ake Fort Henry and establish and hold a camp there.
Next day he wrote to the same effect in detail. On the 28th, Commodore
A.H. Foote, flag-officer of the gunboat fleet, wrote to General Halleck
that he concurred with General Grant, and asking if they had Halleck's
authority to move when ready. On January 30th, General Halleck
telegraphed to Grant to get ready, and made an order directing him to
proceed. The order was received on February 1st, and next day General
Grant started up the Tennessee with 17,000 men on transports, convoyed
by Commodore Foote with seven gunboats.

The sites of Forts Henry and Donelson were chosen, and the work of
fortifying them begun, by the State of Tennessee, when Kentucky was
still holding itself neutral. Fort Donelson, immediately below the town
of Dover, was a good position, and was near the Kentucky line. The site
chosen for Fort Henry commanded a straight stretch of the river for some
miles, and was near the State line and near Donelson. But it was low
ground, commanded by higher ground on both sides of the river, and was
washed by high water. Under the supervision of General A.S. Johnston's
engineers, the work had become a well-traced, solidly constructed
fortification of earth, with five bastions mounting twelve guns, facing
the river, and five guns bearing upon the land. Infantry intrenchments
were thrown up on the nearest high land, extending to the river both
above and below the main work, and commanding the road to Fort Donelson.
A work named Fort Heiman was begun on the bluff on the opposite side of
the river, but was incomplete.

General McClernand, commanding the advance, landed eight miles below the
fort. General Grant made a reconnoissance in one of the gunboats to draw
the fire of the fort and ascertain the range of its guns. Having
accomplished this, he re-embarked the landed troops, and debarked on
February 4th, at Bailey's Ferry, three miles below the fort and just out
of range of its fire. The river overflowed its banks, much of the
country was under water; a heavy rain fell. The entire command did not
get ashore till in the night of the 5th. In the night, General C.F.
Smith was sent across the river to take Fort Heiman, but it was
evacuated while Grant was landing his force at Bailey's Ferry.
McClernand was ordered to move out at eleven o'clock in the morning of
the 6th, and take position on the roads to Fort Donelson and Dover.

[Illustration: Fort Henry.]

Genera