Sensitive and imaginative, he was conscious even at the moment that he looked in the face of mighty events.

The things of the minute did not always appeal to him with the greatest force.

He had, instead, the foreseeing mind, and the meaning of that vast panorama of fortress, hills, river and forest did not escape him.
"Well, Dick, what do you think of it ?" asked Pennington.
"We've got our work cut out for us, and if I didn't know General Grant I'd say that we're engaged in a mighty rash undertaking." "Just what I'd say, also.

And we need that fleet bad, too, Dick.

I'd like to see the smoke of its funnels as the boats come steaming up the Cumberland." Dick knew that the fleet was needed, not alone for encouragement and fighting help, but to supply an even greater want.