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ng rapidly: There is more room behind that carriage than in front of it. Dr. D. W. Yandell, General Johnston's medical director, furnishes the following incident: While at Corinth, the owner of a drug-store, living in Tennessee, near to Donelson, represented to the general that his entire stock of drugs had been taken by a Confederate quartermaster for the use of his command, and paid for in Confederate money, which was useless to him. He had come to ask the general if he might not be priendship, and, on my part, into decided admiration for the great ability, unselfish and self-sacrificing patriotism, and exalted chivalry, of the general. I was with him when the telegram announced the surrender of the Confederate forces at Donelson, and had occasion to admire the philosophic heroism with which he met, not only the disaster, but the unjust censure and complaints of both army and people, the coolness and energy with which he set about the work of reorganizing the remnant of
than fifteen thousand men, and we had but little artillery. Very soon Grant steamed up the river, and having captured Fort Henry without difficulty, approached Donelson to find it prepared for a fierce resistance. His fleet of steamboats came up within a few miles of us and landed immense masses of troops, while light-draught iening shouts and levelled bayonets. All, from the highest to the lowest, performed their part with exemplary valor, and I may safely predict that the defence of Donelson against such fearful odds will be one of the brightest pages in our future history. At the close of the third day-after this last attack — a grand council of great gloom over the country, and of course is the subject of Hallelujah Choruses North! Our people are waking up, however, and begin to understand it requires numbers, as well as pluck, to beat back the invader; and I have no doubt, when properly considered, the fall of Donelson will be an invaluable lesson to us. Yours ever,
risk fire, while to the extreme right and left we could faintly hear pattering volleys of musketry. The sun now rose in true Southern brilliancy, and shortly became intensely warm. At all events, it so seemed to us of the artillery, for we pulled off coats and jackets, strapped them on to caissons, and rolling up our sleeves, began to roll into the Yankees with great gusto. Such a noise you never heard, and I am deaf even now; but feeling determined to pay off old Grant for our scrape at Donelson, our onset was fierce End dashing, and the continual command was: Forward, boys, forward! Sometimes we moved up a few hundred yards, unlimbered, and worked away awhile, then moved forward again, until at last we found ourselves blazing away among the tents of a Yankee division, having to withstand the fire of not less than twelve pieces, with only three out of our four guns, the other having been upset by a stray shell and rendered unserviceable. Our ammunition, too, was nearly exhausted,
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., Recollections of Foote and the gun-boats. (search)
or the work were delayed by the War Department until the default assumed such magnitude that nothing but the assistance rendered by patriotic and confiding friends enabled the contractor, after exhausting his own, ample means, to complete the fleet. Besides the honorable reputation which flows from success in such a work, he has the satisfaction of reflecting that it was with vessels at the time his own property that the brilliant capture of Fort Henry was accomplished, and the conquest of Donelson and Island Number10 achieved. The ever-memorable midnight passage of Number Ten by the Pittsburgh and Carondelet, which compelled the surrender of that powerful stronghold, was performed by vessels furnished four or five months previous by the same contractor, and at the time unpaid for. Editors. * It was stipulated in the contract that the gun-boats should be delivered, October 10th, at Cairo. As a matter of fact, they were not sent to Cairo until the latter part of November, and co
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., Notes on the life of Admiral Foote. (search)
ighting-something sharp and decisive. He replied: Don't you know that my boats are the only protection you have upon your rivers against the rebel gun-boats — that without my flotilla everything on your rivers, your cities and towns would be at the mercy of the enemy? My first duty then is to care for my boats, if I am to protect you. Now when I ran up the Tennessee and the Cumberland, and attacked Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, if my boats were rendered unmanageable as my flag-ship was at Donelson, the current took care of me by carrying me away from the enemy's works. But all this is changed when I descend the Mississippi. Then my boats, if they become unmanageable, are carried directly into the hands of the enemy. I saw the point and had to give in. As to the comparative value of the two arms of the service — the Army and the Navy — in clearing the Western rivers of the Confederates, my brother said they were like blades of shears — united, invincible; separated, almost useless
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., The defense of Fort Henry. (search)
the fort with her few remaining guns was sullenly hurling her harmless shot against the sides of the gun-boats, which, now apparently within two hundred yards of the fort, were, in perfect security, and with the coolness and precision of target practice, sweeping the entire fort; to the north and west, on both sides of the river, were the hosts of blue coats, anxious and interested spectators, while to the east the feeble forces of the Confederacy could be seen making their weary way toward Donelson. On the morning of the attack, we were sure that the February rise of the Tennessee had come; when the action began, the lower part of the fort was already flooded, and when the colors were hauled down, the water was waist-deep there; and when the cutter came with the officers to receive the formal surrender, she pulled into the sally-port ; between the fort and the position which had been occupied by the infantry support was a sheet of water a quarter of a mile or more wide, and runnin
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., The capture of Fort Donelson. (search)
uddenly awoke determined to fight for Nashville at Donelson. To this conclusion he came as late as the beginnhaving taken the resolution to defend Nashville at Donelson, he intrusted the operation to three chiefs of brie rebellion, was yet unsettled when the two met at Donelson. All in all, therefore, there is little doubt tha two divisions of the army were marching across to Donelson, he was hurrying, as fast as steam could drive himh the good artillerist will stop or turn back. At Donelson, however, the proceeding was generally slow and toshore batteries, but little stronger than those at Donelson. The French on that occasion stood off 1,800 yardashville. The winds that blew sleet and snow over Donelson that night were not so unendurable as they might hthen to act as rear-guard. Thus early, leaders in Donelson were aware of the mistake into which they were pluphotograph taken in 1884. object of the defense of Donelson was to cover the movement of General Albert Sidney
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., Shiloh reviewed. (search)
ched nearly 15 miles in six hours and a half. That is not particularly rapid marching, but it does not indicate any loitering. At the same time it must be said that, under the circumstances, the manner in which the order was given to Wallace is liable to unqualified disapproval, both as it concerned the public interest and the good name of the officer. To these qualifying facts it must be added that a presumption of honest endeavor is due to Wallace's character. He did good service at Donelson, and at Shiloh on the 7th, and on no other occasion have his zeal and courage been impugned. The verdict must perhaps remain that his action did not respond to the emergency as it turned out, but that might fall far short of a technical criminality, unless under a more austere standard of discipline than prevailed at that, or indeed at any other period of the war. If he had moved energetically after McPherson and Rawlins arrived and informed him of the urgency of the occasion, no just cens
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., chapter 12.46 (search)
nses, at Forts Donelson and Henry. Buell's right wing also menaced Donelson and Henry, while his center was directed against Bowling Green, ano the line of the Cumberland, and make the defense of Nashville at Donelson. Buell was in his front with 90,000 men, and to save Nashville-Bu open to capture by Buell, and should have taken all his troops to Donelson, could not have been seriously considered by any General of even mn to do. The answer to any criticism as to the loss of the army at Donelson is that it ought not to have been lost. that is all there is of itGeneral Johnston received a telegram announcing a great victory at Donelson, and before daylight information that it would be surrendered. Hi, about 40,000 of whom were effectives. after the surrender at Donelson, the South, but especially the important State of Tennessee, was iut he was a young General, exultant in his overwhelming victory at Donelson; and his generals and army shared his sense of security. He had a
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., chapter 12.47 (search)
s stood, that Nashville and the Valley of the Cumberland could only be defended successfully at Donelson and by the crushing defeat of General Grant in that quarter, an end to which all other consider evacuation of Columbus, with incalculable moral detriments. And had the stroke consummated at Donelson been vigorously pressed to its proper military corollary,--Buell being left to look after the rportation at its disposal, might have been thrown within ten days, at latest, after the fall of Donelson, upon the rear of General Polk's forces at Columbus and their easy capture thus have been assurcommand of General C. F. Smith, and embraced the greater part of the army that had triumphed at Donelson. One division, without landing at Savannah, was dispatched, under General W. T. Sherman, to en that, trained by so thorough a soldier as General C. F. Smith, had done most soldierly work at Donelson, and which Wallace now handled with marked vigor. Its influence seemed to stiffen the Federal