the close of January, General Grant, in command at Cairo,
and Rear-Admiral Foote, commanding the fleet of river
gunboats, succeeded, after several vain attempts, in
extracting permission from General Halleck to attack and,
if possible, capture Fort Henry, constructed by the rebels
for the defence of the Tennessee River near its mouth.
On February 6, the loyal public was made joyful by the
laconic news from General Grant: “Fort Henry is ours,”
with the hope-inspiring addition: “I shall take and
destroy Fort Donelson on the eighth.” The latter fort was
erected at a distance of only a day's march from Fort
Henry to lock the Cumberland against Northern troops and
gunboats. When Grant sent this confident despatch,
he had no idea how difficult it would be to make good
his word, and how important his success would be in
really determining the whole course of the war in the
Mississippi and Ohio valleys. The moment he received
the news of the fall of Fort Henry, the rebel commander
Johnston, at Bowling Green, realizing the danger it
involved of the capture of Fort Donelson and of thereby
having the centre of the rebel line from Bowling Green to
Columbus pierced and his own left flank turned through the
opening of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers to the
Federals, held a council of war, at which, on his
recommendation, it was decided to abandon his long-held position
in Kentucky for the protection of Tennessee, and to fight
for that object at Fort Donelson. This resolution was
carried out with admirable promptitude. Fourteen thousand
infantry were at once detached, under the command
of Generals Buckner and Floyd, for the reinforcement of
Donelson, and sent by rail to Clarksville and thence the
short distance down the river by boat. The remaining
eight thousand of the twenty-two thousand men, all told,
that Johnston's army actually consisted of, broke camp and
fell back on Nashville. Donelson was further reinforced
by four thousand men from General Pillow's command.
This throwing of a heavy force into the fort was sound
Page:Memoirs of Henry Villard, volume 1.djvu/249
1862]
GRANT TAKES FORT HENRY
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