ed a confidence in themselves
that was of great value ever afterwards. Grant's governing maxim was, to
strike the enemy whenever possible, and keep doing it.

From the battle of Belmont until February, 1862, there was no fighting
by Grant's army. Troops were concentrated at Cairo for future
operations--not yet decided upon. Major-General H. W. Halleck superseded
General Fremont in command of the department of Missouri. Halleck was an
able man, having a high reputation as theoretical master of the art of
war, one of those who put a large part of all their energy into the
business of preparing to do some great task, only to find frequently,
when they are completely ready, that the occasion has gone by. When he
was first approached with a proposition to capture Forts Henry and
Donelson, the first on the Tennessee River, the other on the Cumberland
River, where the rivers are only a few miles apart near the southern
border of Kentucky, he thought that it would require an army of "not
less than 60,000 effective men," which could not be collected at Cairo
"before the middle or last of February."

Early in January General Grant went to St. Louis to explain his ideas of
a campaign against these forts to Halleck, who told him his scheme was
"preposterous." On the 28th he ventured again to suggest to Halleck by
telegraph that, if permitted, he could take and hold Fort Henry on the
Tennessee. His application was seconded by flag officer Foote of the
navy, who then had command of several gunboats at Cairo. On February 1,
he received instructions to go ahead, and the expedition, all
preparations having been made beforehand, started the next day, the
gunboats and about 9000 men on transports going up the Ohio and the
Tennessee to a point a few miles below Fort Henry. After the troops were
disembarked the transports went back to Paducah for the remainder of the
force of 17,000 constituting the expeditionary army. The attack was made
on the 6th, but the garrison had evacuated, going toward Fort Donelson,
to escape the fire of the gunboats. General Tilghman, commanding the
fort, his staff, and about 120 men were captured, with many guns and a
large quantity of stores. The principal loss on the Union side was the
scalding of 29 men on the gunboat Essex by the explosion of her boiler,
pierced by a shell from the fort.

Grant had no instructions to attack Fort Donelson, but he had none
forbidding him to do it. He straightway moved nearly