The Union Gun-Boats Advancing Up the Tennessee River to the Attack of Fort Henry
Today marks the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Fort Henry—a Confederate earthern fort on the Tennessee River. A few days earlier—February 4th and 5th—Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant landed his divisions. On February 6th, he launched a joint army-navy assault with Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote, whoses seven gunboats bombarded the from the river. Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman, commander of the fort’s garrison, soon realized that the fort would fall so he escorted most of his force out of the area before surrendering his fleet. Fort Henry’s fall was an important victory for the Union, opening the Tennessee River.
Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, February 22, 1862.
