THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.
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THE CRISP FARM—GENERAL GRANT’SHEADQUARTERS.
FRONT VIEW OF MRS. CRISP’S HOUSE.FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN IN 1884.
Foote arrived on the 14th, andmade haste to enter upon his work.
The Carondelet (Commander Walke)had been in position since the 12th.
Behind a low output of the shore,for two days, she maintained a firefrom her rifled guns, happily ofgreater range than the best of thoseof the enemy.
At 9 o’clock on the 14th, CaptainCulbertson, looking from the para-pet of the upper battery, beheld the river below the first bend full of transports,landing troops under cover of a fresh arrival of gun-boats. The disembarka-tion concluded, Foote was free. He waited until noon. The captains in thebatteries mistook his deliberation for timidity. The impinging of their shoton his iron armor was heard distinctly in the fort a mile and a half away.The captains began to doubt if he would come at all. But at 3 o’clockthe boats took position under fire: the Louisville on the right, the St. Louis next, then the Pittsburgh , then the Carondelet, all iron-clad.
Five hundred yards from the batteries, and yet Foote was not content! Inthe Crimean war the allied French and English fleets, of much mightier ships,undertook to engage the Russian shore batteries, but little stronger than thoseat Donelson. The French on that occasion stood off 1800 yards. Lord Lyonsfought his Agamemnon at a distance of 800 yards. Foote forged ahead within400 yards of his enemy, and was still going on. His boat had been hitbetween wind and water; so with the Pittsburgh and Carondelet. About theguns the floors were slippery with blood, and both surgeons and carpenterswere never so busy. Still the four boats kept on, and there was great cheer-ing ; for not only did the fire from the shore slacken; the lookouts reportedthe enemy running. It seemed that fortune would smile once more upon thefleet, and cover the honors of Fort Henry afresh at Fort Donelson. Unhap-pily, when about 350 yards off the hill a solid shot plunged through the pilot-house of the flag-ship, and carried away the wheel. Near the same time the