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 energy of the Southern commanders in the east he did not believe that Grant would be allowed to arrange things as he chose.  But several days passed and they heard nothing from the Confederates, although Donelson was only about twenty miles away.  Johnston himself, brilliant and sagacious, was not there, nor was his lieutenant, Beauregard, who had won such a great reputation by his victory at the first Bull Run.

Dick was just beginning to suspect a truth that later on was to be confirmed fully in his mind.  Fortune had placed the great generals of the Confederacy, with the exception of Albert Sidney Johnston, in the east, but it had been the good luck of the North to open in the west with its best men.

Now he saw the energy of Grant, the short man of rather insignificant appearance.  Boats were sent down the Tennessee to meet any reinforcements that might be coming, take them back to the Ohio, and thence into the Cumberland.  Fresh supplies of ammunition and food were brought up, and it became obvious to Dick that the daring commander meant to attack Donelson, even should its garrison outnumber his own besieging force.

Along a long line from Western Tennessee to Eastern Kentucky there was a mighty stir.  Johnston had perceived the energy and courage of his opponent.  He had shared the deep disappointment of all the Southern leaders when Kentucky failed to secede, but instead furnished so many thousands of fine troops to the Union army.