Secession Narratives.
“Personne,” the correspondent of the Charleston Courier, writes from Augusta, Ga., under date of February twenty-first, as follows:It has been my good fortune to enjoy an interview with Lieut. F. H. Duquecron, one of the officers engaged in the recent battle of Fort Donelson, who has arrived here disabled by a wound in the leg, received during that terrible contest. From one fragmentary conversation I have woven the following interesting narrative of events preceding, but not including, the surrender of the confederate army. Though incomplete, the fact that it is the first connected account yet given to the public, of the scenes which have so stirred the Southern heart for the last ten days, and that the participant was a Charlestonian by birth, must render the history peculiarly welcome to every reader of the Courier.
Lieut. Duquecron is an officer of the Fourteenth Mississippi regiment, Col. Baldwin, and his statement, therefore, embraces only the incidents which came under his observation, with reference to his regiment.
Previous to the month of February, the Mississippians had been stationed at Bowling Green. Affairs at Forts Henry and Donelson, however, being in a precarious condition, and the certainty of a Federal advance having been ascertained, the regiment was ordered to the latter point, to support the troops already concentrated around the Fort. Here they arrived on Sunday morning, the ninth of February, and landed at a little place called Dover, about a mile and a half from our stronghold, on the river. It was reported then that the enemy were in sight, and a line of battle was immediately formed, in anticipation of an attack. The day passed away, however, without any other demonstration than an occasional encounter between the pickets. Monday went by in the same way. Tuesday, a regiment or battalion of cavalry, (I could not learn which,) called the “Forrest Rangers,” under command of Col. Forrest, of Mississippi, was sent out as a scouting party, met the enemy in considerable force, and engaged them in a severe skirmish, but with what loss is not known. On Monday night the Federal camp-fires were plainly discernible; large bodies of troops could be seen in motion, and scouts reported the enemy to be concentrating in great numbers, and extending their lines in front.
I may briefly interrupt the narrative here to say that Fort Donelson is located on the bank of the Cumberland River, but of the character or strength of the work my informant knows nothing beyond the fact that it was under the command of Gen. Pillow. The surrounding country is a succession of hills, sometimes heavily timbered, but for the most part covered with thick undergrowth and small woods. This had been cut down by both armies, to allow full scope for the play of their artillery, and, whether so intended or not, subsequently seriously obstructed the movements of the troops. In front of the Fort, at a distance of half a mile, more or less, the confederates had thrown up a long line of intrenchments, the Federals being likewise protected behind defences of a similar character.
Wednesday morning found both armies prepared for serious work. At daylight our artillery opened a heavy fire, and from this time until nightfall, the cannon from the Fort, and the rifles of the sharpshooters, played incessantly between the yet couchant armies. For either party
