ed
in Buell's camp. The scouts brought in the news that the Union army in
great force was at hand. They had met some of their cavalry patrols in
the night, on the very edge of the city. Resistance to the great Union
force was out of the question, because Bragg had committed the error
that the Union generals had been committing so often in the east. He had
been dividing and scattering his forces so much that he could not now
concentrate them and fight at the point where they were needed most.

The division of the Southern army that occupied Frankfort hastily
gathered up its arms and supplies and departed, taking with it the
governor who was never inaugurated, and soon afterward the Union men
marched in. Both May and Powell had the satisfaction of entering their
homes by the front doors, and seeing the parents who did not know until
then whether they were dead or alive.

Dick had a few hours' leave and he walked about the town. He had made
friends when he was there in the course of that memorable struggle over
secession, and he saw again all of them who had not gone to the war.

Harry and his father were much present in his mind then, because he had
recently seen Colonel Kenton, and because the year before, all three of
them had talked together in these very places.

But he could not dwell too much in the past. He was too young for it,
and the bustle of war was too great. It was said that Bragg's forces
had turned toward the southeast, but were still divided. It was reported
that the Bishop-General, Polk, had been ordered to attack the Northern
force in or near Frankfort, but the attack did not come. Colonel
Winchester said it was because Polk recognized the superior strength
of his enemy, and was waiting until he could co-operate with Bragg and
Hardee.

But whatever it was Dick soon found himself leaving Frankfort and
marching into the heart of the Bluegrass. He began to have the feeling,
or rather instinct warned him, that battle was near. Yet he did not
fear for the Northern army as he had feared in Virginia and Maryland.
He never felt that such men as Lee and Jackson were before them. He felt
instead that the Southern commanders were doubtful and hesitating. They
now had there no such leaders as Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell at
Shiloh when victory was in Southern hands and before it had time to slip
from their grasp.

So the army dropped slowly down eastward and southward through the
Bluegrass. May and Powel