414

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.

tiller-ropes of the Louisville were disabled. Both vessels became unmanage-able and began floating down the current. The eddies turned them round likelogs. The Pittsburgh tm&Carondelet closed in and covered them with their hulls.

Seeing this turn in the fight, the captains of the batteries rallied their men,who cheered in their turn, and renewed the contest with increased will andenergy. A ball got lodged in their best rifle. A corporal and some of hismen took a log fitting the bore, leaped out on the parapet, and rammed themissile home. “Now, boys,” said a gunner in Bid well’s battery, “see me takea chimney! ” The flag of the boat and the chimney fell with the shot.

When the vessels were out of range, the victors looked about them. Thefine form of their embrasures was gone; heaps of earth had been cast overtheir platforms. In a space of twenty-four feet they had picked up as manyshot and shells. The air had been full of flying missiles. For an hour and ahalf the brave fellows had been rained upon; yet their losses had been triflingin numbers. Each gunner had selected a ship and followed her faithfullythroughout the action, now and then uniting fire on the Carondelet. The Con-federates had behaved with astonishing valor. Their victory sent a thrill ofjoy through the army. The assault on the outworks, the day before, hadbeen a failure. With the repulse of the gun-boats the Confederates scoredsuccess number two, and the communication by the river remained open toNashville . The winds that blew sleet and snow over Donelson that nightwere not so unendurable as they

might have been.

The night of the 14th of Febru-ary fell cold and dark, and underthe pitiless sky the armies re-mained in position so near to eachother that neither daredfires. Overpowered with watching,

, . Z'- --'-S' _

THE POSITION OF THE GUN-BOATS AND THE WEST BANK . FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1884.

Fort Donelson is in tlie farther distance on the extreme left —Hickman’s Creek empties into the Cumberland inthe middle distance—midway are the rem ains of the obstructions placed in the river by the Confederates.

The upper picture, showing Isaac Williams’s house, is a continuation of the right of the lower view.