The telegraph was young yet, but it was busy.

It carried many varying reports to the cities North and South.

The name of this new man, Grant, spelled trouble.
People were beginning to talk much about him, and already some suspected that there was more in the back of his head than in those of far better known and far more pretentious northern generals in the east.

None at least could dispute the fact that he was now the one whom everybody was watching.
But the Southern people, few of whom knew the disparity of numbers, had the fullest confidence in the brilliant Johnston.

He was more than twenty years older than his antagonist, but his years had brought only experience and many triumphs, not weakness of either mind or body.