So rapid had been the passage of events that Dick found himself a member
of Buell's reorganized army, and ready to march, only thirteen days after
the sun set on the bloody field of Antietam, seven hundred miles away.
Bragg, they said, was at Lexington, in the heart of the state, and the
Union army was in motion to punish him for his temerity in venturing out
of the far south.
Dick felt a great elation as he rode once more over the soil of his
native state. He beheld again many of the officers whom he had seen at
Donelson, and also he spoke to General Buell, who although as taciturn
and somber as ever, remembered him.
Warner and Pennington were by his side, the colonel rode before, and the
Winchester regiment marched behind. Volunteers from Kentucky and other
states had raised it to about three hundred men, and the new lads
listened with amazement, while the unbearded veterans told them of Shiloh,
the Second Manassas and Antietam.
"Good country, this of yours, Dick," said Warner, as they rode through
the rich lands east of Louisville. "Worth saving.
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