closing the way by water into Tennessee and Alabama; Bowling Green, near the middle of the State; and Columbus, on the Mississippi. The Union forces held Mumfordsville, between Mill Spring and Bowling Green, and various less important points. The two great rivers, the Tennessee and the Cumberland, both fall into the Ohio near the western corner of Kentucky, and, for a distance of seventy miles from their mouths, run nearly parallel, about ten miles apart. Otherwise, however, their courses are different; the Cumberland rising in Kentucky, and flowing through that State and Northern Tennessee, while the Tennessee rises in Eastern Tennessee, and, after passing through Northern Alabama, flows for the last three hundred miles nearly due north. The Cumberland is navigable for steam to Nashville, two hundred miles, and for boats three hundred miles farther. The Tennessee is navigable for steam two hundred and seventy-five miles, to Florence, Alabama, and for boats two hundred and fifty miles farther. These two great arteries afforded the means of not only penetrating into the interior of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, but also of causing the rebels to abandon the defences of the Mississippi, which had been so elaborately prepared by the enemy. Early in the summer the necessity of preparing a fleet of gunboats at Cairo, for the purpose of commanding the navigable waters of the West, became apparent, and before the succeeding spring the Government had in readiness twelve gunboats, to carry, in all, a hundred and twenty-six guns, viz.: the Benton, sixteen guns; Mound City, Cincinnati, Louisville, Carondelet, St. Louis, Cairo, and Pittsburg, each thirteen guns; the Lexington, Essex, Conestoga, and Tyler, each nine guns. They were for the most part river steamboats converted into war vessels, and several were iron-clads. The guns, many of them rifled, were thirty-two-pounders, forty-twopounders, sixty-four-pounders, and the Essex threw a shell of one hundred and twenty-eight pounds. Thirty-eight mortar boats, each sixty feet long and twenty feet wide, surrounded by iron-plate bulwarks, seven feet high, were also ordered, but only a part were built. This fleet was placed under the command of Flag-Officer A. H. Foote.* The completion of the fleet and the organization of the land force delayed the expedition until February, 1862.

On the 20th of January, the Conestoga, Captain Phelps, felt its way up the Tennessee and shelled a battery just below Fort Henry, but receiving no response, withdrew. This work, situated on the right bank of the river, near the boundary-line between Tennessee and Kentacky, mounted seventeen guns and a number of mortars, and was specially intended by the rebels to defend the railroad communications between Memphis and Bowling Green. On the 6th of February the fleet, under Flag-Officer Foote, proceeded up the river, to the fort, which

Andrew H. Foote, son of the late Governor Foote, born in Connecticut, in 1806, entered the navy, as midshipman, in 1822. He served in the East Indies against the pirates-on the African coast, to prevent the slave-trade-and at Canton in 1856, where he greatly distinguished himself by the capture of the Barrier Forts; and in April, 1561, commanded at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard. In the fall of 1861, he was assigned to the Mississippi;

superintended the building and equipment of the Government gunboats; captured Fort Henry; was wounded at the bombardment of Fort Donelson; conducted the naval attack against Island No. 10, but after its reduction was obliged to relinquish his command in consequence of his wound. He was subsequently appointed rearadmiral and chief of the bureau of equipment and recruiting; and died in New York, June 26, 1863.

was then occupied by a number of men hardly sufficient to work the guns, although a force of some five thousand Confederates was encamped outside, commanded by General Lloyd Tilghman, of Kentucky, a graduate of West Point. The naval part of the expedition consisted of the iron-clad gunboats Cincinnati, flag-ship, Captain Stembel; Essex, Commander Porter; Carondelet, Commander Walker; and St. Louis, Lieutenant Paulding; and the wooden gunboats Conestoga, Lieutenant Phelps; Tyler, Lieutenant Gunn; and Lexington, Lieutenant Shirk. Accompanying the gunboats was a fleet of transports conveying a land force of ten thousand men, under General Grant, who were to co-operate in the attack upon the fort. When within a few miles of the fort the troops were landed, and sent to attack the land side, while the gunboats moved against the water front. They did not, however, reach the fort until it had surrendered to the gunboats. On arriving within one thousand seven hundred yards of the fort, the flag-ship, the Cincinnati, opened fire, followed by the rest of the fleet, and as the distance was gradually lessened, the fire both from the gunboats and the fort increased in rapidity and accuracy of range. The fort was soon wrapped in a cloud of smoke, which rose lazily up and floated away over the hills, and through it the flashes of her guns broke like gleams of lightning.

For nearly an hour this fierce conflict continued, the boats gradually approaching nearer and nearer, until within a few hundred yards of the fort, when the rebels' fire slackened, and suddenly a white flag was raised on the ramparts; but the dense smoke prevented its being seen by the boats, and the firing still continued. In a few moments more the rebel flag, which had been proudly flaunting from a tall pole in the centre of the fort, was hauled down, and Fort Henry was won. Captain Phelps was ordered to land and take possession. Only sixty-three prisoners, with General Tilghman, surrendered to Foote, the force that had surrounded the fort having dispersed, without firing a shot. Among the guns of the fort was a sixty-pound rifled gun, which had sent a shot through the boiler of the Essex, causing an explosion that wounded twenty-nine officers and men, including Captain Porter, and compelling the Essex to drop astern, out of the fight. It burst, however, before the surrender. The capture of Fort Henry caused much rejoicing. It proved the value of the gunboats, and opened the navigation of the river, as was shown by the successful voyage of three gunboats to Florence, Alabama, where two steamers and a gunboat were captured; and six others, loaded with stores, were burnt by the enemy to prevent their falling into the hands of the Federals. The railroad bridge over the Tennessee, ten miles south of Fort Henry, was also destroyed. Much Union feeling manifested itself in Northern Alabama.

The success of the attack on Fort Henry was followed by other important results, among which was the uncovering of the enemy's positions at Columbus and Bowling Green. The latter place had been ordered to be occupied by General A. S. Johnston, when he assumed the command of the Confederates in that Department of the West. He deemed it then necessary, because of the action of the Kentucky Legis

lature against the Confederates. Towards the close of the year the force under General Buckner had, with difficulty, preserved its strength, although great efforts had been made to concentrate men and arms. January 16th a notice was published in Barren County, requiring all guns belonging to persons who "will not volunteer," to be delivered to the inspector of arms, at Glasgow; and all persons between eighteen and forty-five, who were possessed of taxable property to the value of five hundred dollars, and had no gun, were to pay twenty dollars, for which an evidence of debt against the Confederate Government would be issued-delinquents to be fined fifty dollars and imprisoned. The results of this measure were not remarkable, and while the Union troops continued to increase in numbers and strength, Bowling Green became no stronger, and the utmost efforts of General Johnston brought little aid from the South. The capture of Fort Henry and the gathering strength of the Federal forces in Kentucky finally rendered the longer occupation of the place impracticable, and the troops there were ordered to move south. Bowling Green was occupied immediately, on the 15th, by a Federal force under General Mitchel.

Preparations now commenced for the attack upon Fort Donelson, which lies directly east of Fort Henry, on the left bank of the Cumberland River, and adjoining the town of Dover. It occupied the summit of a high bluff, enclosed an area of about one hundred acres, and was protected on the river side by two formidable water-batteries, and on its land front by outlying rifle-pits, batteries, and abatis, as also in a great measure by the rugged and impracticable character of the surrounding country. The work completely commanded the navigation of the Cumberland River, and was regarded of such enormous strength that over sixteen thousand troops under Generals Buckner and Pillow were concentrated there, awaiting with apparent unconcern the approach of the Federal army and fleet. On February 13th, General Floyd, formerly of Buchanan's Cabinet, arrived and assumed command. For the reduction of the fort, General Grant, who was now stationed at Fort Henry, relied upon the considerable force which had concentrated there, upon re-enforcements expected from Buell's army, and from St. Louis, Cairo, Cincinnati, and elsewhere, and also very considerably upon the fleet which had done such gallant service at Fort Henry. The gunboats, it is true, were in need of repairs after their recent engagement, but as it was deemed of great importance to follow up the first success at once by another blow, they proceeded, after a brief delay at Cairo, to the Cumberland River. On the 12th, General Grant marched from Fort Henry with about fifteen thousand men, having first sent a portion of his force in transports to Paducah, whence, in company with his re-enforcements, and conveyed by the gunboats, they were to sail for Fort Donelson. His land force therefore comprised two separate bodies of about equal strength, one of which marched overland with himself, while the other went by water.

On the afternoon of the 12th the troops from Fort Henry arrived in front of the rebel outposts, and on the succeeding night the column which went by water disembarked about three miles north of the fort. Delays of various kinds prevented the junction of the two columns

until the evening of the 14th. The interval was improved by the troops first on the ground in driving in the rebel skirmishers and commencing regular lines of investment. The weather was bitterly cold, and the troops, inadequately supplied with shelter or food, suffered severely; but not a murmur was heard, and the men cheerfully bivouacked at night on the snow-clad ground, in the confident expectation that in a day or two the rebel stronghold would be theirs. As at Fort Henry in the previous week, Flag-officer Foote, without waiting for the co-operation of the land forces, proceeded on the afternoon of the 14th to open fire upon the river batteries of Fort Donelson. For an hour and a half the gunboats poured a steady stream of shot and shell into the batteries, which, being fully manned, replied with vigor and effect. Gradually, however, their fire began to slacken, and the prospect of capturing or completely silencing the works seemed flattering, when two shots, discharged with fatal accuracy, disabled the steering apparatus of the flag-ship St. Louis, and the Louisville, which in consequence became unmanageable, and drifted out of fire. The enemy immediately returned to their guns, and the remaining vessels, deprived of the services of their two most powerful consorts, were obliged to haul off, considerably shattered by the hard pounding they had received. In this action Foote was severely injured in the ankle by the fragment of a sixty-four pounder shot, and his ship was struck sixty-one times.

The morning of the 15th dawned cold and dull, and so soon as sufficient light was afforded for the movement, the rebels, without a moment's notice, threw out a heavy column of infantry, supported by two batteries, upon the Federal right, commanded by General McClernand. The onset at first was irresistible, and the regiments which attempted to withstand it were broken and routed. For several hours the rebels continued to gain ground, but finally, as fresh Federal regiments and batteries were brought up, the tide was turned, and the enemy pushed back towards their intrenchments. Undismayed by the repulse of the gunboats and the vigor which the rebels showed by this sally, General Grant soon after noon ordered his left, under command of General C. F. Smith, to make a general assault upon the rebel intrenchments, which, in consequence of the enemy having massed on the Federal right, he wisely judged would be the more easily carried. At three P. M., Smith moved forward at the head of ten regiments, and sending his main body somewhat to the right, to divert attention from the real point of attack, detailed the Second and Seventh Iowa and the Fifty-Second Indiana regiments to storm a line of rifle-pits on the crest of a steep hill, about half a mile distant from the fort. The storming column, headed by himself, pressed impetuously up the hill in the teeth of a severe fire, and never pausing, burst over the intrenchments, from which the enemy filed in confusion. Federal re-enforcements arriving soon after, the ground thus gallantly won was secured beyond the possibility of recapture. Meanwhile on the right and centre a division under General Wallace, encouraged by the success on the left, advanced against the rebel rifle-pits in that quarter, and after a stubborn resistance drove the enemy completely

within his works. So favorable did the prospect now seem that the troops clamored to be led to the final assault; but as day was closing, it was deemed prudent to postpone this until the next day. Another bivouac on the frozen ground had little effect in weakening the enthusiasm of the troops, who at dawn of the 16th sprang to their arms, in the expectation of being led at once against the fort. But before hostilities could be resumed a flag of truce arrived proposing an armistice until noon, and the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation. By the departure of Generals Floyd and Pillow during the night with two thousand five hundred men, the fort had been left in command of General Buckner, the former commander of the Kentucky State Guard. To this officer General Grant returned the following reply:

"To GENERAL S. B. BUCKNER:

"HEAD-QUARTERS ON THE FIELD, FORT DONELSON, February 16, 1862.

"SIR:-Yours of this date, proposing an armistice and the appointment of commissioners to settle on the terms of capitulation, is just received.

"No terms, except unconditional and immediate surrender, can be acceptable. "I propose to move immediately on your works.

"I am very respectfully your obedient servant,

"U. S. GRANT, Brigadier-General Commanding."

To this General Buckner replied as follows:

"HEAD-QUARTERS, DOVER (TENNESSEE), February 16, 1862.

"BRIGADIER-GENERAL U. S. Grant, U. S. ARMY: "SIR: The distribution of forces under my command, incident to an unexpected change of commanders, and the overwhelming force under your command, compel me, notwithstanding the brilliant success of the Confederate arms, to accept the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms which you propose.

"I am, sir, your servant,

"S. B. BUCKNER, Brigadier-General C. S. Army."

The fort was accordingly at once given up to the Federal commander, and the rebel garrison, numbering nearly fourteen thousand men, marched out as prisoners of war. Their loss in killed and wounded was one thousand two hundred and thirty-eight, and that of the Federal troops two thousand one hundred and eighty-one, besides one hundred and fifty taken prisoners. Among the spoils were seventeen heavy guns, over forty field-pieces, many thousand stand of arms, horses, commissary stores, &c. This first important success of the Federal arms since the commencement of the war infused universal joy into the loyal people of the North, and laid the foundation of General Grant's fame. His reply to Buckner has become historical, while the latter's rejoinder afforded an amusing illustration of that spurious chivalry which the Southern leaders were wont to cultivate. The blow was a most disastrous one to the enemy, not only in its material, but in its moral results. The city of Nashville was incapable of defence, and strong forces were advancing from Bowling Green and up the Cumberland. Nashville was therefore ordered to be abandoned, and at Murfreesborough, the broken columns of Critten