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Captains of the Civil War; a chronicle of the blue and the gray by William (William Charles Henry) Wood
page 93 of 288 (32%)
discharge of all its big guns. Then the fire waxed hot and heavy
on both sides, the gunboats knocking geyser-spouts of earth about
the fort, and the fort knocking gigantic splinters out of the
gunboats. The Essex ironclad was doing very well when a big shot
crashed into her middle boiler, which immediately burst like a
shell, scalding the nearest men to death, burning others, and
sending the rest flying overboard or aft. With both pilots dead
and Commander W.D. Porter badly scalded, the Essex was drifting
out of action when the word went round that Fort Henry had
surrendered: and there, sure enough, were the Confederate colors
coming down. Instantly Porter rallied for the moment, called for
three cheers, and fell back exhausted at the third.

The Confederate General Tilghman surrendered to Foote with less
than a hundred men, all the rest, over twenty-five hundred,
having started towards Fort Donelson before the flag came down.
The Western Flotilla had won the day alone. But it was the fear
of Grant's approaching army that hurried the escaping garrison.
An hour after the surrender Grant rode in and took command. That
night victors and vanquished were dining together when a fussy
staff officer came in to tell Grant that he could not find the
Confederate reports. On this Captain Jesse Taylor, the chief
Confederate staff officer, replied that he had destroyed them.
The angry Federal then turned on him with the question, "Don't
you know you've laid yourself open to punishment?" and was
storming along, when Grant quietly broke in: "I should be very
much surprised and mortified if one of my subordinate officers
should allow information which he could destroy to fall into the
hands of the enemy."

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