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CARONDELET " FIGHTING FORT OONELSON, FEBRUARY 13, 1862. FROM A SKETCH BY REAR-ADMIRAL WALKE.

THE WESTERN FLOTILLA AT FORT DONELSON, ISLANDNUMBER TEN, FORT PILLOW AND MEMPHIS .

BY HENRY WALKE, REAR-ADMIRAL, U. S. N.

,N the 7th of February, the day after the capture of Fort Henry, I received

on board the Carondelet Colonels Webster, Rawlins, and McPherson, witha company of troops, and under instructions from General Grant proceededup the Tennessee River, and completed the destruction of the bridge of theMemphis and Bowling Green Railroad.

On returning from that expedition General Grant requested me to hastento Fort Donelson with the Carondelet, Tyler, and Lexington, and announcemy arrival by firing signal guns. The object of this movement was to takepossession of the river as soon as possible, to engage the enemy’s attentionby making formidable demonstrations before the fort, and to prevent itfrom being reenforced. On February 10th the Carondelet alone (towed by thetransport Alps ) proceeded up the Cumberland River, and on the 12th arriveda few miles below the fort.

Fort Donelson occupied one of the best defensive positions on the river.It was built on a bold bluff about 120 feet in height, on the west side of theriver, where it makes a slight bend to the eastward. It had 3 batteries,mounting in all 15 guns: the lower, about twenty feet above the water; thesecond, about fifty feet above the water; the third, on the summit. J

1 The armament of tlie fort consisted of “ten Captain Jacob Culbertson, with Captains Ross,32-pounder guns (two of them ship carronades), Beaumont, and Bidwell in separate command ofone 8-inch howitzer, two nondescript 9-pounders, the guns of the lower batteries. Captain Dixonone 10-inch Columbiad, and one rifled gun throwing was killed in the action of the 13th with the Caron-a conical shell of 128 pounds.” The garrison was delet by a shot which dismounted one of his guns —commanded by Colonel J. E. Bailey, the artillery “the only damage done to the batteries during theby Captain Joseph Dixon, and after his death by siege.” (Captain Culbertson’s report.)— Editors.

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