And then there are the rivers.
In the East they mostly run eastward between the two armies, and they
are no help to us, but a hindrance rather. Here in the West the rivers,
and they are many and great, mostly run southward, the way we want to go,
and they bring our gunboats on their bosoms. Excuse my poetry, but it's
what I mean."
"You must be right. I think that all the reasons you give apply
together. But our command of the water has surely been a tremendous
help. And then we've got to remember, Dick, that there was never a
navy like ours. It goes everywhere and it does everything. Why, if
Admiral Farragut should tell one of those gunboats to steam across the
Mississippi bottoms it would turn its saucy nose, steer right out of the
water into the mud, and blow up with all hands aboard before it quit
trying."
"You two fellows talk too much," said Pennington. "You won't let
President Lincoln and Grant and Halleck manage the war, but you want to
run it yourselves."
"I don't want to run anything just now, Frank," rejoined Dick. "What I'm
thinking about most is rest and something to eat.
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