"I'd a good deal rather go into battle with
Dick by my side singing a song of victory, than croaking of defeat."
"That's good as a general proposition," said Warner, "but I was merely
cautioning him not to be too enthusiastic. What kind of a country, Dick,
is this into which we are going?"
"Hilly, lots of forests, particularly of cedar, and brooks, creeks and
rivers. Murfreesborough itself is right on Lytle's Creek. Bragg will
meet us at the line of Stone River."
"Maybe they'll retreat and go eastward to Chattanooga," said Pennington.
"I think we'd better dismiss that 'maybe,'" said Dick. "You haven't
heard of the rebels running away from battles, have you?"
"What I've generally seen, in the beginning at least," said Warner,
"is the rebels running toward us, jumping out of the woods and yelling
like Indians. I have seldom found it a pleasant sight. I'm glad, too,
Dick, that Stonewall Jackson isn't here. Do you see that big cedar
forest over there on the hillside? Suppose he should come rushing out
of it with twenty or twenty-five thousand men.
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