Jess
is too small. You will like him the best of any of the children,
although he is the worst. I expect he will whip his Aunt Mary the
first day. Buck, though never really sick, is very delicate. He is the
best child I ever saw and is smart.

Give my love to all at home. I must close.

BROTHER ULYS.

[After repeated requests Grant secured permission, February 1st, to
undertake the campaign up the Tennessee. Fort Henry was captured on
the 6th; Fort Donelson, eleven miles away, fell on the 16th. Fort
Donelson was on high ground, one hundred feet above the Cumberland
River. It was an important position for the enemy. Generals Floyd and
Pillow, first and second in command at Port Donelson, escaped during
the night of the 15th. General Buckner, who was forced to surrender
the fort, said to Grant that if he, Buckner, had been in command Grant
would never have reached Donelson as easily as he did. Grant answered,
"In that case I should not have tried in the way I did; I relied upon
Pillow to allow me to come up within gunshot of any entrenchments he
was given to hold." Pillow had been in the Mexican War and he prided
himself upon that service. Grant speaks of his own service in the
Mexican War as being invaluable to him as he there came to know all
the men who, later on, held conspicuous positions in both the Northern
and Southern armies; he learned to know their strong points and their
weaknesses, and to infer how they would act under given conditions.

To his sister Mary.]

Fort Henry, Tenn.,
Feb. 9th, 1862.

DEAR SISTER:

I take my pen in hand "away down in Dixie" to let you know that I am
still alive and well. What the next few days may bring forth, however,
I can't tell you. I intend to keep the ball moving as lively as
possible, and have only been detained here from the fact that the
Tennessee is very high and has been rising ever since we have been
here, overflowing the back land and making it necessary to bridge it
before we could move.--Before receiving this you will hear by
telegraph of Fort Donelson being attacked.--Yesterday I went up the
Tennessee River twenty odd miles, and to-day crossed over near the
Cumberland River at Fort Donelson.--Our men had a little engagement
with the enemy's pickets, killing five of them, wounding a number,
and, expressively speaking, "gobbling up" some twenty-four more.

If I had your last letter at hand I would answer it. But I have not
and therefore write you a ve