Yet everybody was aware that a great battle
was soon to come. They had felt it in both armies, and for two or three
days the firing of the skirmishers had been almost continuous. Scouts
kept each side well informed.
Dick, Warner and Pennington, before they lay down in their blankets,
listened to the faint reports of rifles. They could see little owing to
the deep woods in which they lay, but the sound of the shots came clearly.
"A part of our army is to cross the fords of Stone River in the morning
by daylight or before," said Warner, "and we're to surprise the enemy and
rush him. I wonder if we'll do it."
"We will not," said Pennington with emphasis. "We may beat the enemy,
but we will not surprise him. We never do. Why should we surprise him?
He is here in his own country. If the whole Southern army were sound
asleep, a thousand of the natives would wake up their generals and tell
them that the Yankee army was advancing."
"Their sentinels are watching, anyhow," said Dick, "but I imagine that
we'd gain something if the first rush was ours and not theirs.
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