It was said that
Louisville, one of the largest and richest of the border cities, would
surely fall into the hands of the South.
Dick read the letter with changing and strong emotions. Amid the
terrible struggles in the east, the west was almost blotted out of
his mind. The Second Manassas and Antietam had great power to absorb
attention wholly upon themselves. He had wholly forgotten for the time
about Pendleton, the people whom he knew, and even his mother. Now
they returned with increased strength. His memory was flooded with
recollections of the little town, every house and face of which he knew.
And so the Confederates were coming north again with a great army.
Shiloh had been far from crushing them in the west. The letter had
been written before the Second Manassas, and that and Lee's great fight
against odds at Antietam would certainly arouse in them the wish for
like achievements. He inferred that since the armies in the east were
exhausted, the great field for action would be for a while, in the west,
and he was seized with an intense longing for that region which was his
own.
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