The Johnnies, besides having their fort, can go into battle with just about as many men as we have, unless he waits for reinforcements, which I am quite certain he isn't going to do." That evening several bags of mail were brought to the camp on a small steamer, which had come on three rivers, the Green, the Ohio, and the Tennessee, and Dick, to his great surprise and delight, received a letter from his mother.

He had written several letters himself, but he had no way of knowing until now that any of them had reached her.

Only one had succeeded in getting through, and that had been written from Cairo.
"My dearest son," she wrote, "I am full of joy to know that you have reached Cairo in safety and in health, though I dread the great expedition upon which you say you are going.

I hear in Pendleton many reports about General Grant.

They say that he does not spare his men.
The Southern sympathizers here say that he is pitiless and cares not how many thousands of his own soldiers he may sacrifice, if he only gains his aim.