Then they fell away, as if by mutual consent,
the gray riding toward Frankfort and the blue toward the Union army.
"Was it a misfortune to meet them?" asked Dick.
"I don't think so," replied Colonel Winchester. "They had probably found
out already that our army was near. Of course they had out scouts.
Kirby Smith, I know, is an alert man, and anyway, the march of an army
as large as ours could not be hidden."
It was dawn again when the colonel's little party reached the Union camp,
and when he made his report the heavy columns advanced at once. But the
alarm had already spread about at Frankfort. The morning there looked
upon a scene even more lively than the one that had occurred in Buell's
camp. The scouts brought in the news that the Union army in great force
was at hand. They had met some of their cavalry patrols in the night,
on the very edge of the city. Resistance to the great Union force was
out of the question, because Bragg had committed the error that the Union
generals had been committing so often in the east. He had been dividing
and scattering his forces so much that he could not now concentrate them
and fight at the point where they were needed most.
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