He was going beyond the plans of his superior,
Halleck, at St. Louis. He was too daring, he would lose his army,
away down there in the Confederacy. But others remembered his successes,
particularly at Belmont and Fort Henry. They said that nothing could
be won in war without risk, and they spoke of his daring and decision.
They recalled, too, that he was master upon the waters, that there was
no Southern fleet to face his, as it sailed up the Southern rivers.
The telegraph was already announcing that the gunboats, which had been
handled with such skill and courage, would be in the Cumberland ready
to co-operate with Grant when he should move on Donelson.
Buell was moving also to form another link in the steel chain that was
intended to bind the Confederacy in the west. Here again the mastery of
the rivers was of supreme value to the North. Buell embarked his army
on boats on Green River in the very heart of Kentucky, descended that
river to the Ohio, passing down the latter to Smithland, where the
Cumberland, coming up from the south, entered it, and met another convoy
destined for the huge invasion.
But the first convoy had come, also by boat, from another direction,
and from points far distant. There were fresh regiments of farmers
and pioneers from Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. They were all eager,
full of enthusiasm, anxious to be led against the enemy, and confident
of triumph.
Grant and his army, meanwhile, lying in the bleak forest beside the
Tennessee, knew little of what was being said of them in the great world
without.
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