262 Operations com Fort Henry. OPERATIONS AGAINST FORT HENRY. [SECT. X. Fort Henry, on the east bank of the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson, on the west bank of the menced against Cumberland, were bastioned earthworks, twelve miles apart, connected by a road. Immediately after the issue of the President's war order (January 27th, 1862) commanding a general movement, operations were undertaken against Fort Henry. Of the fleet of gun-boats employed, four were iron-clad and three wooden. They were under Commodore Foote. The land force was under General Grant. The garrison of the fort, commanded by General Tilghman, was 2734 strong; the armament was seventeen guns. Condition of that work. Halleck gave the necessary orders for the expedition on the 30th of January, and Grant left Cairo with 17,000 men. The Confederates had works on both sides of the river, Fort Henry being on the east bank and Fort Heiman on the west, the latter commanding the former. The country was all under water, the river overflowing, the rain still falling in torrents. Though Tilghman was receiving re-enforcements and hastening the completion of his works, he found that he must withdraw from Fort Heiman and defend Fort Henry alone. CHAP. XLIX.] Bombardment of the fort. CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY. 263 It was understood between Foote and Grant that the former was to reduce the fort, the latter to cut off the retreat of the garrison. The attack was to begin at twelve o'clock (February 6th). Foote thought he could reduce the work in an hour, and Grant, whose forces were three miles below, allowed himself two hours to accomplish his march. The gun-boats commenced their fire at a thousand yards, approaching gradually within six hundred. Intentions of General Tilghman. Tilghman returned the fire at first very vigorously, but a series of accidents in succession befell him -a rifled 24-pounder burst, killing and wounding a number of his men; a premature discharge of a 42-pounder killed three of its gunners. From the beginning he had foreseen that he could not hold the place. In his report he says, "My object was to save the main body by delaying matters as long as possible. I therefore ordered Colonel Heiman to join his command and keep up the retreat in good order, while I would fight the guns as long as one was left, and sacrifice my self to save the main body of my troops." He had given orders for the garrison to retire to Fort Donelson before the firing began. He worked one of the guns himself. At the end of little more than an hour, he, with his staff and sixty men, surrendered unconditionally to Foote. His loss in killed and wounded was twenty-one. He withdraws the garrison, As the land forces under Grant had been delayed by the flood in the roads longer than had been anticipated, the Confederate garrison under Heiman made their escape safely. On the national side, the chief casualty occurred on board the iron-clad Essex, which received a shot in her boiler, in consequence of which twenty-nine officers and men were scalded. The conduct of General Tilghman in this affair stands in very striking contrast with that of Floyd and Pillow 264 FORT DONELSON. [SECT. X. and then surrenders the work. at Donelson. For the sake of giving time for his garrison to make good its escape, he continued his hopeless resistance, and surrendered himself prisoner along with his artillerists. Fort Henry thus secured, General Halleck next turned his attention to Fort Donelson. Re-enforcetacking Fort Donel- ments were therefore rapidly brought from Buell's army, and also from St. Louis, Cairo, Preparations for at son. Cincinnati, and Kansas. son. The Tennessee and Cumberland, as they approach the Position of Donel- Ohio, run northward and nearly parallel to each other. Fort Donelson was about forty miles above the mouth of the Cumberland, and on its west bank. It was a large field-work of a hundred acres, near the town of Dover, on a bluff rising by a gentle slope from the river, at the point where the stream turns from its westerly course. The height of the bluff is about 100 feet. The strength of the work was directed toward the river, which it effectually commanded; on the land side it was comparatively weak. The entire artillery, including light batteries, was 65 pieces. The eventual strength of the garrison was 21,000. The surrounding country was rugged, hilly, and heavily wooded. Round the works timber had been felled, and small trees half chopped off formed an abatis. Two creeks, flooded by the rains, formed defenses on the right and left. Defenses and strength of the fort. As soon as it became clear that the fort was about to be attacked from the land side, the Confederate commanders exerted themselves to strengthen it. A fortified line two miles and a half in length, inclosing the town of Dover, was drawn along the commanding high grounds. Re-enforcements were sent from Bowling Green by the railroad, and the work pushed on day and night. The garrison of Fort Henry came in on the 7th, the command CHAP. XLIX.] OPERATIONS AGAINST FORT DONELSON. 265 of Pillow arrived on the 10th, that of Buckner on the 11th, that of Floyd on the 13th. Floyd, as the senior officer, was in command. Grant prepares to attack it. Grant moved from Fort Henry upon Donelson, with about 15,000 men, on Wednesday, the 12th. He had been obliged to submit to this delay to give time for preparing the gun-boats, though every hour of it was strengthening the enemy. His foremost brigade went by the telegraph road; the others by the Dover Road. He was before the fort in the afternoon of that day, and spent the remaining daylight in bringing his troops into position. Batteries were posted and the movement completed in the night. It was his intention, if the gun-boats should arrive, to make an attack next morning. His force consisted of the division of McClernand, containing the four brigades of Oglesby, W. H. L. Wallace, McArthur, Morrison; the division of C. F. Smith, containing the three brigades of Cook, Lauman, and M. L. Smith. The division of Lewis Wallace did not arrive until the 14th. Smith's division was to be on the left, Lewis Wallace's at the centre, McClernand's on the right. He formed his first line opposite the enemy's centre, his left resting on Hickman Creek, his right reaching not quite round to Dover. The advance was very difficult on account of a growth of dwarf oaks. Though the gun-boats had not arrived, a cannonade was opened. McClernand made an attack mature assault. on a battery commanding the ridge road on which Grant moved. He met with a repulse in his attempt to carry it. There was a bitter storm of hail and snow after dark, yet the troops bivouacked in line of battle. They had no tents and no fires; many of them were without blankets. The cries of the wounded calling for water were heard all that night. McClernand's pre At midnight six gun-boats and fourteen transports had 266 boats. DEFEAT OF THE GUN-BOATS. [SECT. X. Arrival of the gun- arrived, the latter bringing Lewis Wallace's division, and giving Grant a superiority of force. Up to this time he had not been as strong as the Confederates. It took longer than had been anticipated to get these troops into position, and the consequence was that the attack on Friday had to be mainly carried on by the boats. Of the gun-boats four were iron-clad, the remaining two wooden. The former opened their fire and advanced until they were within three hundred yards of the Confederate batteries, which, up to this time silent, were now vigorously worked. Their plunging fire, for they were elevated about thirty feet, soon told heavily on the boats. For an hour and a half the contest was maintained, when the steering apparatus of two was disabled, and they drifted down the stream. The others were compelled to withdraw. They had a loss of 54 killed and wounded; among the latter was Commodore Foote. In the Confederate batteries no one was killed, and the works were uninjured. They are defeated. Thus the attack from the river, as well as McClernand's partial attempt from the land side, had failed, and apparently it had become necessary for the national commanders to have re-enforcements. Floyd becomes But Floyd had taken alarm. He had seen that heavy re-enforcements, Lewis Wallace's division, alarmed. had that day arrived; he considered that, notwithstanding his success in beating off the gun-boats, there was no place within his intrenchments that could not be reached by the enemies' artillery fire from their boats or their batteries, and that there was nothing to prevent them from passing a column above him on the river, and thus cutting off his only remaining communication that by water-and preventing the possibility of egress. He therefore summon He summons a council. |