He was sure that the letter would reach her promptly, as it passed all the way through territory now controlled by the North.  The next day after sending it he heard with joy that Grant was restored to his command, and two days later Colonel Winchester and his men were ordered to join him at Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River.  They heard also that Buell, with his whole division, was soon to march to the same place, and they saw in it an omen of speedy and concentrated action.

“I imagine,” said Warner, “that we’ll soon go down in Mississippi hunting Johnston.  We must outnumber the Johnny Rebs at least two to one.  I’m not a general, though any one can see that I ought to be, and if we were to follow Johnston’s army and crush it the war would soon be ended in the west.”

“You’ve got a mighty big ’if’,” said Dick.  “If we march into Mississippi we get pretty far from our base.  We’ll have to send a long distance through hostile country for fresh supplies and fresh troops, while the Southerners will be nearer to their own.  Besides, it’s not so certain that we can destroy Johnston when we find him.”

“Your talk sounds logical, and that being the case, I’ll leave our future movements to General Grant.  Anyway, it’s a good thing not to have so much responsibility on your shoulders.”

They came in a few days to the great camp on the Tennessee.  Spring was now breaking through the crust of winter.  Touches of green were appearing on the forests and in the fields.  Now and then the wonderful pungent odor of the wilderness came to them and life seemed to have taken on new zest.  They were but boys in years, and the terrible scenes of Donelson could not linger with them long.

They found Colonel Newcomb and the little detachment of Pennsylvanians with Grant, and Colonel Winchester, resuming command of his regiment, camped by their side, delighted to be with old friends again.  Colonel Winchester had lost a portion of his regiment, but there were excuses.  It had happened in a country well known to the enemy and but little known to him, and he had been attacked in overwhelming force by the rough-riding Forrest, who was long to be a terror to the Union divisions.  But he had achieved the task on which he had been sent, and he was thanked by his commander.

Dick, as he went on many errands or walked about in the course of his leisure hours with his friends, watched with interest the growth of a great army.  There were more men here upon the banks of the Tennessee than he had seen at Bull Run.  They were gathered full forty thousand strong, and General Buell’s army also, he learned, had been put under command of General Grant and was advancing from Nashville to join him.