s, over the plains, and descends into the
ravines. There are but few farm-houses, for the soil is unproductive and
the forests remain almost as they have been for hundreds of years. The
few farmers who reside there live mainly on hog and hominy. They
cultivate a few acres of corn, but keep a great many pigs, which live in
the woods and fatten upon acorns and hickory-nuts.

The regiments which marched to Fort Donelson bivouacked the first night
beside a stream of water about four miles from Fort Henry. They had no
tents. They had been in barracks at Cairo through December and January,
but now they must lie upon the ground, wrapped in their blankets. The
nights were cold, and the ground was frozen. They cut down the tall
trees and kindled great fires, which roared and crackled in the frosty
air. They scraped the dead leaves into heaps and made them beds. They
saw the pigs in the woods. Crack! crack! went their rifles, and they had
roast sparerib and pork-steaks,--delicious eating to hungry men. The
forest was all aglow with the hundreds of fires. The men told stories,
toasted their toes, looked into the glowing coals, thought perhaps of
home, of the dear ones there, then wrapped their blankets about them and
went to sleep. Out towards Fort Donelson the pickets stood at their
posts and looked into the darkness, watching for the enemy through the
long winter night. But no Rebels appeared. They had been badly
frightened at Fort Henry. They had recovered from their terror, however,
and had determined to make a brave stand at Fort Donelson. They had been
reinforced by a large body of troops from General Albert Sidney
Johnston's army at Bowling Green, in Kentucky, and from General Lee's
army in Virginia.

General Grant's two divisions, which marched across the country,
numbered about fifteen thousand. There were four brigades in the first
division,--Colonel Oglesby's, Colonel W. H. L. Wallace's, Colonel
McArthur's, and Colonel Morrison's. Colonel Oglesby had the Eighth,
Eighteenth, Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Illinois
regiments. Colonel Wallace's was composed of the Eleventh, Twentieth,
Forty-fifth, and Forty-eighth Illinois regiments. In Colonel McArthur's
were the Second, Ninth, Twelfth, and Forty-first Illinois, and in
Colonel Morrison's the Seventeenth and Forty-ninth Illinois regiments.

Schwartz's, Taylor's, Dresser's, and McAllister's batteries accompanied
this division.

There were three brigades in th