gone on board without orders, supposing its duty was done, he saw
approaching a hostile line of battle. He rode back, his horse slid down
the river-bank on its haunches, and trotted on board a transport over a
plank thrust out for him. General Polk had come over with General
Cheatham, bringing two more regiments and a battalion. The entire force
formed in line, approached the river-bank, and opened fire. The
gunboats, as well as the infantry on the transports, returned the fire.
Each side was confident that its fire caused great slaughter; but, in
fact, little damage was done. The fleet, some distance up-stream,
overtook and received on board the Twenty-seventh Illinois, which had
become separated from the column, and, instead of returning with it,
returned by the road over which the advance was made. The national loss
was: in McClernand's brigade, 30 killed, 130 wounded, and 54 missing; in
Dougherty's brigade, 49 killed, 154 wounded, and 63 missing; in Taylor's
battery, 5 wounded. There were no casualties in the cavalry. The
aggregate loss was 79 killed, 289 wounded, and 117 missing; making, in
all, 485. Most of the wounded were left behind and taken prisoners. A
number of the missing made their way to Cairo. The Seventh Iowa suffered
most severely. Among the 26 killed and 80 wounded were the
lieutenant-colonel killed, and the colonel and major wounded. Colonel
Dougherty, of the Twenty-second Illinois, commanding the second brigade,
was wounded and taken prisoner. The Confederate loss was 105 killed, 419
wounded, and 117 missing; in all, 641. Of this aggregate, 562 were from
the five regiments originally engaged. Besides the loss in men and the
destruction of the camp, forty-five horses were killed.

CHAPTER II.

FORT HENRY.

General A.S. Johnston, on September 17, 1861, sent General S.B. Buckner,
who had left Kentucky and entered the Confederate service, to seize and
occupy Bowling Green, in Kentucky, with a force of 4,000 men. Bowling
Green is at the crossing of the Big Barren River by the Louisville and
Nashville road. A little to the south the Memphis and Ohio branches off
from the Louisville and Nashville. Bowling Green was therefore a gateway
through which all approach to the south from Louisville by rail must
pass. There was no access by rail from the Ohio River to the south, east
of Bowling Green. The road from Paducah led nowhere. The railroads to
the north from Mississippi ended, not on the Ohio, bu