"
"Then, Colonel, we owe him thanks, and you thanks for letting him go.
We'll certainly bring on a battle to-morrow, and we ought to have all our
army present. I shall send a messenger at once to General Buell with
your news. Messengers shall also go to Crittenden, Rousseau, and the
other generals. But you recognize, of course, that General Buell is
the commander-in-chief, and that it is for him to make the final
arrangements."
"I do, sir," said the colonel, as he saluted and retired. He went back
to the point where his own little regiment lay. He knew every man and
boy in it, and he had known them all in the beginning, when they were
many times more. But few of the splendid regiment with which he had
started south a year and a half before remained. He looked at Dick and
Warner and Pennington and the sergeant and wondered if they would be
present to answer to the roll the next night, or if he himself would be
there?
The colonel cherished no illusions. He was not sanguine that the whole
Union army would come up, and even if it came, and if victory should be
won it would be dark and bloody.
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