CAPTURE OF FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON.
The fighting of the second year of the war opened early. General Albert Sidney Johnston, one of the ablest leaders of the Confederacy, was in chief command in the West. The Confederate line ran through southern Kentucky, from Columbus to Mill Spring, through Bowling Green. Two powerful forts had been built in Tennessee, near the northern boundary line. One was Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and the other Fort Donelson, twelve miles away, on the Cumberland.
Opposed to this strong position were two Union armies, the larger, numbering 100,000, under General Don Carlos Buell, in central Kentucky, and the lesser, numbering 15,000, commanded by General U.S. Grant, at Cairo. Under Buell was General George H. Thomas, one of the finest leaders in the Union army. In January, with a division of Buell's army, he attacked the Confederates, routed and drove them into Tennessee. In the battle, General Zollicoffer, the Confederate commander, was killed.
Embarking at Cairo, General Grant steamed up the Tennessee River, intending to capture Fort Henry. Before he could do so, Commodore Andrew H. Foote, with his fleet of gunboats, compelled it to surrender, though most of the garrison escaped across the neck of land to Fort Donelson.
CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.
Upon learning that Fort Henry had fallen, Grant steamed up the Cumberland to attack Fort Donelson, which was reinforced until the garrison numbered some 20,000 men. It was a powerful fortification, with many rifle-pits and intrenchments on the land side, and powerful batteries commanding the river. The political General Floyd was in chief command, the right wing being under General Simon B. Buckner and the left in charge of General Gideon J. Pillow.
On the afternoon of February 14th, Commodore Foote opened the attack with two wooden vessels and four ironclad gunboats. The garrison made no reply until the boats had worked their way to within a fourth of a mile of the fort, the elevation of which enabled it to send a plunging fire, which proved so destructive that two of the boats were disabled and drifted down current, the other following. Some fifty men were killed, and among the wounded was Commodore Foote. He withdrew to Cairo, intending to wait until a sufficient force could be brought up from that point.
UNITED STATES 12-INCH BREECH-LOADING MORTAR,
OR HOWITZER.