ack from the trebly crimsoned field
Terrible woods are thunder-tost:
Full of the wrath that will not yield,
Full of revenge for battles lost:
Hark to their echo as it crost
The capital making faces wan:
End this murderous holocaust;
Abraham Lincoln give us a man."

"Sounds good," said Dick, "and, George, you and Frank and I know that
what we want is a man. We've lost big battles, because we didn't have a
big man, who could see at once and think like lightning, to lead us. But
we'll get him sooner or later! We'll get him. Did any other troops ever
bear up like ours under defeats and drawn battles? Listen to 'em now!"

Slow and deep and sung by many thousand men rose the rolling chorus:

"The army is gathering from near and from far;
The trumpet is sounding the call for the war;
Old Rosey's our leader, he's gallant and strong;
We'll gird on our armor and be marching along."

"Now," cried Warner, "all together." And the thundering chorus rose:

"Marching, we are marching along,
Gird on the armor and be marching along;
Old Rosey's our leader, he's gallant and strong;
For God and our country we are marching along."

As the mighty chorus, sung by fifty thousand men, rose and throbbed
through the cold and rain, Dick felt his own heart throbbing in unison.
Rosecrans might or might not be a great general, but he certainly
was not permitting the enemy to rest easy in winter quarters at
Murfreesborough. Dick had no doubt that they were about to meet the foe
of Perryville face to face again.

The enemies were largely the same as those of other battles in the west.
The Northern army advanced in three divisions toward Murfreesborough.
McCook, whose division contained the Winchester regiment, was in the
center, General Thomas led the right wing on the Franklin road, and
General Crittenden led the left wing. Bragg who was before them had
nearly the same generals as at Shiloh, Hardee, Breckinridge, and the
others.

Dick knew that the advance of the Northern army would be seen at once.
This was the country of the enemy. The forces of the Union held only
the ground on which they were camped. Thousands of hostile eyes were
watching Rosecrans, and, even if Bragg himself were lax, any movement
by the army from Nashville would be reported at once to the army in
Murfreesborough. But they had a vigilant foe, they knew, and they
expected to encounter his pickets