Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

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Crittenden, and a reserve and cavalry corps.¹ The winter floods in the Cumberland favored him, and as rapidly as possible he collected large stores at Nashville by the river steamers, and made Murfreesboroa a depot for ample supplies. Finally, he obtained a sufficient number of horses and mules to warrant him in, moving southward. Before considering that important act, which took place late in June,

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let us take a brief survey of the doings of the cavalry and mounted infantry of the two armies curing the suspension of operations in full force.

At the beginning of February, General Wheeler, Bragg's chief of cavalry, with four thousand five hundred mounted men, and having General Wharton and Colonel N. B. Forrest as brigadiers, concentrated his forces at Franklin, a little below Nashville, on the road between that city and Decatur, for the purpose of attempting the recapture of Fort Donelson, which, it was known, had not been repaired since it was taken by Grant.² It had not even been occupied, for it was of little account, excepting as a defense against gun-boats coming up the river. The little village of Dover, near by, had been partially fortified; and when Wheeler approached, the garrison, under Colonel A. C. Harding, consisted of only about six hundred effective men, mostly of the Eighty-third Illinois, with a section of Flood's battery (four guns) and a 32-pound siege-gun mounted upon a turn-table, and commanded by N. Grant Abbey, then a private in the Eighty-third Illinois.³

The chief object of the Confederates at this time was to interrupt the navigation of the Cumberland, and thus seriously interfere with the transportation of supplies for Rosecrans's army to Nashville, by way of the river. Forrest had been at Palmyra for the same purpose; and now, at a little past noon on the 3d of February,

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he demanded the surrender of Fort Donelson and the garrison. Harding was weak in numbers, but strong in heart. He defied his foe; and when the Confederates moved up to attack, he sent out skirmishers to impede their progress as much as possible, while a horseman was hastening to Fort Henry for aid, and a little steamer was speeding down the river, to summon to his assistance some gun-boats then convoying a fleet of transports up the stream. The skirmishers fell back, and when Wheeler and his men were within cannon-range, Harding opened upon them his 32-pounder and four smaller guns with great effect. From that time until after dark, Harding maintained a gallant fight with his foe, losing forty-five of his sixty artillery