The army was isolated. The raiding Southern cavalry kept it from
receiving fresh supplies of either food or ammunition, unless it
retreated.
"We're stripped of everything but our arms," said Warner.
"Then we've really lost nothing," said the valiant Pennington, "because
with our arms we'll recover everything."
They had a commander of like spirit. At that moment Rosecrans, gathering
his generals in a tent pitched hastily for him, was saying to them,
"Gentlemen, we will conquer or die here." Short and strong, but every
word meant. There was no need to say more. The generals animated by the
same spirit went forth to their commands, and first among them was the
grim and silent Thomas, who had the bulldog grip of Grant. Perhaps it
was this indomitable tenacity and resolution that made the Northern
generals so much more successful in the west than they were in the east
during the early years of the war.
But there was exultation in the Confederate camp. Bragg and Polk and
Hardee and Breckinridge and the others felt now that Rosecrans would
retreat in the night after losing so many men and one-third of his
artillery.
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