CHAPTER X
BEFORE DONELSON
Dick was the first in Colonel Winchester's troop to see the white flag
floating over Fort Henry and he uttered a shout of joy.
"Look! look!" he cried, "the fleet has taken the fort!"
"So it has," said Colonel Winchester, "and the army is not here.
Now I wonder what General Grant will say when he learns that Foote has
done the work before he could come."
But Dick believed that General Grant would find no fault, that he would
approve instead. The feeling was already spreading among the soldiers
that this man, whose name was recently so new among them, cared only
for results. He was not one to fight over precedence and to feel petty
jealousies.
The smoke of battle was beginning to clear away. Officers were landing
from the boats to receive the surrender of the fort, and Colonel
Winchester and his troops galloped rapidly back toward the army, which
they soon met, toiling through swamps and even through shallow overflow
toward the Tennessee. The men had been hearing for more than an hour
the steady booming of the cannon, and every face was eager.
Colonel Winchester rode straight toward a short, thickset figure on a
stout bay horse near the head of one of the columns. This man, like all
the others, was plastered with mud, but Colonel Winchester gave him a
salute of deep respect.
"What does the cessation of firing mean, Colonel?" asked General Grant.
"It means that Fort Henry has surrendered to the fleet.
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