Dick, at General Grant's order, was transferred permanently to the staff
of Colonel Winchester, and he and the other officers slept that night
in a small building in the outskirts of Cairo. He knew that a great
movement was at hand, but he was becoming so thoroughly inured to danger
and hardship that he slept soundly all through the night.
They heard early the next morning the sound of many trumpets and Colonel
Winchester's regiment formed for embarkation. All the puffing steamers
were now in the Ohio, and Dick saw with them many other vessels which
were not used for carrying soldiers. He saw broad, low boats, with
flat bottoms, their sides sheathed in iron plates. They were floating
batteries moved by powerful engines beneath. Then there were eight huge
mortars, a foot across the muzzle, every one mounted separately upon a
strong barge and towed. Some of the steamers were sheathed in iron also.
Dick's heart throbbed hard when he saw the great equipment. The
fighting ships were under the command of Commodore Foote, an able man,
but General Grant and his lieutenants, General McClernand and General
Smith, commanded the army aboard the transports. On the transport next
to them Dick saw the Pennsylvanians and he waved his hand to his friends
who stood on the deck. They waved back, and Dick felt powerfully the
sense of comradeship. It warmed his heart for them all to be together
again, and it was a source of strength, too.
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