Criticisms were leveled at Sheridan, and from the appearance of things they had warrant, but Dick had faith in their leader.

Yet another period of depression had come in the North.
The loss of life in Grant's campaign through the Wilderness had been tremendous, and now he seemed to be held indefinitely by Lee in the trenches before Petersburg.

The Confederacy, after so many great battles, and such a prodigious roll of killed and wounded, was still a nut uncracked, and Sheridan, who was expected to go up the valley and turn the Southern flank, was resting quietly in his camp.
Such was the face of matters, but Dick knew that, beneath, great plans were in the making and that the armies would soon stir.

The more he saw of Sheridan the more he was impressed by him.

He might prove to be the Stonewall Jackson of the North.