Huge battles had been fought, and they had ended in nothing.

Three years before, McClellan had been nearer to Richmond than Grant now was, and yet he had been driven away.
Lee and Jackson had won brilliant victories or had held the Union numbers to a draw, and to those looking from far away the end seemed as distant as ever.

At that very moment, they were saying in Europe that the Confederacy was invincible, and that it was stronger than it had been a year or two years earlier.
Dick, all unconscious of distant opinion, watched the tightening of the steel belt, and helped in the task.

He and his comrades never doubted.
They knew that Sherman had crushed the Southeast, and that Thomas, that stern old Rock of Chickamauga, had annihilated the Southern army of Hood at Nashville.

Dick was glad that the triumph there had gone to Thomas, whom he always held in the greatest respect and admiration.
He often saw Grant in those days, a silent, resolute man, thinner than of old and stooped a little with care and responsibility.