onelson on foot. At five minutes before two o'clock General Tilghman
lowered his flag, and sent his adjutant by boat to report to the
flag-officer of the fleet. Twelve officers and sixty-six men in the
fort, and sixteen men in the hospital-boat, surrendered. Flag-officer
Foote, in his report, says the hospital-boat contained sixty invalids.
All the camp-equipage and stores of the force that retreated to Fort
Donelson were included in the surrender; the troops, having no wagons,
had left everything behind.

At eleven o'clock, General McClernand moved out with his division,
followed by the third brigade of General C.F. Smith's division.
McClernand had two brigades, the first commanded by Colonel R.J.
Oglesby, the second by Colonel W.H.L. Wallace. With each brigade were
two batteries--Schwartz and Dresser with the first brigade, Taylor and
McAlister with the second. The order to McClernand was to take position
on the road from Fort Henry to Fort Donelson and Dover, prevent all
reinforcements to Fort Henry or escape from it, and be in readiness to
charge and take Fort Henry by storm promptly on the receipt of orders.
The road was everywhere miry, owing to the wet season, and crossed
ridges and wet hollows. McClernand reports that the distance by road,
from the camp to the fort, was eight miles. The troops, pulling through
the mud, cheered the bombardment by the fleet when it opened. At three
o'clock McClernand learned that the enemy were evacuating the fort, and
ordered his cavalry to advance if the report was found to be true.
Captain Stewart, of McClernand's staff, came upon the rear of the
retiring force just as they were leaving the outer line of the
earthworks. Colonel Dickey, of the Fourth Illinois cavalry, coming up,
pursued the retreating column three miles, capturing 38 prisoners, six
pieces of artillery, and a caisson. The head of the infantry column
entered the fort at half-past three o'clock.

Commodore Foote turned over the prisoners and captured property to
General Grant, sent Lieutenant Phelps with the wooden gunboats on an
expedition up the Tennessee, and returned the same evening to Cairo with
two gunboats. Lieutenant-Commander Phelps proceeded up the river to
Florence, at the foot of the Muscle Shoals, in the State of Alabama. An
account of this expedition and its brilliant success belongs to the
naval history of the war.

CHAPTER III.

FORT DONELSON.

The capture of Fort Henry was important,