The fire now grew so hot and deadly that the Union regiments were forced to give ground.  It was evident that they could not carry the formidable earthworks, but on the right, where Dick’s regiment charged, and just above the little town of Dover, they pressed in far enough to secure some hills that protected them from the fire of the enemy, and from which Southern cannon and rifles could not drive them.  Then, at the order of Grant, his troops withdrew elsewhere and the battle of the day ceased.  But on the low hills above Dover, which they had taken, the Union regiments held their ground, and from their position the Northern cannon could threaten the interior of the Southern lines.

Dick’s regiment stood here, and beside them were the few companies of Pennsylvanians so far from their native state.  Neither Dick nor Pennington was wounded.  Warner had a bandaged arm, but the wound was so slight that it would not incapacitate him.  The officers were unhurt.

“They’ve driven our army back,” said Pennington, “and it was not so hard for them to do it either.  How can we ever defeat an army as large as our own inside powerful works?”

But Dick was learning fast and he had a keen eye.

“We have not failed utterly,” he said.  “Don’t you see that we have here a projection into the enemy’s lines, and if those reinforcements come it will be thrust further and further?  I tell you that general of ours is a bull dog.  He will never let go.”

Yet there was little but gloom in the Union camp.  The short winter day, somber and heavy with clouds, was drawing to a close.  The field upon which the assault had taken place was within the sweep of the Southern guns.  Some of the Northern wounded had crawled away or had been carried to their own camp, but others and the numerous dead still lay upon the ground.

The cold increased.  The Southern winter is subject to violent changes.  The clouds which had floated up without ceasing were massing heavily.  Now the young troops regretted bitterly the blankets that they had dropped on the way or left at Fort Henry.  Detachments were sent back to regain as many as possible, but long before they could return a sharp wind with an edge of ice sprang up, the clouds opened and great flakes poured down, driven into the eyes of the soldiers by the wind.

The situation was enough to cause the stoutest heart to weaken, but the unflinching Grant held on.  The Confederate army within the works was sheltered at least in part, but his own, outside, and with the desolate forest rimming it around, lay exposed fully to the storm.  Dick, at intervals, saw the short, thickset figure of the commander passing among the men, and giving them orders or encouragement.  Once he saw his face clearly.  The lips were pressed tightly together, and the whole countenance expressed the grimmest determination.  Dick was confirmed anew in his belief that the chief would never turn back.