Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1862-02-12
CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY

CAPIU RE CE kORT HENRY.
A Splendid Victory. Gallant Action Of
the Gun-Boats Surrender of Gen
Tflghman The Rebel Infantry Run
Only Sirty Prisoners Taken
Cairo February :. II m. 1S62.-The
gunboats cincinnati, 81 Louis and Esser
have just returned from the rebel Fort
Henry, on the Tennessee river The stars
and stripes now float over that place
Yesterday, at 1888 p. m, the gunboats
" Cincinnati, st Louis, Carundeiet."
and Essex the Taylor" "Conestora"
and Lexington bringing up the. rear.
advanced boldly against the rebel works,
going 10 the right Of Painter Creek Island,
issuing above which. on tie east shore of
the river, stands the Notifications and
Keeping consequently off range till at the
head of the island, and within mile If
the enemy. passing the leland in fu,, view
of the rebel guns. we steadily advanced.
every man 1T quarters, every ear strained
10 catch the flag officer signal gun for the
commencement Of action,
Our line Of battle was on the left the
"St Louis mex 'i'arondelet" next: the
Cincinnati. for the time beng, the flag
ship. having on board flag ofticer A. H.
toote, was next to the right of the Es-
SIX
We advanced in line, the " Cincinnati
boats length in vance, when, at 1880,
the 'Cincinnati opened the ball. and i'm
meGiately the three accompanying boats
follow ed suit
The enemy, not backward. gave admira-
bic response, and the fight RACED furiously
Tor half an hour. We steadily advanced,
re teIvlng and returning storms of shot
and she'll when getting within three hun
drcd yards of their works, we cam TO
stand and poured into them right nd lett.
1t was magnificent; the VIII ,stling shot
ehu@s of the seip seps, and the cheering
OF our men as cur shots took evident eff
feet
In the meantime the Essex" had been
disabled and drifted away from the scene
Of the engagement, leaving the ''Cincinna-
ii, "Carondelet" and st Louis" engaged
At length, at precisely l40, the enc ny
struck his FLAG, and such cheering such
Wild excitement as seized the throats and
arms and caps Of the four hundred or
five hundred sailors of the gunboats-
Well, imagine it
After the surrender, which was made
to hag-o Ger Foote by the rebel General
Floyd / il gilman, who defended his fort in
Il most detcrm ned manner, we found that
the r.bel infantry, encamped to the num-
Der OF some four or five thousand outside
the fertilization, had cut and run, leaving
the rebel artillery company in command
OF the fort to their fate
1 he fort mounted seventeen guns, most
ly thirty-two and twentyiour Founders;
one, however, a magnificent ten inch co
iumbiad. They claim to have had but
eleven effective guns, worked by filty-four
men, which is the number all told. Of our
prisoners.
Our shots had dismounted two of their
-uns, driven the enemy from their EN-
bInkments, and played smash with them
generally.
They lost five killed and some ten badly
wounded One of their riflcd guns, a
thirty-two FOUNDER, burst during the en-
rdgemcnt, badly wounding one Of their
runners, but killing none
Capt Taylor Of Nashville, rebel com
mander OF the fort artillery company,
now our prisoner,) says t. is thirty-two
,ounder is the gun that did their chief
irIng.
Watts, formerly of Cincinnati, and OF
Mason county, Ky, of the firm of Watts
y Co!burn, was their ordnance officer
lie is now our prisoner.
The infantry fled from their quarters
leaving bag and baggage. \ vast deal OF
plumber has fallen into our hands, and a
.arge and valuable quantity of ordnan e
stores
ten Tilghman is disheartened, and
thinks 1t one OF the most damaging blows
az the war.
In surrendering to our flag officer, the
rebel General remarked = am glad to
surrender to so gallant an officer
The hAgofficer Foote replied You do
perfectly right, sir, IN surrendering; bul
iou should have blown my boats out o.
water before | would have surrendered to
lou
The land force under command of Gen
rant did not arrive ut the fort till after
The rebels had surrendered, and their ar
! my escaped
Our gunboats did splendid fighting
Ne can make no distinctions The Gin
cinuati,' however, was in tie lead and
dying the fag officer pennaut the CHIEF
mark Flag-officer FoOte and Capt Stom-
Del crowded her deiiantlv into the teeth OF
he tnemys guns. She got thirty-one
shots, some Of them going through and
through her, She expended one hundred
and ten shots
Pringle Carradice, seaman, of Hamil-
tOn- I. W. was Killed outright; W IN. Lake
man, seaman, badly wounded; Martin
dussey, George Massey VIM Curtis, Mi
chuel Dalton and f. n Arilla all seamen,
were slightly wounded; Capt ID. Ii. Pratt
Second Master of the boat, was slightly
wounded.
The Essex was lady crippled =
When about half through the fight, and
crowdin@ with splendid heroism steadily
against the enemy. a ball went in at her
port side forward pert, through one of her
boilers; the escaping steam scalding and
Killing several of her crew, and badly
woundilg many more Capt Porter, his
tId, :. Il. Britton, Jr-, and Paymaster
Lewis, We're standing on a dirsct line Of
the balls passage, Britton beinr in the
centre of the group The shot struck
poor Brltton on the top of the head, scat
tering his brains and blood in every di-
rection The escaping ste tm went into
the pilot house, quickly killing the two
pilots, Ford and Mcbride. Many of the
sailors, at the rush of steam, jumped over
board and were drowned
Here is the complete list Of the Essex"
dead, wounded and missing This casu-
lily to the Essex has cast gloom over
our fleet, and somewhat dampens the en-