They Had Also Another Fort, Fort
Donelson, On The Cumberland River, Which At That Point Runs Parallel
To The Tennessee, And Is There Distant From It But A Very Few Miles.
Both These Rivers Run Into The Ohio.
Nashville, which is the
capital of Tennessee, is higher up on the Cumberland; and it was now
intended to
Send the gun-boats down the Tennessee back into the
Ohio, and thence up the Cumberland, there to attack Fort Donelson,
and afterward to assist General Buell's army in making its way down
to Nashville. The gun-boats were attached to General Halleck's
army, and received their directions from St. Louis. General Buell's
headquarters were at Louisville, and his advanced position was on
the Green River, on the line of the railway from Louisville to
Nashville. The secessionists had destroyed the railway bridge over
the Green River, and were now lying at Bowling Green, between the
Green River and Nashville. This place it was understood that they
had fortified.
Matters were in this position when we got a military pass to go down
by the railway to the army on the Green River, for the railway was
open to no one without a military pass; and we started, trusting
that Providence would supply us with rations and quarters. An
officer attached to General Buell's staff, with whom however our
acquaintance was of the very slightest, had telegraphed down to say
that we were coming. I cannot say that I expected much from the
message, seeing that it simply amounted to a very thin introduction
to a general officer to whom we were strangers even by name, from a
gentleman to whom we had brought a note from another gentleman whose
acquaintance we had chanced to pick up on the road.
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