Disasters to the Fleet. 223 tween three and four hundred yards of their teeth. His intention was to silence the batteries and pass them, so as to gain a position to enfilade the faces of the fort with broadsides.* The firing on both sides was soon very accurate, rapid, and destructive. The shot and shell from the fleet plowed into the lower batteries, dismounting guns and driving away the gunners, while the heavy cannon of the fort played incessantly upon the sides and decks of the boats. "Never was a little squadron exposed to so terrible a fire. Twenty heavy guns were trained upon it, those from the hill-side hurling plunging shot with awful precision and effect, while the boats could reply with only twelve guns."+ Notwithstanding this furious fire from the fort at a higher level, and at so great an advantage, raking the broadsides of the boat obliquely, in which some of the 128-pound shots crushed through the iron armor, carrying destruction with them, the boats held on constantly to their work, until the upper battery of four guns was silenced, and the men were distinctly seen flying from the lower battery, and the vessels were just on the point of shooting by and gaining a favorable position. It is said (and .we give this as an unauthenticated report) that at this time of the height of the combat Pillow telegraphed to Governor Harris: "The Federal gun-boats are destroying us. For God's sake, send us all the help you can immediately. I don't care for the land force of the enemy; they can't hurt us if you can keep those iron hell-hounds in check." At this critical moment, when things looked as if victory were almost in their grasp, the Louisville was disabled by a shot which cut away her rudder-chains, making her totally unmanageable, so that she drifted with the current out of action. Very soon after the St. Louis was disabled by a shot through her pilot-house, *Lossing's "Civil War in America," vol. ii., p. 213. rendering her steering impossible, so that she also floated down the river. The other two armored vessels were also terribly struck, and a rifled cannon on the Carondelet burst, so that these two could no longer, by themselves, sustain the action; and after fighting for more than an hour, the little fleet was forced to withdraw. The immediate object of the attack of the gun-boats, viz., to silence the formidable river batteries, and to obtain a good position to bombard the upper works in co-operation with the assault of the land forces, which was all, in fact, that the flotilla had the power of doing, since there was a whole army within the fortifications to be dislodged and conquered, and the boats could not walk upon land-this object of the attack was on the point of being successfully attained, when the unforeseen casualties that have been related occurred. It was indeed a hard disappointment after such persistent fighting. Foote, it is said, wept like a child when the order to withdraw was given. The St. Louis was struck fifty-nine times; the Louisville thirty-six times; the Carondelet twenty-six; the Pittsburg twenty; and the four vessels receiving no less than one hun dred and forty-one wounds. The attack was repulsed, but it was through the imperfection of the boats themselves in not having sufficient protection to their machinery, wheels, and steering apparatus; but the demoralizing influence of their fierce bombardment upon the fort could not have been small, and must have helped toward the great but hard-won success of the next day. At all events, the gun-boats did what they could, and, until rendered entirely helpless for action, drifting like logs in the rapid current, they were fought with a determined energy that looked, even to the last moment, only to victory. The fleet, gathering itself together, and rendering mutual help to its disabled members, proceeded to Cairo to repair damages, intending to return immediately with a stronger Surrender of Fort Donelson. 225 naval force to continue the siege. General Grant decided to await their return, and also the coming of reinforcements to his army; but events took place of sudden and rapid evolution, compelling him to change his plans, and bringing on the general battle of the next day. Early on the morning of the 15th, two grand sorties by the enemy, the one led by Generals Pillow and Johnson, and the other by Buckner, effected a complete surprise of the National forces, caused most sanguinary fighting, and seriously menaced the whole of Grant's right wing. It was only the prompt valor of Generals Wallace and McClernand (in the absence of Grant, who was in consultation with Foote), backed by the dogged bravery of the Western troops, that prevented a total rout. When the whole. battle hung in the balance, wavering and uncertain, Grant himself came up, and by a bold inspiration that snatched victory from defeat, he ordered McClernand to retake the hill he had lost, and Smith to make a simultaneous attack on the Confederate right.* By desperate fighting, intrenchment after intrenchment was carried, and that night Grant knew that the ultimate triumph was his. Then took place those extraordinary and hurried councils in the camp of the enemy which resulted in the escape of Floyd and Pillow, and the unconditional surrender the next morning by Buckner of the stronghold with its army of fifteen thousand-or what remained of its army of twenty-five thousand who did not run away and its immense amount of military stores. As our business has been to give an account mainly of those operations in which Foote and the naval forces under his command were engaged, we have not entered into a detailed history of the assault and taking of Fort Donelson. It is, however, but just and right to give the flag-officer's own report of his share in that siege: * Lossing's "Civil War in America," vol. ii., p. 217. "FLAG-SHIP ST. LOUIS,' NEAR FORT DONELSON, CUMBERLAND RIVER, February 15, 1862. SIR,-I have the honor to report to the Department that, at the urgent request of General Halleck and General Grant, who regarded the movement as a military necessity, although not, in my opinion, properly prepared, I made an attack on Fort Donelson yesterday, the 14th instant, at three o'clock P.M., with four iron-clad and two wooden gun-boats— the St. Louis, Carondelet, Louisville, and Pittsburg, and the Taylor and Conestoga. After a severe fight of an hour and a half, being in the latter part of the action less than four hundred yards from the fort, the wheel of this vessel, by a shot through her pilot-house, was carried away; the tiller-ropes of the Louisville were also disabled by a shot, which rendered the two boats wholly unmanageable, and they drifted down the river, the relieving tackles not being able to steer or control them in the rapid current. The two remaining boats, the Pittsburg and Carondelet, were also greatly damaged between wind and water, and soon followed us, as the enemy rapidly renewed the fire as we drifted helplessly down the river. This vessel, the St. Louis, alone received fifty-nine shots, four of them between wind and water; one in the pilot-house, mortally wounding the pilot; and others, requiring some time to put her in repair. There were fifty-four killed and wounded in the attack, which, notwithstanding our disadvantages, we have every reason to suppose would, in fifteen minutes more, could the action have been continued, have resulted in the capture of the two forts bearing upon us. The enemy's fire had materially slackened, and he was running from his batteries, when the two gun-boats helplessly drifted down the river from disabled steering apparatus, as the relieving tackles could not control the helm in the strong current; and the fleeing enemy, returning to their guns, again boldly opened fire upon us from the river batteries, which we had silenced. "The enemy must have brought over twenty guns to bear upon our boats from the water-batteries and the main fort on the side of the hill, while we could only return the fire with twelve bow guns from the four boats. One rifle-gun aboard the Carondelet burst during the action. "The officers and men in this hotly contested but unequal fight behaved with the greatest gallantry and determination, all deploring the accident which rendered two gun-boats suddenly helpless in the narrow river and swift current. "On consultation with General Grant and my own officers, as my serv |
