ce of
gunboats; which, though forming part of Porter's fleet, were under the
immediate orders of Captain Alexander M. Pennock, commanding the naval
station at Cairo. West of the rivers, between them and the great
river, the western parts of Kentucky and Tennessee and the northern
part of Mississippi were under control of the Union troops, though
inroads of guerillas were not unknown. Nashville was held by the Union
forces; but the Confederates were not far away at Shelbyville and
Tullahoma. The fights between the gunboats and the hostile parties on
these rivers do not individually possess much importance, but have an
interest in showing the unending and essential work performed by the
navy in keeping the communications open, aiding isolated garrisons,
and checking the growth of the guerilla war.

On the 30th of January Lieutenant-Commander S.L. Phelps, having been
sent by Captain Pennock in the Lexington to make a special examination
of the condition of affairs on the Cumberland River, reported that, a
transport having been fired upon twenty miles above Clarksville, he
had landed and burned a storehouse used as a resort by the enemy. As
he returned the vessel was attacked with some Parrott rifles and
struck three times; but the heavy guns of the Lexington drove the
enemy off. Going down to Clarksville he met there a fleet of
thirty-one steamers, having many barges in tow, convoyed by three
light-draught gunboats. These he joined, and the enemy having tested
the power of the Lexington, did not fire a shot between Clarksville
and Nashville. As a result of his enquiries he thought that no
transport should be allowed to go without convoy higher than Fort
Henry or Donelson, situated on either river on the line separating
Kentucky and Tennessee. The Lexington was therefore detained, and for
a time added to the flotilla on those rivers.

Four days later, Lieutenant-Commander Le Roy Fitch, in active charge
of the two rivers, was going up the Cumberland with a fleet of
transports, convoyed by the Lexington and five light-draughts. When
twenty-four miles below Dover, the town on the west bank near which
Fort Donelson was situated, he met a steamer bearing a message from
Colonel Harding, commanding the post, to the effect that his pickets
had been driven in and that he was attacked in force. Fitch at once
left the convoy and pushed ahead as fast as he could. A short distance
below the town he met a second steamer with the news t