tage
of any diversion which the _Carondelet_ could make in his favor.
Walke then fired hard for two hours under cover of a wooded point.
The fort fired back equally hard; but with little effect except
for one big solid shot which stove in a casemate, knocked down a
dozen men, burst the steam heater, and bounded about the engine
room "like a wild beast pursuing its prey." Forty minutes later
the _Carondelet_ was again in action, firing hard till dark. Late
that night Foote arrived with the rest of the flotilla.

The fourteenth was another naval day. Foote's flotilla advanced
gallantly, the four ironclads leading in line abreast, the two
wooden gunboats half a mile astern. The ironclads closed in to less
than a quarter-mile and hung on like bulldogs till the Confederates
in the lowest battery were driven from their guns. But the plunging
fire from the big guns on the bluff crashed down with ever increasing
effect. Davits were smashed like matches, boats knocked into kindling
wood, armor dented, started, ripped, stripped, and sent splashing
overboard as if by strokes of lightning. Before the decks could
be re-sanded there was so much blood on them that the gun crews
could hardly work for slipping. Presently the _Pittsburgh_ swung
round, ran foul of the _Carondelet_, and dropped downstream. The
pilot of the _St. Louis_ was killed, and Foote, who stood beside
him, wounded. The wheel-ropes of the _St. Louis_, like those of
the _Louisville_, were shot away. The whole flotilla then retired,
still firing hard; and the Confederates wired a victory to Richmond.

Both sides now redoubled their efforts; for Donelson was a great
prize and the forces engaged were second only to those at Bull Run.
Afloat and ashore, all ranks and ratings on both sides together,
there were fifty thousand men present at the investment from first
to last. The Confederates began with about twenty thousand, Grant
with fifteen thousand. But Grant had twenty-seven thousand fit for
duty at the end, in spite of all his losses. He was fortunate in
his chief staff officer, the devoted and capable John A. Rawlins,
afterwards a general and Secretary of War. Two of his divisional
commanders, Lew Wallace and, still more, C. F. Smith, the old Commandant
of Cadets, were also first-rate. But the third, McClernand, here
began to follow those distorting ideas which led to his dismissal
later on. The three chief Confederates ranked in reverse order
of efficiency: Floyd