"It is an order for the regiment to hold itself in complete readiness, although no action may come for some time.

Then return here at once." Dick rode back swiftly, but on his way he suddenly bent over his saddle bow.

A shell from the fort screamed over his head in such a menacing fashion that it seemed to be only a few inches from him.

But it passed on, leaving him unharmed, and burst three hundred yards away.
Dick instantly straightened up in the saddle, looked around, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no one had noticed his sudden bow, and galloped on with the order.

The lieutenant-colonel read it and nodded.
Then Dick rode back to the hill where the generals were yet watching in vain for those black plumes of smoke on the Cumberland.
They left the hill at last and the generals went to their brigades.
General Grant was smoking a cigar and his face was impassive.
"We're to open soon with the artillery," said Colonel Winchester to Dick.