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THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.
was seeing his first of military service. No soldier in the least familiar withheadquarters on the Tennessee can ever forget the slender figure, large blackeyes, hectic cheeks, and sincere, earnest manner of John A. Rawlins , thenassistant adjutant-general, afterward major-general and secretary of war.He had two special devotions—to the cause and to his chief. He lived to seethe first triumphant and the latter first in peace as well as in war. Probablyno officer of the Union was mourned by so many armies.
Fort Henry, it will be remembered, was taken by Flag-Officer Foote onthe 6th of February. The time up to the 12th was given to reconnoiteringthe country in the direction of Fort Donelson. Two roads were discovered:one of twelve miles direct, the other almost parallel with the first, but, onaccount of a slight divergence, two miles longer.
By 8 o’clock in the morning, the First Division, General McClernand com-manding, and the Second, under General Smith [see page 429], were in fullmarch. The infantry of this command consisted of twenty-five regiments inall, or three less than those of the Confederates. Against their six field-bat-teries General Grant had seven. In cavalry alone he was materially stronger.The rule in attacking fortifications is five to one; to save the Union com-mander from a charge of rashness, however, he had also at control a fightingquality ordinarily at home on the sea rather than the land. After receivingthe surrender of Fort Henry, Flag-Officer Foote had hastened to Cairo tomake preparation for the reduction of Fort Donelson. With six of his boats,he passed into the Cumberland River; and on the 12th, while the two divis-ions of the army were marching across to Donelson, he was hurrying, asfast as steam could drive him and his following, to a second trial of ironbatteries afloat against earth batteries ashore. The Carondelet, CommanderWalke, having preceded him, had been in position below the fort since the12th. By sundown of the 12th, McClernand and Smith reached the pointdesignated for them in orders.
On the morning of the 13th of February General Grant, with about twentythousand men, was before Fort Donelson. We have had a view of the armyin the works ready for battle; a like view of that outside and about to go intoposition of attack and assault is not so easily to be given. At dawn the latterhost rose up from the bare ground, and, snatching bread and coffee as bestthey could, fell into lines that stretched away over hills, down hollows, andthrough thickets, making it impossible for even colonels to see their regi-ments from flank to flank.
Pausing to give a thought to the situation, it is proper to remind thereader that he is about to witness an event of more than mere historicalinterest; he is about to see the men of the North and North-west and of theSouth and South-west enter for the first time into a strife of arms; on oneside, the best blood of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas ,aided materially by fighting representatives from Virginia; on the other, thebest blood of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska .
S* General Grant estimates his available forces at this time at about 15,000, and on the last day at27,000, 5000 or 6000 of whom were guarding transportation trains in the rear.— Editors.