War Stories for my Grandchildren

by John Watson Foster

"A party went down to the fort from here on Tuesday. I then had heard nothing from you, and I thought I would hear sooner by staying at home. Then father was away, and I didn't know what to do. Another boat goes to-day. If we thought there was any prospect at all of seeing you, father and I would go, but every one regards it as so uncertain about your still being there that I guess we won't go. It would only be an aggravation to go and not see you. I hope it will not be long before I have something from your own dear self. Mr. Schoenfield [regimental sutler] was very kind. He dispatched and wrote father that you and Alex were safe and did bravely. The dispatch came last night (Wednesday) and the letter by packet this morning. He said you wrote a few lines and he sent it, but fearing it did not reach us, he wrote himself. We have not received anything from you at all, and are very thankful to him indeed. Such kindness, I assure you, we appreciate.

"The news of the surrender reached here Monday, causing intense excitement and wild joy; but I could not rejoice till I heard from my dear one. And, oh, the dead and wounded, how much suffering and grief has been brought to many, many hearts! When we think of the suffering it takes away most of the rejoicing.

"I am proud of you, my dear John. I always knew you would do your duty nobly, and I thank God your life has been spared. Father and your mother came back from Cincinnati on Tuesday. I was glad to see father, for he is so kind to me. Write soon."

Reference is made in this letter to the steamboats making trips to Fort Donelson after the battle. The cities and States of the Middle West vied with each other in dispatching steamers, carrying hospital supplies and in bringing home the wounded and sick. Governor Morton of Indiana was a visitor, and immediately after the writing of the foregoing letter my father brought on one of these boats my wife, my little daughter, and brother Willie. Their stay was only for one day, but it brought to us all much joy and consolation.

On our first day's fighting I had found one of the lieutenants skulking, having left the ranks, and he was hiding flat down under the bank of a little stream. I punched him out with my sword and made him join his company, much to the delight of the men who saw the act. The story went home in a very exaggerated shape, and I was credited with using to the lieutenant some very severe and profane language. Willie, who had heard the story and who entertained a high admiration for me, was greatly grieved and shocked. As soon as the boat landed at the fort, Willie rushed up to me, and throwing his arms about me, said: "Brother John, you did not curse and swear at the soldier, did you?"

The capture of Fort Donelson was the first important and complete victory which had been won by the Union armies since the war began, and it was hailed with great joy throughout the North as the harbinger of further victories. General Sherman, ten years after the event, characterized it as "the first real success on our side in the Civil War. Probably at no time during the war did we feel so heavy a weight raised from our hearts, or so thankful for a most fruitful series of victories."

In a letter of February 23, I acknowledged the receipt of my wife's letter above quoted, in these terms:—

"George [my eldest brother] brought me yesterday the letters by you and father on the 20th, and they were such good ones I could not help the tears coming to my eyes. When I read your letters I began fully to realize how great was my deliverance. During all the war I most probably never will be in so hot a fire and in so much danger as that through which I passed during the late battles. Truly we have great reason to thank God for his kind protection over me. Do you remember the Psalm Mr. McCarer [our pastor] read the last night at our house, before I left with the regiment, the ninety-first? I got out my Bible and read it to-day again. I have read it many times since then.

"I am proud of you, my dear Parke, for the manner in which you have acted ever since I have been in the army, but especially during and since the attack on the fort. You have learned by the experience of the late battles to put little reliance in the first reports of an engagement; they are always exaggerated.