Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-06-04
CHAPTER VIII.

FORT DoNELsoN.
Meanwhile how Jared it with Frank
Besant and the gallant boys of the
Fighting Fourth? You may be assured
that they were indulging in no quiet
little tea-parties and mild f1irtations-
to them rather the stern realities of the
tented field. the dangers, privations
and miseries of those whose trade is
war.
But before resume the thread Of
my story l must trespass on my read
er's patience, while we take passing
glance at the chess-board on which
this stupendous game of human slaugh-
ter was being played.
Halleck had succeeded Fremont as
Commander-in-Chief of the Department
of the Missouri, with headquarters at
St. Louis.
This department was divided into sew
eral districts, of which we have princi-
pally to do with those of Cairo" under
command of General Grant, and .sOhio,'
under Buell..
Now the Confederates held that Ken
lucky naturally belonged to them, and
the dawn of 1862 saw them with line
of Notifications dotted across that State
and. held by strong detachments
inently Columbus ON. the Mississippi,
Fort Henry on the Tennessee, Fort DON
elson twelve miles distant by land) on
the Cumberland, Bowling Green, Mill
Spring and Cumberland Gap. The crit
ical points in this long line of ramparts
were Fort Henry aud Fort Donelson,
the center, and the keys to Southern
Kentucky and Tennessee. If these
were taken the whole was untenable.
Now, while our hero was ON the
march to join General Buell's command
preparations were made for this mo-
) mentous enterprise, and its execution
was intrusted to General Grant, who
| on the 30th of January moved from
Cairo with force of seventeen thou
sand men, assured of the cooperation
| of Commodore Foote, in command of a
| dotilla of gun-boats.
The idea was for the feet to reduce
the fort, while Grant cut off the retreat
by land, but Confederate General Tihl-
man, seeing from the first that resist
| ance was useless, sent his garrison of
! three thousand men to Fort Donelson,
| and nominally held Fort Henry with a
| handful of brave defenders, who, of
| course, after a feeble resistance, sur
| rendered.
| Grant and Foote then turned their at
| tentions to Fort Donelson.
And all this time the boys of the
Fourth were leisurely making their
way to Buell.. impeded however by
small engagements with the enemy and
constantly exposed to irritating attacks
of guerrillas.
On the night of the 9th of February
the regiment was in camp-at least the
boys were bivouacking around such
scanty fires as the rain-drenched char
acter of the brushwood and rotten logs
they had gathered permitted. BY this
time, you must know, they had gone
through SO much suffering and seen
blood SO often shed, that their cheeks
no longer blanched at thought of death,
nor their sense revolted at sight of gap
ing wound or CHASTITY corpse. They
| were s'o1d soldiers" now-veterans in
all but years.
On the windward side of one smold-
ering heap of smoking brush a little
group OF officers was gathered. The
surroundings were miserable enough,
but not all the wretchedness of scene
and season could repress the reckless
dispositions of those gallant lads, who
were EARNING" with as much cxhilara-
ton as though they had not a gloomy,
starless sky for a roof and a waste Oh
sodden sand for carpet.
'sSay, boys" said one with laugh
pointing to a tall. cloalzed figure, reced
ing among the trees, 'sthere goes Billy
Sawbones with his tools under his arm
some poor fellows in for knitting