The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1862-03-22

been properly appreciated. He has i'm
provised q navy With aim lost tinsurmoant~
able obstacles Against him. / see it sta
ted in the papers that the gun-boats
did but little service at Donelson,
which is q monstrous mistake. They
sHeneed nearly aii the enemy's guns,
and had not the wheel of one boat and
the tiller ropes of another been shot
away, IN fifteen minutes more the bat
1 teries would have been fianked and tie
entire rebel army exposed to the broad
sides OF the fleet. He would have
moved them down like grass
As it was, he made the work of the
army in the fight of Saturday much easier /,
| than it would otherwise have been. -
Several Of the Mississippi officers (prison-
ers) informed me that the shells OF the
gunboats had a demoralizing effect upon
their men. The Memphis Appeal says it
| dispiritcd them II have
had fair opportunity to observe the oper-
ations of both army and navy, and ! can
say with emphasis that there are no more
isef-denying, patriotic, hard working, faith
full men than the flag officer and his capt
Jams, stambel, Pennock, Phelps. and
Others II make these
statements from my own sense Of justice
and honor, and not from any mans
prompting or request" ,en
| The next movement of Com. Foote,
with his dotllh, was to take possession Of n
Ciarksyille, where he arrived on the 10Th
day of February. aud issued his proohma- !
ton to the Inhabitants three days before 4.
the arrival Of the land forces, though that
fact, from some unexplained cause, no.
where appears in the official reports Of the
military commander OF that department.
On the 2lst of February, 1862, Com. !
Footc tclcgraphed to General Culium, the
chief of General Ealleck's staf, then ii
Cairo, as follows:
PADucAH, February 81, 1861.
General CuLLUM, Cairo:
General Grant and myself consider this
. good time to move on Nashville !: six
mortar boats and the iron-clad steamers
can precede the troops and shell the forts.
We were about moving for this purpose
| when General Grant, to my astonishlneBt,
received telegram from Gsperal Halleel;,
''no. to let the gunboats 60 higher than
Clarksville;" no telegram sent to me.
The Cumberland is in good stage of
water, and Gen. Grant and believe that
we can take Nashville. Please ask Gen,
Halleek if we shall do it. We will talk
per telegraph-Captain Phelps represent
ing me IN the office, as 1 am stlH ON
erutches.
A. II. FOOTE, Flag Officer.
1t may be that there was some great
military reason why General Grant was
directed mot to let the gunboats gohigher
than Clarksyille,' but up TO this time it
is wholly unappreciable by the public
Had they been pcrmitled to go, as was
proposed by Commodore Foote, Nashville
~oaid undoubtedly have capituiated some
days earear than it did, and an immense
amount of rebel stores been captured,
which were destroyed or removed before
the army reached here, the value OF which
has been estimated st 81, ,0O0, 900, and
would probably have intercepted part of
the rebel Jehnston's army.
| ought not TO omit to mention the gall
liant attack by part of the Western fotilla
under Lieutenant Gwinn, upon the enemy
at Pittsburg on the Tennessee river, where
fifteen hundred rebel infantry and cavalry
were completely routed, with II loss of 20
killed and 100 wounded.
The next fnct of Importance in the
campaign at the West, and indeed the
most important of NIL, was the evacuation
Of Columbus. Why was this stronghold,
which cost 20 much labor and expense,
abandoned without firing ashot? Itis not
for me to underrste the advantages of po-
sition secured by the valor of our troops
At Fort Donelsen yet undertake to say,
from the knowledge have been able to
obtain nf IF tho tho dufuIses OF Columbus, that
there was nothing in the mere fact of the
capture of Donelson aud Nashville, and
exclusive of our command of the river,
which need have caused the evacuation.
except after long and bloody siege
FHfua4 the letter of a correspondent writ
ing OH the spot, obtain the information
tha. the forts at Columbus
4 Were so located and constructed as to
be almost impreguable to an assault by
storm. The capture Of one by no means
involved the capture of the balance. A
fresh assault must be made in each in-
stance. At the main fort, and many of
the earthworks. stockades crossed the
trenches, exposing the assaulting party to a
q storm Of bullets from riiamen firing
through, loop-holes. Every ravine and
ditch was thoroughly protected, and the
various approaches ofthc river command
ed for . long distance in every direction.
Ii is sufficient 70 say that sn unusually
strong NATURAL position was seized upon,
and 50 improved by rare engineering skill,
thu, the equal Of the Columbus fr-.;ssc., y
tions, in extent and perfection Of detail
combined, can hardly be found in the