"Not at all," replied Grant, quietly. "They can't force our lines around these batteries to-night--it is too late. Delay counts everything with us. Tomorrow we shall attack them with fresh troops, and drive them, of course." During the night, Buell's divisions arrived, were ferried over the river, and placed in line for the battle of the next day. It is almost a pity that it can never be known what Grant would have done without these reënforcements, though, for my own part, I am entirely satisfied that the result would have been the same. I am quite sure that he had impressed himself upon his officers and men in such a manner as to win the victory by the plan he had laid down. His genius would have found a way to overcome all obstacles, for his will was as resolute at night as in the morning. After the battle, General Buell, in a kindly way, indulged in some criticisms on Grant's policy of fighting with the Tennessee in his rear. "Where could you have retreated if you had been beaten, general?" asked Buell. "I didn't mean to be beaten," replied Grant. "But suppose you had been beaten in spite of all your exertions." "Well, there were all the transports to convey the remains of the command across the river." "But, general, your whole number of transports would not accommodate more than ten thousand men, and you had thirty thousand engaged," persisted Buell. "Well, if I had been beaten, transportation for ten thousand would have been abundant for all there would have been left of us." Such was the spirit of the man in the midst of the gigantic difficulties which surrounded him. Demoralized troops, the tardiness of his reënforcements, and the incapacity of some of his officers, failed to overwhelm him. He rose above all obstacles, and looked confidently to victory, even in the darkest hour of that desperate fight. It ought to be added, in justice to our army, that "straggling" was not confined to their ranks. The enemy suffered quite as much from this evil, in spite of Johnston's stirring appeal. Bragg, in his report, mentions the fact that the rebel ranks "were thinned by killed, wounded, and stragglers, amounting in the whole to nearly one half our force." The unparalleled length and severity of the contest may, to some extent, explain this defection on both sides. But the result of the day proved that, in pluck and endurance, the Northern army was the equal, if not the superior, of its rival. CHAPTER XVII. _Wherein Captain Galligasken finishes the Battle of Shiloh, and sympathizes with the illustrious Soldier in his unmerited Disgrace while he is waiting, waiting, before Corinth._