. Life and services of Gen. U. S. Grant . The weather was cold, the roads slij)pery and muddy, andthe river filled wath floating ice. McClernand occupied FortJefferson, marched through BlandviUe, and to within the dis-tance of a mile from the defences of Columbus. He was recalledon the 20tli, havbig discovered new roads and obtained muchvaluable information for a future advance in force. Indeed,the results of this rapid and vigorous movement, especially sofar as the column from Cairo was concerned, was a minuteacquaintance witli tlie roads, streams, and general topographyof the country, which
. Life and services of Gen. U. S. Grant . The weather was cold, the roads slij)pery and muddy, andthe river filled wath floating ice. McClernand occupied FortJefferson, marched through BlandviUe, and to within the dis-tance of a mile from the defences of Columbus. He was recalledon the 20tli, havbig discovered new roads and obtained muchvaluable information for a future advance in force. Indeed,the results of this rapid and vigorous movement, especially sofar as the column from Cairo was concerned, was a minuteacquaintance witli tlie roads, streams, and general topographyof the country, which would have been of incalculable valuehad we been compelled to operate directly against of our gunboats had gone down the river at the same FORT HENRY. 37 time, and driven three rebel armed vessels back under tlieshelter of the guns of Columbus. Before q^ttempting to present the succeeding movements,based upon the information obtained from this and other re-connoissances, let us glance for a moment at*ihe rebel position. Com. OPEEATIONS IX ■WESTEESf KEN^TTJCKY. Columbus, twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio, withits bluffs two hundred feet high, was strongly fortified byheavy batteries which swej)t the Mississippi above and landward defences, at first weak, were being dailystrengthened; and the rebel press, calling it the Gibraltar ofAmerica, declared that it would seal the gTeat river, until allnations should acknowiedge the independence of the SouthernConfederacy. To extend their line eastward, covering Nashville in thatdirection, they had, beginning in August, 1861, fortifiedBowling Green, a small place on the Big Barreirf Kiver, butnaturally well adapted to defence, and of strategic importanceas being on the Louis\ille and Nashville Railroad. The BigBarren Biver is at certain seasons navigable for small vessel:-,by the Ohio and Green rivers, from Louisville. The river is verywinding in its vicinity, and in all the bends are steep hills 38 GRANT A
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1868
