The scouts say that the Confederate force at the springs is not strong enough to withstand us." "But General Buell, not knowing exactly what General Bragg intends with his divided force, has divided his own in order to meet him at all points." "Has he done that ?" exclaimed Dick aghast.

Like other young officers he felt perfectly competent to criticize anybody.
"He has, and it seems to me that when the enemy divided was the time for us to unite or remain united.

Then we could scoop him up in detail.

Why, Dick, with an army of sixty thousand men or so, made of such material as ours has shown itself to be, we could surely beat any Southern force in Kentucky!" "Especially as we have no Lees and Stonewall Jacksons to fight." "Maybe General Buell has divided his force in order to obtain plenty of water," said Pennington.

"We fellows ought to be fair to him." "Perhaps you're right," said Warner, "and you're right when you say we ought to be fair to him.