tied up.

"Gag that man!" was the quiet response. "And when his time is up
I'll cut him loose myself."

Before night, all was quiet in the camp of the 21st Regiment of
Illinois Volunteers.

Grant was in command.





Chapter XI




Lee at the Parting of the Ways


While Grant was thus striving to reenter the army, Lee was having
a struggle of a very different sort. Summoned from his distant
post in Texas, where only an occasional rumble of the coming tempest
reached his ears, he suddenly found himself in the center of the
storm which threatened to wreck the Republic. In the far South seven
states had already seceded; in Washington, Congressmen, Senators,
and members of the Cabinet were abandoning their posts; in the army
and navy his friends were daily tendering their resignations; and