g-officer. It is
creditable to the good feeling and sense of duty of both the army and
navy that no serious difficulty arose from this anomalous condition of
affairs, which came to an end in July, 1862, when the fleet was
transferred to the Navy Department.

After the battle of Belmont nothing of importance occurred in the year
1861. The work on the ironclads was pushed on, and there are traces of
the reconnoissances by the gunboats in the rivers. In January, 1862,
some tentative movements, having no particular result, were made in
the direction of Columbus and up the Tennessee. There was a great
desire to get the mortar-boats completed, but they were not ready in
time for the opening operations at Fort Henry and Donelson, their
armaments not having arrived.

On the 2d of February, Flag-Officer Foote left Cairo for Paducah,
arriving the same evening. There were assembled the four armored
gunboats, Essex, Commander Wm. D. Porter; Carondelet, Commander Walke;
St. Louis, Lieutenant Paulding; and Cincinnati, Commander Stembel; as
well as the three wooden gunboats, Conestoga, Lieutenant Phelps;
Tyler, Lieutenant Gwin; and Lexington, Lieutenant Shirk. The object of
the expedition was to attack, conjointly with the army, Fort Henry on
the Tennessee, and, after reducing the fort, to destroy the railroad
bridge over the river connecting Bowling Green with Columbus. The
flag-officer deplored that scarcity of men prevented his coming with
four other boats, but to man those he brought it had been necessary to
strip Cairo of all men except a crew for one gunboat. Only 50 men of
the 1,100 promised on December 23d had been received from the army.

Fort Henry was an earthwork with five bastions, situated on the east
bank of the Tennessee River, on low ground, but in a position where a
slight bend in the stream gave it command of the stretch below for two
or three miles. It mounted twenty guns, but of these only twelve bore
upon the ascending fleet. These twelve were: one X-inch columbiad, one
60-pounder rifle, two 42- and eight 32-pounders. The plan of attack
was simple. The armored gunboats advanced in the first order of
steaming, in line abreast, fighting their bow guns, of which eleven
were brought into action by the four. The flag-officer purposed by
continually advancing, or, if necessary, falling back, to constantly
alter the range, thus causing error in the elevation of the enemy's
guns, presenting, at the same time, the leas