Well, sir," said the rebel prisoner, "if I must surrender, it gives me pleasure to surrender to so brave an officer as you.”

"You do perfectly right to surrender," Admiral Foote replied; "but I should not have surrendered to you on any condition."

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Why so?" inquired Gen. Tilghman; "I do not understand you." "Because," the Admiral answered, "I was fully determined to capture the fort, or go to the bottom."

Had more of this spirit been manifested in the early months of the war, the conflict would not have been so protracted. As we have mentioned, the rebel army in the intrenched camp, nearly seven thousand strong, all escaped. When the gun-boats opened their fire, the troops, toiling through the mud, and obstructed by swollen streams, were not more than half way to their appointed stations, in the rear of the foe. As they heard the roar of the bombardment, loud huzzas burst from their lips, and they struggled along with redoubled energy. But it was all in vain. The foe escaped, and Admiral Foote fulfilled his promise that he would take the fort before Gen. Grant's troops could arrive.

The credit of this capture belongs to Admiral Foote, and no honorable man will wish to deprive him of his well earned laurels. His energies, struggling against almost incredible difficulties, were mainly instrumental in organizing the expedition. When informed that the rebels had from ten to twenty thousand in the fortress, he remarked, "I am sorry for it; because, if they stand their ground, the slaughter must be terrible. For I shall take the fort, or my vessels will go to the bottom." The morning succeeding the night after the battle, a gentleman said to him,

"You are getting nervous. I fear that you did not sleep well last night."

The Admiral replied, "I never slept better in my life than night before last, and I never prayed more fervently than on yesterday morning. But I could not sleep last night, for thinking of those poor fellows on the Essex."

Every man in the country, and every soldier in the army, has more confidence in an officer of sincere and manly piety, than in any amount of bull-dog ferocity, in an officer who is insulting both God and man with the foulness of his oaths.* The Cincinnati, the flag-ship, was struck thirty-one times, most of the shot leaving only honorable scars upon the iron plating. One gun was struck on the muzzle, breaking and splitting the piece so as to render it entirely useless. A hundred and eighty pound

* The expedition left Cairo on Monday. It is said that the Sabbath before Admiral Foote,— whom we call Admiral by anticipation, since he had not then received his promotion to the RearAdmiralty,--attended, as usual, the Presbyterian church. The minister, for some unexplained cause, did not make his appearance, and the congregation grew impatient. Commodore Foote ascended the pulpit, read a portion of Scripture, offered a fervent prayer, and then, in a brief address, from the appropriate text, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me," urged his fellow-soldiers, by fidelity in duty and trust in the Redeemer, to prepare to meet their God. This moral courage is of ethereal mould. Many of our ablest generals manifested it sublimely, through all the vicissitudes of this infamous rebellion. But we had other officers who ought to have been expelled from the army, for their blasphemy, calling down the vengeance of heaven upon our cause.

shot struck the pilot-house, but a few inches from the head of the Admiral, with a concussion which shook the vessel from stem to stern. The upper works were thoroughly swept with the destructive missiles. The crash of the balls through the timbers was terrible. Several were wounded, though but one man was killed. His head was carried away by a cannon ball. The rebels had eleven guns which could be brought to bear upon the boats. As the boats attacked, bows on, they had but eleven guns which could be used against the fort.

About an hour after the surrender of the fort, Gen. Grant arrived, with an advance guard, It is very evident that, had Admiral Foote's energy controlled the land, as well as the naval force, not a rebel would have escaped. Only one of the boats, the Benton, was wholly plated. The other three were plated only at the bows. The Essex was plated least of all. A portion of the land force was sent in pursuit of the fleet-footed rebels, who were on the rapid march across the land to Fort Donelson. As the troops took possession of the fort, they found, all about the guns, spots of clotted gore, and fragments of human flesh, showing that many lives must have been lost. Only four dead bodies were found. It is believed that many were carried off, in one of the rebel boats which left just before the surrender.

The capture of Fort Henry opened, to the Union forces, Tennessee River, and, in conjunction with the capture of Fort Donelson, immediately succeeding, gave them an unobstructed entrance into the State of Tennessee, possession of Nashville, its capital, and resulted in the necessary evacuation of Columbus. The capture, however, is chiefly memorable, as the first engagement, in the world's history, in which iron-clad boats. were subjected to a practical and severe ordeal. The battle between the Merrimac and the Monitor, which we have already described, did not take place until a month later. The capture of Fort Henry converted a longheld favorite idea into a practical reality.

Twenty-five miles above Fort Henry, a railroad, connecting Bowling Green with Memphis and Columbus, crosses the Tennessee River. Admiral Foote directed three of the gun-boats, under command of Capt. Phelps, to proceed up the river as far as possible, destroying this bridge upon their way, thus breaking the rebel connection between the east and the west, and capturing all the enemy's boats which might be found in the river. The expedition, promptly followed up, was eminently successful. The boats ascended the river nearly two hundred miles, boldly penetrating as far as Florence, Alabama. They captured three steamboats, one unfinished gun-boat, besides a large quantity of military stores. The rebels. themselves destroyed six boats, to prevent their falling into the hands of the patriots. The most gratifying result of the expedition, however, was the undoubted evidence of loyalty, which greeted the passing fleet. As the swift steamers ploughed the waters of the river, with the Stars and the Stripes floating at their peaks, men, women and children, crowded to the banks to hail the sight, once more, of that glorious National banner, and to welcome the gun-boats as their deliverers from the disastrous rule of rebellion. Twenty-five men, on the way, volunteered as recruits for the

National army, and were cordially received.* Capt. Phelps conducted this expedition with consummate ability, proving that a better man could not have been selected for the responsible service. For his gallantry, he received the especial thanks of the Secretary of the Navy.

* Capt. Phelps, in his official report, says, "We have met the most gratifying proofs of loyalty everywhere, across Tennessee, and in the portions of Mississippi and Alabama which we visited. Most affecting instances greeted us hourly. Men, women and children, gathered in crowds, shouted their welcome, and hailed their National flag with an enthusiasm there was no mistaking. It was genuine and heart-felt. They braved everything to go to the river bank, where a sight of their flag might once more be enjoyed; and they have experienced, as they related, every possible form of persecution. Tears flowed freely down the cheeks of the men, as well as of the women. There were, it is true, whole communities, who, on our approach, fled to the woods; but these were where there was less of the loyal element, and where the fleeing steamers, in advance, had spread tales of our coming with fire-brands, burning, destroying, ravishing, plundering."

CHAPTER XX.

DONELSON, NASHVILLE AND COLUMBUS.

REBEL PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENSE AT FORT DONELSON.-ITS POSITION.-RECEPTION OF THE GUNBOATS AT EDDYVILLE.-STORMING A BREASTWORK.-ARRIVAL OF THE CARONDELET.— SUFFERING OF UNION TROOPS.-ADMIRAL FOOTE.-TERRIBLE CONFLICT.-CHARGE OF GEN. SMITH.-HARD FIGHTING OF THE TROOPS OF GEN. WALLACE.-INCIDENT.-SURRENDER OF THE FORT.-NASHVILLE.-ANECDOTES.-VALUE OF THE GUNBOATS.-COLUMBUS.-BISHOP GEN. POLK.

THE capture of Fort Henry, with all its stores, was as depressing to the rebels as it was animating to the patriots. The energies of the Federal government were now directed towards Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. The rebels were also roused to the most intense exertions, to avoid the humiliation of another defeat, in the loss of that important fortress. There are three great avenues by which access can be obtained, from the free States of the north into the south-western States-the Mississippi, the Tennessee and the Cumberland Rivers. These avenues the rebels had barred by the three gigantic barriers, Columbus, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Columbus was deemed well nigh impregnable. Fort Henry had been battered down, and the passage was fairly opened. Gen. Halleck now hastened to turn his battering rams against Fort Donelson, while the rebels roused all their energies to add to its strength.

On the fall of Fort Henry the seven thousand rebel troops encamped there rushed across to Fort Donelson, adding much strength to the already powerful garrison gathered at that point. Gen. Buckner had been in command of that post. Gen. Pillow, from Columbus, had already been ordered to strengthen him. Six days after the fall of Fort Henry, Gen. Floyd was also ordered, with heavy reënforcements, to proceed immediately to Donelson. Guns, ammunition, and all the needful matériel of war were sent in abundance from Nashville. The rebels made their preparations for a long

*Much has been said about the origin of the proposition to take possession of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. There can be no question that Gen. Fremont first urged it upon the depart ment at Washington, and at a time when the rivers could have been seized without sacrifice of life. But he was relieved of his command, and his plans totally disregarded. Commodore Foote, as soon as he reached the West, with the quick eye of military genius, saw that which Gen. Fremont had not failed to see. But the rebels had already reared their forts. On the 28th of January, 1862, he, from Cairo, telegraphed Gen. Halleck, at St. Louis, as follows:-"Gen. Grant and myself are of opinion that Fort Henry and Tennessee River can be carried with four iron-clad gun-boats and troops, and be permanently occupied. Have we your authority to move for that purpose when ready?" Very strangely Gen. Halleck returned no reply to Commodore Foote, but subsequently ordered Gen. Grant to proceed up the Tennessee River with his troops, under convoy of the armed flotilla, and attack Fort Henry, directing Gen. Grant to show to Commodore Foote his orders to this effect.-See Speech of Hon. James W. Grimes, U. S. Senate, March 13, 1862.

and a desperate struggle. On Thursday, the 13th of February, there were assembled within the ramparts not less than 20,000 troops, mostly gathered from Tennessee and Mississippi. They were commanded by Gens. Floyd, Pillow, Buckner, and Bushrod R. Johnson. The former was first in command.*

The defenses of Fort Donelson were far more formidable than those of Fort Henry. The general course of the Cumberland River here is almost directly north. Just below the little town of Dover, the river sweeps to the west, around a commanding eminence, for a distance of a few hundred yards, and then pursues its natural course again, almost due north. Upon this eminence, protected by this bend of the river, and commanding the stream towards the north as far as shot can be thrown, the rebels reared their capacious and massive fort. The engineers, who constructed it with great ability, had acquired their skill at the United States' Military Academy at West Point. The traitor generals who turned the guns, from its ramparts, against the Stars and Stripes, had acquired their military educa tion beneath that banner, and at the expense of the government it symbolizes. At the river's edge there were two water batteries, one of nine and the other of three guns, all heavy pieces of ordnance, being thirty-two or sixty-four pounders. These guns were protected by breast works which no shot could penetrate. Back of the batteries the hill rises, quite steep, to an elevation of a hundred feet, where it spreads off, in a broad plateau of more than a hundred acres. In the rear of the fort, and west and south of the bluff, there is a succession of hills, cut up by ravines and densely wooded. Thus, by nature, the rear of the fort was made difficult of attack and easy of defense. But still the rear was not left to the defenses which nature had so abundantly reared. A circular rifle pit was dug, inclosing on the land side the whole eminence on which the fort was reared, extending from the river's bank, on the north, to a bluff which rose near the water, on the south. Behind the rifle pits there was planted a series of strong batteries, so situated as to command every possible approach. Behind the batteries there was arranged an impervious abatis of felled trees, with sharpened branches, at every point where the precipitous nature of the hill itself was not deemed ample defense against assault. The intrenchments thus thrown up were several miles in extent. Upon every commanding position a battery frowned with its independent line of defenses. Thus it will be seen that Fort Donelson was a cluster of forts, surrounding a vast central fortress. The battle of Fort Donelson was thus, of necessity, a series of bat

* John Buchanan Floyd is a son of that Gov. Floyd, of Virginia, who, in 1837, was so earnest for nullifying the laws of the United States. He was well educated, and taking a group of slaves, emigrated to Arkansas as a planter. After a time he returned to Virginia, and plunged into the arena of politics. He was the ardent advocate of every measure which tended to the extension and perpetuation of slavery. He was chosen Governor of Virginia, and afterwards acted as Secre tary of War under President Buchanan. Here his conduct was as infamous as language can record. While sworn to defend the honor of his country, and a member of the Cabinet, he exerted all the influence his position gave him, to bind his country, hand and foot, and pass it over a helpless victim to traitors. A deed of blacker hue history does not record. Having thus done every thing in his power to betray his country, he resigned his position in the Cabinet and joined the armies of the rebels.