Striking for the command of the Cumberland.-Description of Fort Donelson.-Great efforts of the Enemy for its defence.-Expedition against Fort Donelson.-General Grant's march.-The Fort invested.-Attack by Commodore Foote.-Foote repulsed.-A sortie of the Enemy.-Temporary success of the Enemy. An imprudent Pursuit.— McClernand's division rescued.-The Enemy driven back into their Intrenchments.-Successful charge of the Unionists.-The Enemy's position described.—A proposition from the Enemy. -Negotiations for a Capitulation.— No terms but Unconditional Surrender.-The Enemy surrender.-How General Buckner came to be in command of the Enemy.—A shifting of responsibility.-Pillow's account of the affair.-What was captured in the Fort.-Comparative losses.-Escape of Pillow and Floyd.--Result of the capture of Fort Donelson.-March of General Mitchell. -Evacuation of Bowling Green.-Occupation of Clarksville. -Occupation of Nashville -Conduct of the Enemy.Destruction of bridges. - Reception of the United States Troops by the Citizens of Nashville.-A visit to Mrs. Polk. -Abandonment by the Enemy of Columbus.-Occupation of Columbus described. -Retreat of the Enemy to New Madrid and Island No. 10.-The Enemy making a stand. 1862. AFTER opening the Tennessee River, by the capture of Fort Henry, the next operation of the Union forces at Cairo was to strike for the command of the Cumberland, by an attack on Fort Donelson. This was an extensive earth-work at Dover, in Tennessee, situated on the left bank of the Cumberland River. It was scientifically constructed, consisting of a large central bastioned fort, surrounded by extensive intrenchments and outlying batteries. The main fortification stood upon high ground, which commanded the river and the neighboring land, with the exception of an elevated portion, where rifle pits had been dug. Within the intrenchments, about the fort, and on the other side of the river had been mustered a large force of the enemy, variously estimated at from thirteen to fifteen thousand men. Anticipating an attack after the fall of Fort Henry, great efforts had been made to reinforce the threatened position. All the troops which had deserted General Tilghman at Fort Henry hastened to the place; General Sydney Johnston sent a considerable number from Bowling Green. Generals Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner were at the head of their several divisions, and the first, from seniority in rank, assumed the chief command at the fort. The Union expedition was formed of a combined naval and military force. General Ulysses Grant, in command at Cairo, having first sent by the Feb. Ohio and Cumberland rivers six 11. regiments, followed on the next day. by land, with fifteen thousand men, Feb. in two divisions, respectively commanded by Generals McClernand and Smith. A fleet, consisting of four ironclad and two wooden gun-boats, under the command of Captain Foote, started up the Cumberland about the same time, in order to make a simultaneous 12. attack with the land forces upon the utes more, could the action have been fort. General Grant, on the first day's march, arrived with his main body within two miles of the fort, where the pickets of the enemy were met and Feb. driven in. On the next day he ap13. proached gradually, and continued until night to surround the position, forcing his way here and there by successful skirmishes with the enemy's advanced guards. No serious attack, however, was attempted, as the troops sent by water and the fleet of gunboats had not yet arrived. These finally came in during the evening, and it was determined to begin the assault next day. 14. It was not until three o'clock in Feb. the afternoon that Captain Foote was enabled to open fire. "I made an attack," he says, in his own clear and concise account of the affair, "on Fort Donelson with four iron-clad gunboats and two wooden ones, and after one hour and a quarter severe fighting, the latter part of the day within less than one hundred yards of the fort, the wheel of this vessel and the tiller of the Louisville were shot away, rendering the two boats unmanageable. They then drifted down the river. The two remaining boats were also greatly damaged between wind and water. This vessel alone received fifty-nine shots, and the others about half that number each. continued, have resulted in the capture of the fort bearing upon us, as the enemy was running from his batteries. when the two gun-boats drifted helplessly down the river from disabled steering apparatus, as the relieving tackles could not steer the vessels in the strong current. "When the fleeing enemy returned to the river battery guns from which they had been driven, they again hotly poured fire upon us. The enemy must have brought over twenty guns to bear upon our boats from the water battery and the main fort upon the hill, while we only could return the fire with twelve boat-guns from the four boats. "One rifled gun, aboard the Carondelet, burst during the action. "The officers and men in this hotly contested but unequal fight behaved with the greatest gallantry and determination, all deploring the accident which rendered two of our gun-boats suddenly helpless in the narrow river and swift current." After this gallant but unsuccessful attack, Captain Foote returned with his disabled fleet to Cairo. General Grant now determined to make the investment of the fort as perfect as possible, to throw up intrenchments for the protection of his force, and to await until the gun-boats-being repaired-could again take part in the attack. The enemy, however, elated by "There were fifty-four killed and their repulse of the fleet, were emboldwounded in this attack, which we have ened to sally out from their intrenchreason to suppose would, in fifteen min-ments and begin the battle by an attack ASSAULT OF THE FORT. upon the right wing of the Union force commanded by General McClernand. Feb. At six o'clock on the morning after 15. the retirement of the gun-boats, the enemy appeared in solid column upon the road. "It was a few minutes past six," says an accurate chronicler,* "when our pickets exchanged shots with their skirmishers. "Immediately the whole division was astir, waiting for what might turn up. As the rebels neared our forces they deployed and formed in line of battle, making the most furious attack upon the right; also sending their Mississippi sharp-shooters, as one of the captains, now a prisoner, informed me, to the left, to throw the Eleventh and Twentieth regiments into confusion. "It was about seven o'clock when the firing began on the right, and in a few minutes was running like a train of powder on a floor, along the entire line. The rebels advanced with determination -not in a regular line, but in the guerrilla mode―availing themselves of the trees and the undulations of the ground. Their design was to cut the division at the centre, turn the regiments on the right, composing Oglesby's brigade, up against the creek, and capture them. But their movements to that end were foiled. The regiments at the centre being pressed, after standing hot fire, began gradually to fall back, which rendered it necessary for Oglesby to do the same, as he separated from the division, and the entire right wing of the division accordingly swung back, slowly * Chicago Tribune, Feb. 19. 33 at first. Dresser's and Schwartz's batteries were brought into position as soon as possible, and for a while there was a very heavy fire, accompanied by continued rolls of musketry. If one were to judge by sound alone, all battles would be terrific, but when a fight is waged in a forest, the trees high in, up the branches usually suffer most. There was, however, considerable loss on both sides at this point. "And now occurred one of those blunders common in warfare. The enemy pressing hard upon our forces, General McClernand sent Major Brayman for reinforcements. He rode rapidly to the rear and came upon Colonel Cruft's brigade, who moved forward, crossed the road, and came up in rear of the Thirtieth and Thirty-first. These regiments were lying down and firing over the crest of a ridge. As Colonel Cruft came in the rear of them they rose to their feet, not knowing whether the force in their rear was friend or foe. The Twenty-fifth Kentucky, supposing them to be rebels, poured in a volley, which did terrible execution. It is not possible to ascertain how many fell under the fire, but it was sufficient to throw the entire division into disorder, and at once there was almost a panic. Some men took to their heels, threw down their guns and equipments, and fled to the rear crying, All is lost!' We are all cut to pieces!' and similar expressions. Some of them even fled to Fort Henry, twelve miles distant, and immediately the woods were filled with stragglers. "The enemy improved the opportunity and advanced upon Dresser's and Schwartz's batteries, capturing five guns, taking possession of General McClernand's headquarters, and driving our forces nearly a mile and a half. They had opened the gap, and not only that, but had in the joust driven us, captured five guns, and had reason to feel that the day was theirs." him, regained the lost field, recovered McClernand's tent, and occupied the old ground. The enemy retired again within their intrenchments, though while falling back before Wallace, they might still have escaped by diverging to the flank of their pursuers. The Union troops on the left were now ordered to a charge upon the The enemy now might have escaped enemy's right, "which," says General through the gap they had made in our Grant, "was brilliantly executed, and line of investment, but instead of seeking gave to our arms full assurance of victheir own safety, they strove by a reck-tory." This spirited and successful atless pursuit of the retreating Unionists tack was made by General Smith's divito capture and destroy. Four hours sion, consisting principally of the Second were thus passed in conflict and chase, and Seventh Iowa and Twenty-fifth and when a division of the Unionists, under Fifty-second Indiana regiments. Their the command of General Wallace, thrown antagonists, forming the enemy's right, forward by a timely movement, saved were the Fourteenth Mississippi, the the troops of McClernand, which were Second Kentucky, and Colonel Head's exhausted and out of ammunition. Gen- Tennessee regiments, which were aderal Wallace took up his position on a vantageously posted on rising ground, ridge with Captain Taylor's battery in where intrenchments had been raised the centre. McClernand's division was and rifle pits dug. making up its scattered ranks ready to support Wallace. It was now past noon-nearly one o'clock. The enemy formed upon a ridge which General McClernand had occupied through the night, but had afterward abandoned. | second ridge of land running parallel to They were flushed with success, and descended with the expectation of a victory. As they came in range, Taylor opened upon them with shell, grape, and canister. They quailed before this fire, advanced at a slow pace, came to a halt, and as the infantry opened began to fall back. Wallace improved the moment, moved on, drove them before The ground occupied by the enemy is thus minutely described by the chronicler previously quoted: Directly west of Fort Donelson, and beyond the breast-works, there was a that on which the breast-works were erected. The distance across from ridge to ridge, as near as I could judge by a somewhat minute survey, is about forty rods. On this outer ridge were ten rifle pits, made of logs, with a shallow ditch behind and the excavated earth thrown up in front. The western slope of the ridge was quite steep. The distance |