covering no signs of action in that
direction made his way to Cairo where General Grant was in command.
General Grant's headquarters were in the second story of a tumble-down
building.

No sentinel paced before the door. Ascending the stairs and knocking,
Mr. Coffin heard the answer, "Come in." Entering, he saw a man in a blue
blouse sitting upon a nail-keg at a rude desk smoking a cigar.

"Is General Grant in?" he asked.

"Yes, sir."

Supposing the man on the nail keg with no straps upon his shoulder to be
only a clerk or orderly, he presented his letter from the Secretary of
War, with the remark, "Will you please present this to General Grant?"
whereupon the supposed clerk glanced over the lines, rose, extended his
hand and said, "I am right glad to see you. Please take a nail keg!"

There were several empty nail kegs in the apartment, but not a chair.
The contrast to what he had experienced with General Buell was so great
that the correspondent could hardly realize that he was in the presence
of General Grant, who at once gave him the needed facilities for
attaining information.

The rapidity of the correspondent's movements--the quickness with which
he took in the military situation, may be inferred from the dates of his
letters. On January 6, 1862, he wrote a letter detailing affairs at St.
Louis. On the eighth, he described affairs at Rolla in Central Missouri.
On the eleventh, he was writing from Cairo. The gunboats under Commodore
Foot were at Cairo, and the correspondent was received with the utmost
hospitality, not only by the Commodore, but by all the officers.

Upon the movement of General Zolicoffer into Kentucky, Mr. Coffin
hastened to Louisville, Lexington, and Central Kentucky, but finding
affairs had settled down, hastened down the Ohio River on a steamboat,
reaching the mouth of the Tennessee just as the fleet under Commodore
Foot was entering the Ohio after capturing Fort Henry. Commodore Foot
narrated the events of the engagement, and Mr. Coffin, learning that no
correspondent had returned from Fort Henry, stimulated by the thought of
giving the Boston _Journal_ the first information, jumped on board
the cars, wrote his account on the train, and had the satisfaction of
knowing that it was the first one published.

Returning to Cairo by the next train, he proceeded to Fort Donelson and
was present in the cabin of the steamer "Uncle Sam" when General Buckner
turned over the Fort, the Artillery