It was hot when we drank up the river, but it was hotter that
afternoon at Perryville. God! what a battle! And again at Stone River,
when the Johnnies surprised us and took us in flank. It was you
Kentuckians then who saved us."
"Just as you would have saved us, if it had been the other way."
"I hope so. But, Mason, we left a lot of the boys behind. A big crowd
stopped forever at Perryville, and a bigger at Stone River."
"And we left many of ours, too. I suppose we'll land soon, won't we,
and then take these Grand Gulf forts with troops."
"Yes, that's the ticket, but I hear, Mason, it's hard to find a landing
on the east side. The banks are low there and the river spreads out to a
vast distance. After the boats go as far as they can we'll have to get
off in water up to our waists and wade through treacherous floods."
The question of landing was worrying Grant at that time and worrying him
terribly. The water spread far out over the sunken lands and he might
have to drop down the river many miles before he could find a landing
on solid ground, a fact which would scatter his army along a long line,
and expose it to defeat by the Southern land forces.
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