“You know, general, that I endorse all your views,” continued Colonel Kenton.  “We are unfortunate here in having a division of counsels, while the Yankees have a single and strong head.  We have underrated this man Grant.  Look how he surprised us and took Henry!  Look how he hangs on here!  We’ve beaten him on land and we’ve driven back his fleet, but he hangs on.  To my mind he has no notion of retreating.  He’ll keep on pounding us as long as we are here.”

“That’s his way, an’ it ought to be the way of every general,” growled Forrest.  “You cut down a tree by keepin’ on cuttin’ out chips with an axe, an’ you smash up an army by hittin’ an’ hittin’ an’ keepin’ on hittin’.  We ought to charge right out of our works an’ jump on the Yankees with all our stren’th.”

The two walked on, followed by the soldiers who had come with them, and Dick heard no more.  But he was too cautious to stir for a long while.  He lay there until the cold began to make its way through his boots and heavy overcoat.  Then he rose carefully, brushed off the snow, and began his retreat toward the Union lines.  Four or five hundred yards further on and he met Colonel Winchester and his own comrades come back to search for him.  They welcomed him joyfully.

“We did not miss you until we were nearly to our own pickets,” said the colonel.  “Then we concluded that you had fallen and had been taken by the enemy, but we intended to see if we could find you.  We’ve been hovering about here for some time.”

Dick told what he had seen and heard, and the colonel considered it of much importance.

“I judge from what you heard that they will attack us,” he said.  “Buckner and Forrest will be strongly for it, and they’re likely to have their way.  We must report at once to General Grant.”

The Southern attack had been planned for the next morning, but it did not come then.  Pillow, for reasons unknown, decided to delay another day, and his fiery subordinates could do nothing but chafe and wait.  Dick spent most of the day carrying orders for his chief, and the continuous action steadied his nerves.

As he passed from point to point he saw that the Union army itself was far from ready.  It was a difficult task to get twenty thousand raw farmer youths in proper position.  They moved about often without cohesion and sometimes without understanding their orders.  Great gaps remained in the line, and a daring and skilful foe might cut the besieging force asunder.

But Grant had put his heavy guns in place, and throughout the day he maintained a slow but steady fire upon the fort.  Great shells and solid shot curved and fell upon Donelson.  Grant did not know what damage they were doing, but he shrewdly calculated that they would unsteady the nerves of the raw troops within.  These farmer boys, as they heard the unceasing menace of the big guns, would double the numbers of their foe, and attribute to him an unrelaxing energy.