business on broad ocean to do unaccustomed work, did the Navy great credit by their patient and courageous servicesin storm and fog, cold and heat-on those turbid rivers, in clumsy vessels that seemed, like mud-turtles, made to court sandbanks, snags, low water, rapid currents, to say nothing of torpedoes, ambuscades, and infernal machines.

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SIR, I have the honor and high gratification to forward to the Department the official report of Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, by which it will be seen that he has, with consummate skill, courage, and judgment, performed a highly beneficial service to the government, which, I doubt not, will appreciate it. I can not too highly commend the conduct of Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps for this his signal service in his long cruise to the head of navigation on the Tennessee River.

"I am now, with three iron-clad steamers, ascending the Cumberland River, to co-operate with General Grant in an attack on Fort Donelson. Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, with his division, accompanies me. In great haste. I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

"A. H. FOOTE, Flag-Officer.

"The Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy."

We give here a semi-official letter written by Lieutenant J. P. Sanford, ordnance officer of the flotilla, showing the efforts and needs of another branch of the gun-boat service, no less important than others, and, in fact, forming the striking arm of this formidable power:

"CINCINNATI, February 12, 1862.

"MY DEAR FLAG-OFFICER,-I have but a few moments in which to write. I am so busy that I have not had the leisure even to take my regular meals. You have my most hearty and cordial congratulations on your recent victory, and I have to regret at the same time that I was not with you.

"I am pushing up the work on the arks, and expect to leave here Saturday evening.

"I telegraphed to Pittsburg and Washington for 8-inch guns immedi

Letter respecting Ordnance.

217

ately on receipt of your telegram, and have them, from Washington, ready to be expressed. One of the guns I intend for the St. Louis. She has but two.

"I have just got a telegram from Captain Pennock. About two hundred additional rounds to be put up at Pittsburg Arsenal, making in all five hundred for each gun. I pity the poor guns!

"The ammunition-boats have large and splendid shell-rooms and magazines. I trust that what I have done to these boats will meet with your approval. It is no small matter to fit up such things as these river boats for eight hundred men and magazines. Permit me to suggest the propriety of a guard of thirty soldiers being obtained from the Army to do duty as marines. The boats will, in my judgment, absolutely need them. I shall want about five sentries on mine to make all secure. A lieutenant could be placed over them.

"I wrote to General Ripley a few days since for three hundred more swords-two hundred of them to be distributed to gun-boats, additional to what they have, and fifty to each of the ammunition-boats. I am putting a stiff piece of timber on the guards on either side of forecastle, to receive bolts for breechings, side tackles, etc., for a 32-pounder. If you did not think it absolutely necessary for me to come down with the boats, I would go to Pittsburg about the ammunition; but I suppose it is proper I should come down with them.

"I can't get flat-boatmen. They have all gone into the Army. I propose sending a first-rate man to Pittsburg to drum up some. I am told my best chance is there.

"I shall have to leave nearly all my accounts here unsettled, as the moment I can get stores, etc., on board, I shall be off.

"I have had fifty mess cloths made by Haggerty on a venture for the ammunition-boats-not enough, but Captain Pennock might have some spare ones, as I would not load the government with unnecessary extras. "Yours sincerely, J. P. SANFORD, Ord. Officer of Flotilla."

In regard to the feeling developed at the South after the battle of Fort Henry, the Richmond Dispatch of February 13th says: "Our Tennessee exchanges give us gloomy prospects for the future in that part of the Confederacy. Several leading journals intimate plainly that there is really a threatening state of affairs in East Tennessee, growing out of the idolatrous love of many of these people for the old Union.

The correspondent of the Memphis Avalanche writes that the condition of the interior provinces is not improved, and the people apprehend an immediate advance of the Northmen."

While the flag-officer was at Cairo, the first Sunday after the capture of Fort Henry, the incident of his "preaching" took place, which caused much remark at the time, and has, indeed, become one of the stock anecdotes of the war. The matter excited no astonishment to those who knew him well; and to the readers of this volume, who have followed him from his youth up, and have become acquainted with his outspoken religious character and habits, it can cause no surprise. On this Sunday he went to attend divine worship at the Presbyterian Church, and found a full congregation assembled, but no preacher present. With his promptitude for business, seeing that no one else took the lead in the emergency, he went to the deacons, and endeavored to persuade them to conduct the service. Failing in this, he himself mounted the pulpit, read the Scriptures, made a prayer, and preached a short discourse from the words, "Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me." When the sermon, which was listened to attentively by a delighted audience, was concluded, an Army chaplain, who had in the mean time entered the house, stepped up to the commodore and expressed himself greatly pleased with the discourse. The commodore replied pleasantly (in no sharp terms of rebuke, as it was represented by some) that the chaplain should have come forward and taken his place. These are the simple facts of the case as given by eye-witnesses; and with such "lay-preaching," by one who showed his faith by his works, we, on our part, are not disposed to find fault. He himself often declared, however, that this was the last time he should ever attempt lay-preaching.

We can not forbear adding one of the letters of his hearty old friend, Commodore (now Rear-Admiral) Joseph Smith:

Vote of Thanks by the Ohio Legislature.

219

"February 14, 1862.

"MY DEAR FOOTE,—I have yours of the 9th instant. I hardly know for which vocation to award you the meed of greatest praise, as a firstrate flag-officer, or as a 'preacher'—no matter which, as you are in high estimation in both.

"The Burnside expedition has done nobly. Goldsborough got glory enough to satisfy even his longings. Our cause looks cheering, and I apprehend, if only the roads were passable, we should soon be in possession of all Virginia. Porter has departed with his mortar-boats, and expects to meet you with yours at New Orleans. I have but a faint idea of your boats, that they fight end on-only bow and stern guns to be used, and I presume you can use but two at either end. You see a bill reported for reorganizing the Navy Department. Nobody says any thing to me on the subject. Fox is the moving power. I could make a better bill, and organize a Board of Admiralty.

"Your successes will bear you up against all the pressure your position loads you with. Anna thinks her bauble will carry you through victoriously. You are on the top round of the ladder, and therefore you have very little more to do.

"I hope you will make the Benton go, as you were authorized to incur the expense to do so. Yours truly, in haste, JOSEPH SMITH."

The following vote of thanks was passed (February 14, 1862) by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:

Resolved, by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that the thanks of the people of Ohio be, and through their representatives are hereby tendered to General Grant and Flag-Officer Foote, and the brave men under their command, for the courage, gallantry, and enterprise exhibited in the bombardment and capture of Fort Henry—a victory no less brilliant in itself than glorious in its results, giving our Army a foothold in Tennessee, and opening the way for an early advance to the capital of that state.

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Resolved, That the governor transmit copies of these resolutions to said officers, with the request that the same be read to the men under their command.

“JAMES R. HUBBELL, Speaker of House of Representatives. B. STANTON, President of the Senate."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SHARE TAKEN BY FOOTE'S FLOTILLA IN THE SIEGE OF FORT

As soon as Fort Henry fell into our power, great efforts were made by the rebels, now thoroughly aroused and alarmed, to strengthen the corresponding fortified post upon the Cumberland River. Russelville and Bowling Green were virtually evacuated, and great numbers of troops, to the amount of some twenty-five thousand, were immediately concentrated at Fort Donelson. General Bushrod Johnson, with Buckner, Pillow, and Floyd, threw themselves into the place, and every thing looked like a most determined resistance, as if the fate of the whole war were to be staked upon it. And, in some respects, this was true. The post was one of vast strength, both by nature and art. Floyd wrote to Richmond, with more of sincerity, probably, than was customary with him: "Have no fear about us. The place is impregnable; the enemy can never take it."

Fort Donelson* was situated twelve miles southeast of Fort Henry, upon the west bank of the Cumberland, a mile below Dover, where the stream makes a sudden turn to the westward, and then again to the northward. It is a broken, irregular country, and the hills, or knolls, rise from the river quite abruptly to a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet in height. Upon one of these eminences stood the fort, containing a hundred acres. It was surrounded by creeks and deep ravines. Its own works were strong, and line beyond

* For map of Fort Donelson, see p. 222.