"It shouldn't be so, but it is! Oh, why did Pemberton let himself be
trapped in such a way! A whole army of ours lost and our greatest
fortress in the West taken! Why, the Yankee men-of-war can steam up the
Mississippi untouched, all the way from the Gulf to Minnesota."

Harry and Dalton were appalled, and, for a little while, were silent.

"I knew that man Grant would do something terrible to us," Harry said at
last. "I've heard from my people in Kentucky what sort of a general he
is. My father was at Shiloh, where we had a great victory on, but Grant
wouldn't admit it, and held on, until another Union army came up and
turned our victory into defeat. My cousin, Dick Mason, has been with
Grant a lot, and I used to get a letter from him now and then, even if he
is in the Yankee army. He says that when Grant takes hold of a thing he
never lets go, and that he'll win the war for his side."

"Your cousin may be right about Grant's hanging on," said Dalton with
sudden angry emphasis, "but neither he nor anybody else will win this war
for the Yankees. We've lost Vicksburg, and an army with it, and we've
retreated from Gettysburg, with enough men fallen there to make another
army, but they'll never break through the iron front of Lee and his
veterans."

"Hope you're right," said Sherburne, "but I'm off now. I'm in the saddle
all night with my troop. We've got to watch the Yankee cavalry. Custer
and Pleasanton and the rest of them have learned to ride in a way that
won't let Jeb Stuart himself do any nodding."

He cantered off and the lads sat under the trees, ready for possible