uns, they said
with grim pleasantry, "There's a valentine for the gray-coats." And
right speedily did the gray-coats return the gift. Shot and shell from
the batteries came in volleys against the sides of the gunboats. In
the fort the condition of affairs was not serious. The shells chiefly
fell in the soft earth of the hilltop above, and embedded themselves
harmlessly in the mud. One of the gunners after the fight said: "We
were more bothered by flying mud than any thing else. A shell bursting
up there would throw out great clots of clay, that blocked up the
touch-holes of our guns, spoiled the priming of our shells, and
plastered up the faces of our men. Of course, now and then a bit of
shell would knock some poor fellow over; but, though we were all green
hands at war, we expected to see lots more blood and carnage than the
Yankee gunboats dealt out to us."

The gunboats, however, had put themselves in a hot place. Twenty heavy
guns on the hillside high above were hurling solid shot down on the
little fleet. The sailors stuck to their work well; and though the
vessels were in a fair way of being riddled, they succeeded in driving
the enemy from his lower battery. But the upper battery was
impregnable; and the gunners there, having got the correct range, were
shooting with unpleasant precision. Two of the vessels were disabled
by being struck in the steering-chains. On the "Carondelet" a piece
burst, hurling its crew bleeding on the deck. No vessel escaped with
less than twenty wounds, while the flagship was hit fifty-nine times.
Commodore Foote was wounded in the foot by a heavy splinter; a wound
from which he never fully recovered, and which for some years debarred
him from service afloat.

That afternoon's bombardment showed clearly that Fort Donelson could
never be taken by the navy. When Foote ordered his gunboats to cease
firing and drop back out of position, the Confederates swarmed back
into the lower battery that they had abandoned; and, after a few
hours' work, the fort was as strong as before the fight. It was the
first case in the history of the war in which the navy had failed to
reduce the fortifications against which it had been ordered. The
Hatteras forts, the works at Roanoke Island and at Hilton Head, Fort
Henry--all had fallen before the cannon of the Union sailors; and
Foote may well be pardoned if he yielded to Gen. Grant with great
reluctance the honor of reducing Fort Donelson. For two days Gr