"General McClernand's brigade, conveyed in river transports, left Cairo on the 10th for old Fort Jefferson, Kentucky, about fifteen miles distant. He disembarked his force on the following day and encamped. On the 12th he made a demonstration in the direction of Columbus, with a force of six companies of cavalry and two regiments of infantry, marching for several miles, until they observed the rebel Fort Beauregard. In front of this work was seen a strong abatis of fallen timber, extending over a distance of half a mile, and surrounding the enemy's intrenchments. The rigor of the weather and the nonappearance of any considerable force of the enemy led the Union commander to the belief that the rebels were massed within their intrenchments. The object of the reconnoissance being not to engage the enemy, if it could be avoided, the party returned the same day to Fort Jefferson.

a store of ink and an abundant supply Porter, proceeded down the Ohio river of enthusiasm. The several Generals and within two miles of Columbus. The were criticised pretty freely, in conse- movement of these forces, was for the quence, for the shots which they fired same object, each having its sphere of acinto empty entrenchments, and the wear- tion conducing to a common result-the isome marches through seas of mud by reconnoitering of the enemy's left flank. which the men were led to the encounter The most active part taken in this grand of "no enemy but winter and rough reconnoissance was done under the comweather." The officers pursued their mand of General McClernand, coöperown way, however, gathered their stores ating with his senior and chief of the of information, formed their conclusions, whole movement, General Grant. and kept their own counsel, leaving the journalists, in ignorance of their intentions, to bite their pens in despair, and the public to fret and fume over the vexatious delays which it was slow in accepting as inevitable under such circumstances to all prutlent military operations. A sufficient indication of these preliminary movements, which were so little understood at the time, is given in the following brief résumé from the New York Herald: "On the 9th of January a large force of Union troops -cavalry, artillery, and infantry-under the command of Brigadier-General McClernand, left Cairo, Illinois, for a reconnoissance in Southwestern Kentucky, towards the Tennesse border, in the direction of Columbus. This force numbered about seven thousand men. Cotemporaneously with this movement of McClernand's brigade, another force of nearly equal strength, under BrigadierGeneral Paine, marched from Bird's Point, opposite Cairo, in the direction of Charleston, Missouri, and thence to the Ohio river, to observe the movements of the rebels at Columbus on the river front. About the same time another brigade, numbering six thousand men, under Brigadier-General C. F. Smith, moved from Paducah to Mayfield, Kentucky, and towards Columbus, and another force from Cairo to Smithland, a point on the Ohio river, between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Besides these land forces, and in coöperation with them, several Union gunboats, under the command of Captain

"On the 13th another party of Union troops left Fort Jefferson and proceeded to Blandsville, where it selected a strong position for an encampment. On the 14th the whole of McClernand's force marched to Blandsville. They moved in two columns, with strong guards in advance, so as to command the approaches to Columbus and both bridges across Mayfield creek. On the 15th an advance was made to Weston, within ten miles of Columbus, going thence to the southwest of the latter to Milburn, taking the town by surprise. General Grant at this point assumed command of the troops. At this

PREPARATORY MOVEMENTS.

place a man came into camp who had just arrived from Columbus. From him was obtained valuable information respecting the condition of the rebels at that place. This refugee stated that the movements of the Union troops had caused much excitement among the rebels, and caused them to withdraw their forces from Fort Beauregard, Jackson, New Madrid and other places. On the 16th the forces marched to Milburn, and from thence the commander sent a detachment to Mayfield, where it communicated with General Smith's brigade from Paducah. On the 17th, the object of the expedition having been accomplished, the entire force under McClernand retraced their steps and returned to Cairo in the same order as they came, having travelled a distance of one hundred and forty miles, obtaining the fullest information of the nature of the ground over which they had passed.

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to bear on the Lexington, the shot from which fell into the water one-half mile short of its mark. General Smith obtained an excellent view of the rebel fort, camp, and garrison, and immediately returned with his brigade to Paducah, having met with the fullest success in the reconnoissance."

At the close of the month, when the unusual rise in the water offered a most favorable opportunity for the navigation of the river, and transport of troops, Commodore Foote earnestly urged upon General Halleck the expediency of an attack upon Fort Henry, giving it as his opinion and that of General Grant that with four iron-clad gunboats and a coöperating military force the position might be taken. So confident, indeed, was he of this result that when a few days after the order was given, and he saw work ahead for his flotilla, he issued his instructions in advance to Lieutenant Phelps to proceed immediately with the old lighter armed gunboats, "as soon as the fort shall have surrendered," to further conquests on the river.*

"On the 21st of January, BrigadierGeneral C. F. Smith's brigade, consisting of six thousand men, cavalry, artillery, and infantry, arrived at Crown Point -a point on the Tennessee river-from At daylight on the 4th of February, Paducah, having marched a distance of the expedition, under command of Comone hundred and twenty miles over mud-modore Foote and General Grant, set dy roads, and crossing numerous swollen water courses. On the 22d ult., the day after the arrival of the brigade at Crown Point, General Smith proceeded on a personal reconnoissance, on the gunboat Lexington, in the direction of Fort Henry. The gunboat proceeded up the west channel of the river, to a point within one mile and a half of the fort. Three rebel steamers were discovered lying off the mouth of the small creek that empties into the Tennessee river just above the fort. A well-directed shell was fired from the Lexington, striking one of the rebel craft in the stern. A second shell fell short of its mark just in front of the enemy's works; a third burst in the air, directly over Fort Henry, doubtless doing good execution. The rebels in the fort then brought out a 32-pounder gun

sail in a fleet of gunboats and transports from Paducah, on the Tennessee, for Fort Henry, distant some sixty-five miles by the river. In the afternoon a point was reached four miles below the fort, within the state of Tennessee, where the flotilla was arrested to land a body of troops, under General McClernand, with a view of making a detour and taking the work in the rear, while the gunboats proceeded with the attack from the water. A camp was formed on the shore, named after General Halleck the commander of the department, and the stars and stripes were raised again upon the soil of Tennessee. That afternoon a reconnoissance was made

* Commodore Foote to General Halleck, Cairo, January

28, 1861; to Hon. Gideon Welles, Paducah, February 3, 1862; Special Order No. 3 to Lieutenant Phelps, Paducah February 2, 1862. Speech of the Hon. James W. Grimes, United States Senate, March 13, 1862.

degrees. It was certainly an ingenious and well arranged contrivance, but unfortunately for the schemes of its inventors, it failed of success in three most important particulars. In the first place the secrecy necessary to the success of all such devices was violated; next, while they were planted with an eye to the

by the gunboats in the direction of the fort, which demonstrated the long range and excellent handling of the enemy's guns, Captain Porter's vessel, the Essex, receiving a rifle shot at the distance of two miles and a half. It entered, says the curious correspondent of the New York Tribune, who supplies us with various details of these scenes, "the Cap-usual depth of water, the river had untain's state-room, a temporary affair, expectedly risen so high that boats of built of wood on her larboard side near any probable draft would float over quite the stern, entering in front just below the untouched; and further, had all other roof, where there was nothing but an inch things concurred to favor the experipine board to resist it, passed between ment, it would have been defeated by his clock and bureau, darted under his the condition of the powder. After caretable and disappeared through the rear fully dragging up the torpedoes at a safe of the room near the floor. It did no distance, Lieutenant Phelps found the damage except grazing one of the legs canvas bag, upon which all depended, of his table and cutting the feet from a thoroughly saturated with water. The pair of stockings as neatly as if it had correspondent, whom we have just cited, been done with shears. A few moments tells us how the Lieutenant was put upon before the money chest of the boat was the track of these ill-meant contrivances. standing under the table, exactly where "Their existence and location," says our the ball passed, and Captain Porter re-entertaining imformant, "were revealed moved it."

In the night, General Grant returned to the Ohio for reinforcements, which he brought up the next day, when a further reconnoissance was made of the channel leading to the fort. This was conducted by Lieutenant Phelps, in the Conestoga, and resulted in the extrication of eight torpedoes which had been placed in the bed of the river for the destruction of the fleet. They were formidable looking instruments of sheet iron, five feet and a half in length and a foot in diameter, of a cylindrical form, pointed at the ends. Within, in the centre, was a canvas bag containing seventy pounds of powder, alongside of which was placed a percussion cap for its explosion. This was to be struck by a trigger worked by a rod communicating with a lever outside, armed with grappling hooks to seize upon any vessel ascending the stream. To assist this purpose, the machine was attached to anchors at the bottom by cords of unequal length, so that it hung lightly in the river at an angle of about forty-five

by that most irrepressible of all the forces of nature-a woman's tongue. In the morning, the Jessie Scouts'-a volatile daring corps of young men, who inevitably turn up wherever a fight is expected

went into a farm-house, where nearly thirty women had gathered for safety. The inmates, greatly alarmed, begged them not to injure a party of unprotected females. The scouts allayed their fears, when the women informed them they had frequently heard that Southern wives and daughters had no mercy to hope for at the hands of the Lincoln soldiery. In the conversation which ensued, one stated that her husband was a captain in the rebel army at Fort Henry. By about to-morrow night, madam,' remarked one of the scouts, there will be no Fort Henry-our gunboats will dispose of it.' Not a bit of it,' was the reply; they will be all blown up before they get past the island.' It was said so significantly that the scout questioned her further, but she refused to explain. He finally told her that unless she revealed

เ

FLAG-OFFICER FOOTE'S REPORT.

215

"The fire was opened at 1,700 yards distance, from the flag-ship, which was followed by the other gunboats, and responded to by the fort. As we approached the fort, slow steaming till we reached within 600 hundred yards of the rebel batteries, the fire both from the gunboats and the fort increased in rapidity and accuracy of range. At twenty minutes before the flag was struck, the Essex unfortunately received a shot in her boiler, which resulted in the wounding and scalding of twenty-nine officers and men, including Commander Porter. The Essex then necessarily dropped out of line astern, entirely disabled, and unable to continue the fight, in which she had so gallantly participated until the sad catastrophe. The firing continued with unabated rapidity and effect upon the three gunboats as they continued still to approach the fort with their destructive fire, until the rebel flag was hauled down, after a very severe and closelycontested action of one hour and fifteen minutes.

all she knew he would be compelled to Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps; the Tytake her into the camp of the Lincoln- ler, Lieutenant-Commanding Gwynn, and ites,' as a prisoner. This excited her the Lexington, Lieutenant-Commanding terror, and she explained that torpedoes Shirk, as a second division, in charge of had been planted, and described their Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, which location as well as she was able, though took a position astern and in-shore of bewailing her slip of the tongue. the armed boats, doing good execution About noon the next day, the 6th, the there in the action, while the armed land and naval forces advanced together boats were placed in the first order of to the encounter. The former, number- steaming, approaching the fort in a paring some fifteen thousand men, were ar- allel line. ranged in two divisions, one under General C. F. Smith, proceeding by the left bank on the Kentucky shore to take and occupy the heights on that side commanding the fort; the other, under General McClernand, to pursue a circuitous route to which they were compelled by the rise of the waters, to the rear of the fort, on the road to Fort Donelson. There they were to prevent all reinforcements to Fort Henry, or escape from it, and be ready to storm the work promptly on receipt of orders.* Before either had reached its destination, the work of the day was already accomplished by flagofficer Foote, to whose proceedings we now turn our attention. The reader will find, in the direct, manly language of his official report of the transaction to the Department at Washington, the best account of the capture of Fort Henry. It was dated the following day at Cairo, whither the writer withdrew, not to remove himself from the scene of conflict, but hastily to gather new forces and return, if possible, with increased resolution to a more arduous encounter. "I have the honor," he writes, "to report that on the 6th inst., at 12 o'clock P. M., I made an attack on Fort Henry, on the Tennessee river, with the iron-clad gunboats Cincinnati, Commander Stembel, the flag-ship; the Essex, Commander Porter; the Carondolet, Commander Walker, and the St. Louis, LieutenantCommanding Paulding; also taking with me the three old gunboats Conestoga,

General Grant's Field Oaders No. 1, near Fort Henry, February 5, 1862.

"A boat containing the adjutant-general and captain of Engineers came alongside after the flag was lowered, and reported that General Lloyd Tilghman, the commander of the fort, wished to communicate with the flag-officer, when I dispatched Commander Stembel and Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, with orders to hoist the American flag where the secession ensign had been flying, and to inform General Tilghman that I would see him on board the flag-ship. He came on board soon after the Union had been

killing one in the Essex, while the casualties in the latter from steam amounted to twenty-eight in number. The Carondelet and St. Louis met with no casualties. The steamers were admirably handled by the commanders and officers, presenting only their bow guns to the enemy, to avoid the exposure of the vulnerable parts of their vessels. Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, with his divis

submitted for the rebel flag on the fort, and possession taken of it. I received the General and his Staff, and some sixty or seventy men, as prisoners, and a hospital ship, containing sixty invalids, together with the fort and its effects, mounting twenty guns, mostly of heavy calibre, with barracks and tents capable of accommodating 15,000 men, and sundry articles, which, as I turned the fort and its effects over to General Grant, com-ion, also executed my orders very effecmanding the army on his arrival, in one hour after we had made the capture, he will be enabled to give the Government a more correct statement of than I am enabled to communicate from the short time I had possession of the fort. The plan of the attack, as far as the army reaching the rear of the fort to make a demonstration simultaneously with the navy, was frustrated by the excessively muddy roads, and the high stage of water, preventing the arrival of our troops until some time after I had taken possession of the fort.

"On securing the prisoners, and making the necessary preliminary arrangements, I dispatched Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps with his division up the Tennessee river, as I had previously directed, to remove the rails, and so far render the bridge of the railroad, for transportation and communication between Bowling Green and Columbus, useless, and afterwards to pursue the rebel gunboats, and secure their capture if possible. This being accomplished, and the army in possession of the fort, and my services being indispensable at Cairo, I left Fort Henry in the evening of the same day, with the Cincinnati, Essex and St. Louis, and arrived here this morning.

tually, and promptly proceeded up the river in their further execution after the capture of the fort. In fact all the officers and men gallantly performed their duty, and considering the little experience they have had under fire, far more than realized my expectations. Fort Henry was defended with the most determined gallantry by General Tilghman, worthy of a better cause, who, from his own account, went into action with eleven guns of heavy calibre bearing upon our boats, which he fought until seven of the number were dismantled or otherwise rendered useless."

The accident to the Essex, the chief disaster to the Union forces of the day, was more particularly described in a letter by an officer of the gunboat flotilla, published in the journals of the day. "It was a 32-pound shot passing through the edge of a bow port, through a strong bulkhead, plump into the boiler. There was only about sixty pounds of steam on, just enough to stem the current, or there would not have been one man left to tell the tale. Porter was standing near the gun and in the act of giving an order to a bright young lad named Brittain, the son of a clergyman in New York, when the ball came through, carrying off Brittain's head before going into the boiler. The pilot-house was directly over the boiler, and the only communication with it was from below. The two pilots had no way of escape, and were literally boiled to death. They thrust their heads out of the little air ports, which was all they could do. Some