Colonel Kenton had just heard of the battle of Fredericksburg and he was rejoicing in the glorious victory.

He hoped and believed that his son had passed through it safely.

The Southern army had not been so successful in the west as in the east, but he believed that they had met tougher antagonists there, the men of the west and northwest, used to all kinds of hardships, and, alas! their own Kentuckians.
At both Perryville and Stone River they had routed the antagonists who met them first, but they had been stopped by their own brethren.
Harry smiled and murmured to himself: "You can never put down dad's state pride.

With him the Kentuckians are always first." He had a good deal of this state pride himself, although in a less accentuated form, and, after the momentary thought, he went on.

The colonel was looking for a letter from his son--Harry had written twice since Fredericksburg, and he knew now that the letters would arrive safely.