Identifier: abrahamlincoln05nico (find matches)
Title: Abraham Lincoln : a history
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Nicolay, John G. (John George), 1832-1901 Hay, John, 1838-1905, joint author
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Presidents
Publisher: New York : Century Co.
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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and greatlyextending the lines of rifle-pits and other defenses.1This presented an altogether different and moreserious problem. The enemy before Grant wasnow, if not superior, at least equal in numbers, andhad besides the protection of a large and well-con-structed earthwork, armed with seventeen heavyand forty-eight field guns. It is probable that thischanged aspect of affairs was not immediatelyknown to him; if it was, he depended on the re-enforcements which Halleck had promised, andwhich soon began to arrive. Early on the morn-ing of the 12th he started on his march, with thedivisions of McClernand and of Brigadier-GeneralC. F. Smith, numbering fifteen thousand. At noon 1 General Grants estimate of the attack, and their arrival had, the Confederate forcesis 21,000. at the time of the surrender, in- He says he marched against the creasedhis army toabout 27,000. fort with but 15,000, but that he —Grant, Personal Memoirs, received reinforcements before Vol. I., pp. 299, 305, 315.
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General c. f. smith. FORT DONELSON 193 they were within two miles of Donelson. That chap. xi.afternoon and all the following day, February 13, i«52.were occupied in driving in the rebel pickets, find-ing the approaches, and drawing the lines of invest-ment around the fort. A gallant storming assaultby four Illinois regiments upon one of the rebelbatteries was an exciting incident of the after-noons advance, but was unsuccessful. To understand the full merit of the final achieve-ment, the conditions under which the siege ofDonelson was thus begun must be briefly men-tioned. The principal fort, or earthwork whichbore the military name, lay on the west bank ofthe Cumberland River, half a mile north of thelittle town of Dover. The fort occupied the ter-minal knoll of a high ridge ending in the anglebetween the river and the mouth of HickmanCreek. This main work consisted of two batteriesof heavy guns, primarily designed to control theriver navigation. But when General Johnston re-solved

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