The general's stern features were lightened by a smile.

"I'm glad you give the sergeant credit," he said. "Not many officers
would do it."

He listened a while longer and then the three were permitted to withdraw
to their regiment, which was posted back of Grand Gulf, and which had
quickly become a part of an army flushed with victory and eager for
further action.

Before sunset Dick, Warner, and Pennington looked at Grand Gulf, a little
village standing on high cliffs overlooking the Mississippi, just below
the point where the dark stream known as the Big Black River empties into
the Father of Waters. Around the crown of the heights was a ring of
batteries and lower down, enclosing the town, was another ring.

Far off on the Mississippi the three saw puffing black smoke marking
the presence of a Union fleet, which never for one instant in the whole
course of the war relaxed its grip of steel upon the Confederacy.
Dick's heart thrilled at the sight of the brave ships. He felt then,
as most of us have felt since, that whatever happened the American navy
would never fail.

"I hear the ships are going to bombard," said Warner.

"I heard so, too," said Pennington, "and I heard also that they will have
to do it under the most difficult circumstances. The water in front
of Grand Gulf is so deep that the ships can't anchor. It has a swift
current, too, making at that point more than six knots an hour. There
are powerful eddies, too, and the batteries crowning the cliffs are so