick spent a week or more in Nashville and he saw the arrival of one of
General Grant's divisions on the fleet under Commodore Foote. Once more
he appreciated the immense value of the rivers and the fleet to the
North.

He and the two lads who were now knitted to him by sympathy, and
hardships and dangers shared, enjoyed their stay in Nashville. It was
pleasant to sleep once more in houses and to be sheltered from rain and
frost and snow. It was pleasant, too, for these youths, who were devoted
to the Union, to think that their armies had made such progress in the
west.