heavy fire, replied to by the guns of the fort. After an hour and a quarter the latter were silenced, the fort was surrendered, and Gen. Tilghman, with his staff and sixty men, gave them. selves up as prisoners. The remainder of the garrison escaped, the force sent forward by Grant, under Gen. McClernand, owing to the state of the roads or other causes, not having arrived in season to participate in the action. This engagement first thoroughly tested the gunboats, and proved their great value. Gen. Grant lost no time in dispatching about 15,000 men from Fort Henry, to invest Fort Donelson. The gunboats, meanwhile, had returned to the mouth of the Tennessee, and made their way up the Cumberland, together with sixteen transports loaded with fresh troops, arriving on the 14th. The three divisions engaged were under the command of Gens. C. F. Smith, McClernand, and Lewis Wallace. The infantry and batteries having taken position, the gunboats opened fire on the fort at about two o'clock on that day, with less decisive effect than at Fort Henry. The St. Louis became seriously disabled, and Gen. Grant, making a complete investment of the fort, and strengthening his position, was designing to wait for the gunboats to renew the attack. On the following morning, however, the enemy within the fort, lately heavily reënforced, attacked our extreme right, under McClernand, which rested on Dover, and brought on a general and severe engagement, which had apparently almost resulted in a disastrous repulse of our forces. The right was seasonably reënforced, and after a hardly contested fight, lasting until dark, in which both sides suffered heavily, the Rebels were driven back within their fortifications. Early on the morning of the 16th, a white flag was raised by the Rebel Gen. Buckner, asking an armistice for the purpose of agreeing upon terms of capitulation. In reply, Gen. Grant sent the following memorable note: HEADQUARTERS ON THE FIELD, FORT DONELSON, February 16, 1862. To GEN. S. B. BUCKNER-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 accepted. I propose to move immediately on your works. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Gens. Floyd and Pillow, with a portion of the Rebel force, had escaped during the night. Gen. Buckner, and about 15,000 men, were unconditionally surrendered as prisoners of war, and 20,000 stand of arms, with a large amount of stores, fell into the hands of Gen. Grant. A victory so complete and substantial was hailed with joy by the Government and by loyal men every-where, and gave its hero at once a prominent place in the hearts of the people. Finding his right and left flanks thus completely turned by Thomas and Grant, the enemy evacuated Bowling Green on the 15th, rapidly falling back south of the Cumberland river. Clarksville and Nashville, Tenn., were promptly occupied by our forces. This succession of triumphs, exciting grateful enthusiasm throughout the loyal portion of the nation, caused a corresponding humiliation and despondency in the Rebel States. The border line of the Rebellion, in the West, this side of the Mississippi, was thereby contracted a long distance southward, leaving Kentucky free, and promising a speedy restoration of Tennessee under loyal sway. The forts on Roanoke Island, on the coast of North Carolina, were captured by a joint expedition under Gen. Burnside and Com. Goldsborough, on the 8th of February, after two days' fighting, in which the losses were comparatively small. Over two thousand prisoners, forty guns, and three thousand small arms, were captured. In Missouri, Gen. Price had fallen back from point to point, on the approach of our forces under Gen. Curtis. He finally retired from the State, taking up his headquarters at Cross Hollows, in Arkansas, during the latter part of February. On the 23d of that month Gen. Curtis had advanced in pursuit, as far as Fayetteville, Ark., on the White river, in the northwestern part of that State. The evacuation of Columbus, Kentucky, on the 27th of February, as a necessary result of Grant's capture of Fort Donelson, and the dispersion of the main force of the Rebels in Missouri, invited the attempt to repossess the Mississippi, hitherto blockaded by the Rebels. The importance of this possession, not alone for its commercial consequence to the North-west, but also from military considerations, was too obvious to escape the notice of a Western President. Three Illinois regiments occupied Columbus on the 3d of March, a gunboat fleet having accompanied the transports which conveyed this force. On the same day, an engagement, indecisive in its results, was fought by forces under Gen. Pope, with Rebels, under Gen. Jeff. Thompson, near New Madrid. It soon became evident that, in retreating from Columbus, the Rebels had occupied Island Number Ten, in the Mississippi river, several miles below, and a little distance above New Madrid. This was the beginning of the memorable siege of that place, ultimately captured, with a large number of prisoners and valuable property, on the 8th day of April. On the 6th, 7th and 8th of March was fought one of the most important engagements of the war at Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, near the Missouri line. Gen. Curtis, as already seen, had driven the Rebels across the Missouri border, and had occupied Fayetteville, Arkansas, on the 23d of February, the opposing forces retiring beyond the Boston Mountains, which divide the valley of White river, on the north, from that of the Arkansas river, in the center of the State. Curtis soon after withdrew toward Missouri, his main force being concentrated at a place called Sugar-creek Hollow, with a rear guard, under Gen. Sigel, at Bentonville. The forces under Gen. Curtis comprised four divisionsthe First under command of Col. Osterhaus, the Second under Gen. Asboth, the Third under Col. Jeff. C. Davis, and the Fourth led by Col. Carr. The Rebel forces were now united under Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who had assumed command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, with his headquarters at Little Rock, on the 29th of January. There were under him in this engagement probably ten thou sand Missouri troops, under Gen. Price; from twelve to fifteen thousand men from Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, under Gen. McCulloch, and about five or six thousand Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw and other Indians, with two white regiments-in all about seven thousand-under Albert Pike. One Rebel account states that Van Dorn's force in this expedition was reckoned as high as thirty-five thousand. The Union force did not much exceed one-third of that number. Confident in their numerical strength, and believing, as they admitted, that their force was at least double that under Curtis, the Rebels advanced with the hope of annihilating our army. Coming up with Sigel's force at Bentonville, on the morning of the 6th of March, they compelled that General to fall back toward the main army-a movement which he executed with scarcely any loss, having sent forward his trains, while a well-managed battery protected his retreat, inflicting severe injury upon the enemy whenever he approached within shelling distance. A march of ten miles brought Sigel's force to the west end of Pea Ridge, a range of high ground just beyond Sugar Creek, where the main army of Curtis lay. It was now night, and Curtis, who had all day been busily preparing to meet the enemy, made his disposition for the eventful morrow. His force in the hollow had fronted to the south, and Sigel, with Osterhaus' division, now occupied a position about three miles to the west. The Rebel forces crossed the creek still further west, and occupied the higher ground northward and directly in the rear, his two main bodies also separated by about three miles distance- the troops under Price opposite Curtis, and those under McCulloch and McIntosh over against Sigel. A change of front was promptly made, bringing the armies face to face-Curtis commanding the right, now moved to higher ground two miles northward, and Sigel the left. The enemy attacked our right on the morning of the 7th, and the battle was fiercely maintained throughout the day, with severe loss on both sides. The area fought over did not exceed three-fourths of a mile in diameter. Our right was finally driven back for nearly a mile, the enemy encamping on the field they had thus won. McCulloch, meanwhile, on the left, had in the morning begun a movement south-eastwardly, to form a junction with Price, so as to surround Curtis, and cut off all retreat. Sigel endeavored to check this detected movement by sending forward three pieces of flying artillery, with a cavalry support, to delay McCulloch's advance until his infantry could come up. An overwhelming force of Rebel cavalry bore down upon this detachment, dispersing it and capturing our guns, while McCulloch's infantry gained shelter in a wood beyond a large open field. This wood and field became the scene of a prolonged contest between Osterhaus and McCulloch. The timely arrival of Davis with reënforcements turned the tide, and the enemy was utterly routed, with heavy loss, McCulloch and McIntosh being among the killed. The position which had been gained by Van Dorn's left was naturally a strong one, cutting off our retreat, and here he concentrated his entire forces. On that chilly night the men of Curtis' army, looking forward to the coming day, might well have been disheartened. Their ultimate defeat must have seemed almost certain. With sunrise the batteries of Price reopened, and with terrible effect on the extreme right, held by Carr's division, and now supported by Davis. The position of the enemy being clearly disclosed, Sigel, with quick insight and prompt action, skillfully disposed his batteries so as to bear directly in the face of the enemy's right, causing great destruction to the latter, with little loss to himself. His thirty pieces silenced battery after battery of the enemy, making terrible havoc. For more than two hours, with admirable tact and unslackened activity, this cannonading was kept up, batteries and infantry approaching nearer and nearer the concentrated foe, until at length Curtis ordered his infantry to charge the enemy in his last shelter of the woods, and, after a short but deadly struggle, the Rebel forces gave way and scattered in confusion and utter rout. The total loss of Curtis, mostly on the 7th, is stated at 1,312 in killed, wounded and missing. The losses of Van Dorn were manifestly much greater, but they are not accurately known. With this victory, followed six days later by the capture of |