BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON, TENN.
On the 3rd of February, 1863, Major-General Wheeler, Brigadier-General Wharton and Colonel Forrest, with five thousand Confederates and twelve cannon, marched on Fort Donelson. They were met half a mile from the fort by a skirmishing party, under Captain McClanahan, sent out by Colonel A. C. Harding, commanding the garrison, which consisted of nine companies of the Eighty-third Illinois, one company of the Fifth Iowa cavalry, and two sections of Flood’s battery, in all about six hundred effective men. The battery consisted of four rifled brass pieces, in addition to which there was one siege gun, a rifled thirty-two pounder, in position. The skirmishers fell inward slowly, firing upon the enemy as they retired, until they were called in. The Confederates now displayed a white flag and demanded the surrender of the fort and garrison. Colonel Harding replied that he “would fight while he had a man left.” He had formed his line of battle, (in the shape of a crescent,) one flank on the river and the other extending to a brick building near the intrenchments; he had sent for gunboats, and was content to abide the issue. The enemy completely encompassed the town; and the fire of artillery opened on both sides. His men were all mounted; and made charge after charge upon the gallant defenders, whose Springfield rifles emptied scores of saddles at each assault. The rebel General Wharton dismounted his men, gained the rear of the town, and they then forced their way into it. Colonel Forrest, who had fired his troops with daring emulation, led his brigade, in line more than a mile long, to the attack. It was met by a perfect storm of lead. The troops pressed on through the fatal hail, driving the Federals from their rifle-pits and chasing them into the town, but here the pursuers were greeted with a deadly shower that threatened them with annihilation, and they wavered, turned and fled. But they were soon rallied, reformed, and again urged into the mouth of destruction; and, in this spirit, was the contest kept up from noon till half past seven o’clock, when another flag of truce was sent in with a second demand for an unconditional surrender.
Flood’s battery had lost forty-eight out of sixty-four horses; one piece, had every gun dismounted, and had fired its last cartridge. The rebels assured Colonel Harding that he had done all that could be expected of a brave man, and that further resistance on his part would only lead to a useless effusion of blood. The hero replied, “I have no orders to surrender, I cannot think of such a thing—I’ll take the consequences.”
The struggle was renewed. It appeared a hopeless one for the Unionists, till a cheering sight appeared on the river. It was the sable Lexington, followed by her consorts moving majestically into the rear of the position. The gunboat, always the rebels’ terror, began to speak in her tones of thunder.
The enemy had posted his main body in line of battle in the graveyard at the westerly extremity of the town, with his left wing exposed to a raking fire in a ravine which led down to the river; and the fire of the gunboats Lexington, Fairplay, Brilliant, St. Clair, Robb and Silver Lake, which fairly rocked the Post with the force of the concussion, did frightful execution among the terror-stricken and fleeing masses of rebels that filled the surrounding valleys and ravines.
In this gallant defence, the Federal loss was sixteen killed and sixty wounded. The cavalry, which had been sent to reconnoitre four hours before the commencement of the engagement, were all captured except four, making the loss in prisoners about fifty. The rebels had fully one hundred and fifty killed, four hundred wounded, and left one hundred and fifty prisoners with the Unionists.