rebel batteries, the fire from both gun-boats and the fort increased in rapidity and accuracy of range.

"At twenty minutes before the flag was struck, the Essex, unfortunately, received a shot in her boilers, which resulted in the wounding and scalding of twenty-nine officers and men, including Commander Porter.

"The Essex then necessarily dropped out of line, astern, entirely disabled, and unable to continue the fight in which she had so gallantly participated until the sad catastrophe.

"The firing continued with unabated rapidity and effect upon the three gun-boats, as they continued still to approach the fort with their destructive fire, until the rebel flag was hauled down, after a very severe and closely contested action of one hour and fifteen minutes.

A boat, containing the Adjutant-General and Captain of Engineers, came alongside, after the flag was lowered, and reported that General Floyd Tilghman, the Commander of the

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fort, wished to communicate with the Flag-officer, when I dispatched Commander Stembel and Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, with orders to hoist the American flag where the secession ensign had been flying, and to inform General Tilghman that I would see him on board the flag-ship. He came on board soon after the Union had been substituted for the rebel flag on the fort, and possession taken of it. I received the General and his staff, and some sixty or seventy men as prisoners, and a hospital ship containing invalids, together with the fort and its effects, mounting twenty guns, mostly of heavy calibre, with barracks and tents capable of accommodating fifteen thousand men.

"The armed gun-boats resisted effectually the shot of the enemy, when striking the casement.

"The Cincinnati, the flag-ship, received thirty-one shots, the Essex fifteen, the St. Louis seven, and the Carondolet six, killing one, wounding nine in the Cincinnati, and killing one in the Essex, while the casualties in the latter, from steam, amounted to twenty-eight in number. The Carondolet and St. Louis met with no casualties.

"The steamers were admirably handled by the commanders and officers, presenting only their bow guns to the enemy, to avoid the exposure of the vulnerable parts of their vessels.

"Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, with his Division, also executed my orders very effectually, and promptly proceeded up the river in their further execution, after the capture of the fort. In fact, all the officers and men gallantly performed their duty, and, considering the little experience they have had under fire, far more than realized my expectations.

"Fort Henry was defended with the most determined gallantry by Gen. Tilghman, worthy of a better cause, who, from his own account, went into the action with eleven guns of heavy calibre bearing upon our boats, which he fought until seven of the number were dismantled, or otherwise rendered useless."

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REBEL FORTIFICATIONS ON THE TENNESSEE.

Before the attack on Fort Henry, Com. Foote had given instructions to the effect, that as soon as the fort was captured, the gun-boats Canestoga, Lexington, and Tyler, should proceed up the river, and render the Bowling Green and Mem phis rail way bridge impassable, and capture whatever boats or other rebel property they could find in their ascent. This expedition advanced some two hundred miles, to Florence, Alabama, destroying the rebel fleet upon the river, and capturing large supplies. This was the first sudden movement that had been made into the very centre of the rebellion, and the decided and general manifestation of Union feeling, was equally unexpected and gratifying.

Toward the close of February, the rebels commenced the erection of fortifications on the Tennessee, at Pittsburgh, one of the best points for the purpose on the river; and afterwards famous for the terrific and bloody engagement of April 6th and 7th, 1862. Hearing of which, Lieutenant Gwinn, with his boat, the Tyler, accompanied by the Lexington, proceeded there, and demolished the enemy's works with little trouble, or loss.

The Tennessee river, with the immense and important region bordering upon it, was thus reclaimed to the Union, in a few weeks, and at a very trifling loss. The importance to the Union cause, of this success, can hardly be over-estimated. The river itself, was an important acquisition. It has its course chiefly in the State of Tennessee, and is the largest tributary of the Ohio. Its most remote sources are Clinch and Holston rivers. It has other branches, which uniting, form the Tennessee proper, at a point forty-five miles southwest of Knoxville. From Knoxville, it pursues a south-west direction across the State, and enters Alabama, when it pursues a westerly course for one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles, and then turns north, and enters Tennessee again, crossing the State and the western portion of Kentucky, and

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entering the Ohio, eleven and a half miles below the mouth of the Cumberland, and forty-seven and a half above the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi. The whole descent of the river, from its source to its mouth, is about one thousand seven hundred feet. Its whole length, by the course of the river, is one thousand two hundred miles. It drains a surface of forty-one thousand square miles. There are no falls, and few rapids obstruct navigation through its whole course. The greatest obstruction is at Muscle Shoals-Alabama-two hundred and fifty-seven miles from the mouth, to which point steamers ascend. A canal, thirty-six miles in length, has been built around these shoals, and above, the navigation for boats is unobstructed for two hundred and fifty miles. It opened a cotton producing region, to the commercial enterprise of the North.

Lauderdale county, of which Florence is the capital, produces from ten to twelve thousand bales of ginned cotton, of four hundred pounds. Franklin county, on the other side of the river, produces over fifteen thousand bales. Cotton is also produced to some extent in Tennessee, on the line of the river. There are two large cotton factories on Cypress Creek, three miles from the place, having a capital of forty-five thousand dollars each. Shoal Creek, nine miles distant, also gives motion to a cotton factory, which cost sixty thousand dollars. It proved also the efficiency of the gun-boats, which gave the North confidence and hope, and filled the South with fear and dread. The boats proved themselves to be all that was ever claimed for them. For almost the first time in the history of modern warfare, a little fleet of gun-boats has been able to reduce a large land work, fully armed and garrisoned.

Fort Donelson on the Cumberland river, in Tennessee, surrendered to the forces under Gen. Grant, on Sunday, the 16th day of February, after a siege of three days. No previous event in the field, had been of equal importance to the Union

cause. An army of twenty thousand men, strongly intrenched, was captured, or dispersed, producing the most marked results. The full possession of the Cumberland river was secured. That river traverses a rich, productive, and cultivated district, of which Nashville, the capital, and most important city of the State, is the centre. Its entire length is about six hundred miles, and it drains an area of seventeen thousand five hundred square miles. It is navigable from its mouth to Nashville, two hundred and three miles, for large steam boats, and for boats of one hundred and fifty tons, three hundred miles farther. During high water, vessels of four hundred tons, ascend it four hundred miles. On its borders are nineteen furnaces, nine forges, and two rolling mills, which produce, annually, about fifty thousand tons of iron.

The loss of this important line of communication, with the