Colonel
Winchester said it was because Polk recognized the superior strength
of his enemy, and was waiting until he could co-operate with Bragg and
Hardee.
But whatever it was Dick soon found himself leaving Frankfort and
marching into the heart of the Bluegrass. He began to have the feeling,
or rather instinct warned him, that battle was near. Yet he did not fear
for the Northern army as he had feared in Virginia and Maryland. He
never felt that such men as Lee and Jackson were before them. He felt
instead that the Southern commanders were doubtful and hesitating.
They now had there no such leaders as Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell at
Shiloh when victory was in Southern hands and before it had time to slip
from their grasp.
So the army dropped slowly down eastward and southward through the
Bluegrass. May and Powell had obtained but a brief glimpse of their home
town, before they were on their way again with a purpose which had little
to do with such peaceful things as home.
Dick saw with dismay that the concentric march of the armies was bringing
them toward the very region into which his mother had fled for refuge.
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