e the same privilege. This
battle, while it has not wounded you, has covered you with its grime.
Come, the fighting is over for this day at least, and the regiment is
going to take a rest--what there is left of it."

He spoke the last words sadly. He knew the terrible cost at which they
had driven the Southern army back into the fort, and he feared that
the full price was yet far from being paid. But he preserved a cheerful
manner before the brave lads of his who had fought so well.

Dick found that Warner and Pennington both had wounds, although they
were too slight to incapacitate them. Sergeant Whitley, grave and
unhurt, rejoined them also.

The winter night and their heavy losses could not discourage the
Northern troops. They shared the courage and tenacity of their
commander. They began to believe now that Donelson, despite its strength
and its formidable garrison, would be taken. They built the fires high,
and ate heartily. They talked in sanguine tones of what they would do in
the morrow. Excited comment ran among them. They had passed from the pit
of despair in the morning to the apex of hope at night. Exhausted, all
save the pickets fell asleep after a while, dreaming of fresh triumphs
on the morrow.

Had Dick's eyes been able to penetrate Donelson he would have beheld a
very different scene. Gloom, even more, despair, reigned there. Their
great effort had failed. Bravery had availed nothing. Their frightful
losses had been suffered in vain. The generals blamed one another. Floyd
favored the surrender of the army, but fancying that the Union troops
hated him with special vindictiveness, and that he would not be safe as
a prisoner, decided to escape.

Pillow declared that Grant could yet be beaten, but after a while
changed to the view of Floyd. They yet had two small steamers in the
Cumberland which could carry them up the river. They left the command
to Buckner, the third in rank, and told him he could make the surrender.
The black-bearded Forrest said grimly: "I ain't goin' to surrender my
cavalry, not to nobody," and by devious paths he led them away through
the darkness and to liberty. Colonel George Kenton rode with him.

The rumor that a surrender was impending spread to the soldiers. Not yet
firm in the bonds of discipline confusion ensued, and the high officers
were too busy escaping by the river to restore it. All through the night
the two little steamers worked, but a vast majority of the troops