At five o'clock on the morning of Saturday, the 5th, they moved out to assault M'Clernand's division promptly drawn up in order of battle,—the right under M'Arthur, the centre under Oglesby, and the left under W. H. L. Wallace. Adroitly taking advantage of a ravine, the Confederates gained the rear of the Union right flank. Sustained by a corresponding movement by Pillow's whole line, they swept the Union right brigade from their position. Buckner brought up his forces, and furiously attacked M'Clernand's left, commanded by Col. W. H. L. Wallace. The Union infantry stood firm, and poured in so deadly a fire from rifles and batteries, that the rebels recoiled, and settled back, greatly demoralized. The brigade of Oglesby was overborne by the masses brought to bear upon them by Pillow, who followed up his successes vigorously, and pays the Union troops the compliment to say, "They did not retreat, but fell back fighting, and contesting every inch of ground." Col. Wallace's brigade stood firm as a rock against all the shocks of superior numbers of perfectly desperate rebels: but, about to be enveloped by Buckner's division, Wallace withdrew his men; and at nine, A.M., by throwing their whole force upon one-third of the Union army, the first purpose of the Confederates had succeeded, and the road to Nashville was cleared.

Gen. Lew. Wallace, on M'Clernand's left, had sent one brigade to the assistance of the right; only, however, to be overborne by the advancing tide of Confederate success.

Seeing the critical condition of the army, Gen. Wallace now despatched his remaining force under Col. Thayer, who moved up at double-quick, and deployed on the top of the hill, forming a firm wall against the Confederate advance, and behind which the troops, who had not fled, but retired to refill their cartridge-boxes, could re-organize. He reminds us of Stonewall Jackson on the heights of Manassas. Just at the time when the Confederates were in triumph over their supposed victory, moving eagerly up the slope, they met a fire so deadly, that they recoiled and retired. Drawn

up again out of range, they were forced to another attack, and were again repulsed with severe loss.

Gen. Grant now appeared on the field. He had been absent in conference with Commodore Foote, arranging the future of the campaign. Then the firm greatness and bold daring of the commander appeared. He afterwards said, "I saw that either side was ready to give way if the other showed a bold front. I took the opportunity, and ordered an advance along the whole line." Wallace, on the right, was simply ordered to retake the ground he had lost in the morning; Smith, to storm the enemy's works in front. Gen. Smith put himself at the head of Lauman's brigade in battalion, with Cook's brigade in line of battle on its left, to cover that flank, and make a feint against the front. Buckner's column, seeing the danger, moved up rapidly to attack the storming party, but staggered back under the Union fire as often as they returned to the onset. The Union troops, "tearing away the abatis, rushed forward, and seized the breastworks." Buckner with his men took shelter within the defences, and left the brave Union men in possession of the heights which commanded the main works of the enemy.

Let us now return to Wallace. He promptly obeyed his orders. He assailed Pillow's troops with such fury as to overwhelm him on the ground he had wrested from the Union forces in the morning, and drove him within his own lines. This was a dreadful day's work: some two thousand men on each side were strewn over the bloody field, ghastly in death, or agonizing with pain from their severe wounds. The Confederate forces had been successful everywhere till they struck against Wallace on the hill and the great commander appeared on the field. They had missed their only possible opportunity of escape, received the rallying energy of the troops they supposed they had destroyed, and were shut up within their defences now dominated by Union guns.

* Swinton, p. 78, and the whole description of the battle.

On that dreadful Saturday night, there was no rest for the exhausted troops on either side. On the cold, frozen field, amid the peltings of rain, sleet, and snow, the defenders of liberty must lie upon their arms: but not a murmur arose from their lips; they were there to conquer or die.

There was another council of war in the rebel fort. It was a time of terror and deep perplexity. We know the result. Floyd was too guilty a coward to share the fate of his companions in arms, and handed over the command to Pillow. Pillow remembered his base treachery, and, fearing the recoil of justice, passed over the command to Buckner, who had both the courage and discretion to share the fate of his brethren in rebellion. Floyd and Pillow made their escape with the men they could possibly smuggle away. Buckner sent a flag of truce to Grant to know his terms, and received for answer, "No terms other than unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." Forgetting the soldier in his mortification, Buckner characterized the terms as ungenerous and unchivalric," and accepted them.

66

The battle of Fort Donelson was over. Nine thousand men surrendered at discretion, and the Union flag floated gracefully over the fort.

This was the Bull Run of the West: it was more; for it broke up the whole line of Confederate defences, saved Missouri, Kentucky, and a large part of Tennessee, from the power of rebellion, moved the usurped government of treason two hundred miles down the Mississippi, gave us Nashville, prepared the way for the grand and costly triumphs of Shiloh and Stone River, and, by its moral effects, took away courage from rebellion, and gave it to freedom.

FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.

While the nation waited for the slow development of the plans of M'Clellan, at Washington active minds were busy

with the question, What can be done in the mean time? The West, as we have seen, answered by moving down the Mississippi, and fighting the terrible but decisive battles of Donelson and Shiloh. One distinct meaning of all this was, that the great artery of Western trade must be opened to the Gulf.

Gen. B. F. Butler believed that he could aid this great effort by troops from the East, and operations from the outlets of the Mississippi. Encountering many and formidable difficulties, he was at length on Ship Island with thirteen thousand and seven hundred men.

On the third day of February, 1862, Capt. David Glascoe Farragut sailed from Hampton Roads in "The Hartford." He had been appointed to command a powerful fleet which was to unite with Gen. Butler in an attempt to gain control of the Lower Mississippi. This fleet consisted of forty-seven armed vessels: eight of them were large steam sloops-of-war, seventeen heavily-armed steam gunboats, two sailing sloopsof-war, and twenty-one mortar-schooners. "The whole number of guns and mortars was three hundred and ten, many of them very heavy and very good."* The secrecy with which these formidable land and naval forces had been directed created the most excited public interest. Various theories of their destination were intimated; the North hoping that something would be done, and the South dreading the blow wherever it might fall. All doubt was at an end when Farragut and Butler met in consultation on Ship Island.

The defences of New Orleans were such as to give plausi bility to the popular idea, that they were absolutely invulnerable. Twiggs, of infamous Texas memory, had been superseded by Major-Gen. Lovell, who had fully completed an interior line of fortifications, which were deemed secure against any force the United States could bring to bear upon them. In the extreme necessities of the Confederacy, however, the

* Greeley, ii. 87, 88.

troops and materials of war which Gen. Lovell, by great industry, had collected to make these works available, were ordered away to contend with Grant and Buell. Two large iron-clads, "The Louisiana" and "Mississippi," which the citizens of New Orleans thought were to sink any vessels of war which might by any means come within their reach, were not finished. The exterior line of defence, including Forts Jackson and St. Philip, seventy-five miles below New Orleans, was made as strong as means within the power of the rebels would permit. A first formidable obstruction to the passage of our fleet having been washed away, another, less difficult to manage, was constructed of "eleven dismantled schooners, extending from bank to bank, strongly moored, and connected by six heavy chains." *

Glancing now for a moment at New Orleans, we find the people given up to pleasure. With the utmost contempt for Northerners, they talked and laughed about the spectacle of a mad attack upon their invulnerable forts, which was about to add a new zest to their entertainments. Balls, parties, theatres, operas, and the like, were the incidents of every twenty-four hours.

On the 16th of April, the American fleet moved up the river to attack the forts. As they neared the scene of the combat, they saw coming down upon them a huge fire-ship. With blazing wood and turpentine and tar, it threw its glare over the scene; and, roaring with flame, it floated directly toward our fleet. Our men, it would seem, ought to have been stupefied with horror, as it moved on until its flames must, in a few moments, be communicated to our vessels of war. But there were no signs of panic: commands were coolly given and obeyed. A small company from "The Iroquois" entered a row-boat, moved up fearlessly, and, grappling the ship of fire, towed it away to the bank, where it could burn itself out at leisure.

On the morning of the 17th, we were within two and a

* Pollard, p. 250.