He was formidable to a foe, and yet no gentler heart beat than that under his old blue uniform.

Secretly he regarded the young lieutenants, his superiors in military rank and education, as brave children, and often he cared for them where his knowledge and skill were greater than theirs or even than that of colonels and generals.
"God bless you, Sergeant," said Dick, "you don't look like an angel, but you are one--that is, of the double-fisted, fighting type." The sergeant merely smiled and replaced the bottle carefully in his pocket, knowing that they would have good use for it again.
The regiment after salving its wounds resumed its watchful march.
"Do you know where we're going ?" Pennington asked Dick.
"I think we're likely if we live long enough to land in the end before Vicksburg, the great Southern fortress, but as I gather it we mean to curve and curl and twist about a lot before then.

Grant, they say, intends to close in on Vicksburg, while Rosecrans farther north is watching Bragg at Chattanooga.

We're a flying column, gathering up information, and ready for anything." "It's funny," said Warner thoughtfully, "that we've already got so far south in the western field.

We can't be more than two or three hundred miles from the Gulf.