400

THE CAPTURE OF FORT D0NELS0N .

This view was taken from the site of a house on McClernand ’s right, which was destroyed for camp purposes afterthe surrender. The house is said to have been used by McClernand as headquarters. It was near theWynn’s ferry road, which reaches the river perhaps a quarter of a mile to the right of the picture.

y-rJ I . ” t l r

Wmm

'Jft .8'

THE TOWN OF DOVER FROM ROBINSON’S HILL.FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1884.

When General Johnston assumed command of the Western Department,the war had ceased to be a new idea. Battles had been fought. Prepara-tions for battles to come were far advanced. Already it had been acceptedthat the North was to attack and the South to defend. The Mississippi River was a centra] object; if opened from Cairo to Fort Jackson (New Orleans ),the Confederacy would be broken into halves, and good strategy requiredit to be broken. The question was whether the effort would be made directlyor by turning its defended positions. Of the national gun-boats afloat aboveCairo , some were formidably iron-clad. Altogether the flotilla was strongenough to warrant the theory that a direct descent would be attempted; andto meet the movement the Confederates threw up powerful batteries, notablyat Columbus, Island Number Ten, Memphis, and Vicksburg . So fully werethey possessed of that theory that they measurably neglected the possibili-ties of invasion by way of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. Not untilGeneral Johnston established his headquarters at Nashville was seriousattention given to the defense of those streams. A report to his chief of engi-neers of November 21st, 1861, establishes that at that date a second batteryon the Cumberland at Dover had been completed; that a work on the ridgehad been laid out, and two guns mounted; and that the encampment was thensurrounded by an abatis of felled timber. Later, Brigadier-General LloydTilghman was sent to Fort Donelson as commandant, and on January 25thhe reports the batteries prepared, the entire field-works built with a trace of2900 feet, and rifle-pits to guard the approaches were begun. The same offi-cer speaks further of reenforcements housed in four hundred log-cabins, and