They charged forward, seized the cannon, and now rode without resistance into the capital of the state, from which the President of the Confederacy hailed, though by birth a Kentuckian.
Dick and his comrades were among the first to enter the town, and not until then did they know that Johnston and all but a few hundreds of his army were gone.
"We've got the shell only," Dick said.
"Still we've struck a blow by taking the capital of the state," said Colonel Winchester.
Dick looked with much curiosity at the little city into which they were riding as conquerors.

It was too small and new to be imposing.

Yet there were some handsome houses, standing back on large lawns, and surrounded by foliage.

The doors and shutters of all of them were closed tightly.
Dick knew that their owners had gone away or were sitting, hearts full of bitterness, in their sealed houses.
The streets were deep in mud, and at the corners little knots of negroes gathered and looked at them curiously.
"They don't seem to welcome us as deliverers," said Warner.
"They don't yet know what to think of us," said Dick.

"There's the Capitol ahead of us, and some of our troops are going into it." "Others have gone into it already," said Pennington.