y brief
illness. There was a grand funeral, Mr. Hunter and others delivering
orations. They came to me, supposing I had written one of the several
biographies of the deceased which have appeared during the last twenty
years. But I had written none--and none published were worthy of the
subject. I could only refer them to the bound volumes of the MADISONIAN
in the State library for his messages and other State papers. The
originals are among my papers in the hands of the enemy. His history is
yet to be written--and it will be read centuries hence.

Fort Henry has fallen. Would that were all! The catalogue of disasters I
feared and foretold, under the policy adopted by the War Department, may
be a long and a terrible one.

The mission of the spies to East Tennessee is now apparent. Three of the
enemy's gun-boats have ascended the Tennessee River to the very head of
navigation, while the women and children on its banks could do nothing
more than gaze in mute despair. No batteries, no men were there. The
absence of these is what the traitors, running from here to Washington,
have been reporting to the enemy. Their boats would no more have
ventured up that river without the previous exploration of spies, than
Mr. Lincoln would dare to penetrate a cavern without torch-bearers, in
which the rattle of venomous snakes could be heard. They have ascended
to Florence, and may get footing in Alabama and Mississippi!

And Fort Donelson has been attacked by an immensely superior force. We
have 15,000 men there to resist, perhaps, 75,000! Was ever such
management known before? Who is responsible for it? If Donelson falls,
what becomes of the ten or twelve thousand men at Bowling Green?

FEBRUARY 21ST.--All our garrison in Fort Henry, with Gen. Tilghman,
surrendered. I think we had only 1500 men there. Guns, ammunition, and
stores, all gone.

No news from Donelson--and that is _bad_ news. Benjamin says he has no
definite information. But prisoners taken say the enemy have been
reinforced, and are hurling 80,000 against our 15,000.

FEBRUARY 22D.--Such a day! The heavens weep incessantly. Capitol Square
is black with umbrellas; and a shelter has been erected for the
President to stand under.

I walked up to the monument and heard the Inaugural read by the
President. He read it well, and seemed self-poised in the midst of
disasters, which he acknowledged had befallen us. And he admitted that
there had been errors in our war policy