had not yet come into use. The danger of
drawing the enemy's fire prevented the lighting of camp-fires. The army
bivouacked in line of battle. The besieged resumed at night their task,
which had been interrupted by the afternoon skirmishing, of completing
and strengthening their works.

Next morning, Thursday the 13th, arrived, and the fleet had not come.
Fifteen thousand men, without supplies, confronted 20,000 well
intrenched. A party was sent to destroy the railroad bridge over the
Tennessee, above Fort Henry, the trestle approach to which had been
partly destroyed by Lieutenant-Commander Phelps, to prevent effectually
reinforcements reaching Donelson from Columbus. Order was sent to
General Lewis Wallace, who had been left with a brigade in command at
Fort Henry, to join the besieging force. The two divisions on the ground
prosecuted the work of feeling for position and probing the enemy.
Colonel Lauman's brigade, of C.F. Smith's division, bivouacked the night
of the 12th, about a mile from the intrenchments. On the 13th he moved
over the intervening ridges till he came in view of the portion of the
works held by Colonel Hanson, constituting the right of General
Buckner's line. A deep hollow filled with timber filled the space
between Lauman and the works before him. On the farther slope, crowned
by the works, the slashed timber made an extensive abattis. Colonel
Veatch, with the Twenty-fifth Indiana, advanced across the ravine or
hollow, and forced his way partly up the slope. He remained with his
command two hours exposed to a fire to which, from their position, they
could make no effectual reply, and were recalled. The Seventh and
Fourteenth Iowa moved up to the left of the position reached by Colonel
Veatch, and a detachment of sharpshooters was posted so as to reach with
their fire the men in the trenches and divert their fire. At night
Lauman withdrew his command to the place of the previous night's
bivouac. Colonel Cook's brigade advanced, the morning of the 13th, on
the right of Lauman's. The left of his line came also in front of
Hanson's works. The valley was here filled with such an "immensity of
abattis" that he did not feel justified in ordering an attempt to cross
it, but kept up through the day a desultory fire of skirmishers and
sharpshooters over it. The demonstration made by Lauman and Cook
appeared so threatening that General Buckner sent the Eighteenth
Tennessee to reinforce Hanson. The Seventh I