I received a prompt letter in reply decidedly disapproving my proposition, and urging that the lad should be allowed to accompany me.

It came too late.

Fred was already on his way up the Mississippi bound for Dubuque, Iowa, from which place there was a railroad to Galena.
My sensations as we approached what I supposed might be "a field of battle" were anything but agreeable.

I had been in all the engagements in Mexico that it was possible for one person to be in; but not in command.

If some one else had been colonel and I had been lieutenant-colonel I do not think I would have felt any trepidation.
Before we were prepared to cross the Mississippi River at Quincy my anxiety was relieved; for the men of the besieged regiment came straggling into town.