was incorporated into Grant's army, and rendered effective service
in the reduction of Fort Donelson. Later, the brigade was transferred
to General Halleck. Crittenden, soon after this, proceeded by
boat with the balance of his division, and reported at Nashville,
arriving there at the same time as Nelson's division.

The Sixth division, after aiding in the repair of the railroad,
arrived at Nashville March 6, 1862.

General A. S. Johnston, at no time prior to his retreat had sufficient
force to meet or to resist the advance of the Federal forces. His
long line, extending from Columbus to Knoxville, invited attack,
and wherever the attack was made his troops were not able to
successfully resist it. Concentrating his command at Bowling Green,
after Mill Springs and the fall of Fort Henry, he found that, to
save Nashville, it was necessary to make a determined stand at Fort
Donelson, and this he re-enforced with all his available troops.
The fall of Donelson compelled the evacuation of Nashville. To
the Southern people these reverses were a bitter blow to their high
hopes and boasting threats that the war was to be carried into the
North, and peace was to follow the first victories to their arms.
Duke, in his "History of Morgan's Cavalry," says: "No subsequent
reverse, although fraught with far more real calamity, ever
created the shame, sorrow, and wild consternation that swept over
the South with the news of the surrender of Fort Donelson. To some
in the South these reverses were harbingers of the final defeat
and overthrow of the Confederacy."

With the fall of Donelson, after detaching the troops at Columbus,
Johnston's force was reduced to a little over one-half of his