g
Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, the
latter mounting forty guns, with quarters for 20,000 soldiers.

Grant was studying this line of defence, devising a plan to break
through it. By order of General Halleck he had sent out a
reconnoissance in force, under General Smith, who reported to him that
the capture of Fort Henry was practicable. Grant forwarded this report
to the commander of the department, and asked for permission to attack
it. This was refused in sharp and curt terms. A written application,
earnestly seconded by Commodore Foote, who had brought the gunboat
service up to a state of efficiency in the West, secured the desired
order. With 17,000 men, in connection with 7 gunboats under the
command of the commodore, Grant started upon his mission the day after
he received the order. Fort Henry was captured, though the army was
not engaged. The main body of the Confederate force escaped to Fort
Donelson.

The capture of Fort Henry cheered the army and the people. Grant
telegraphed the result of the attack to Halleck, and announced his
intention to proceed against Fort Donelson. Leaving 2,500 men to
garrison the fort, Grant marched with 15,000 from Fort Henry, while a
considerable addition to his force came up the river. The
fortification was invested, and after three days of persistent
fighting in cold, snow, and hunger, the fort surrendered. The gunboats
were severely handled by the water batteries of the enemy, and the
commodore was badly wounded, so that most of the work fell upon the
army.

It was a brilliant victory, and the loyal nation resounded with the
praises of Grant. This was the pointer to the fame he afterward
achieved. His reply to the rebel general, "I propose to move
immediately on your works," was repeated all over the country, and the
initials of his name came to mean "Unconditional Surrender," the terms
he had demanded of the commander of the fort.

The strategetic line of the Confederates was broken, and new
dispositions of their forces became necessary on account of this
important victory; Columbus was abandoned, and its men and material
sent to Island No. 10. The battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, as
it is called in the South, followed under Grant's command. It was a
bloody and hotly contested action, and not as decisive as that of
Donelson. The ground was held, and the arrival of Buell with
reinforcements caused the Confederates to retire. Sherma