AUTUMNI OF 1863



teers in Illinois that he was appointed by the
governor of that State colonel of the 21st Regi-
mnent of Illinois volunteers. His ability presently
brought him  command of t'he Department of
Cairo, and when he capture l Fort Henry, on
Februayl 6, 1862, and, following a sharp defeat,
in his temporary absence, of his forces besieging
Fort Donelson, availed himself promptly of a
fatal error of the Confederate commander and
captured this fort also, with its garrison of nearly
1 2,000 men, he began to be esteemed a man to
reckon with. In command of the Army of the
Tennessee, he had narrowly missed having his
anmy destroyed at Pittsburg Landing in the first
lav's fight of the battle of Shiloh, and had prob-
ably7 been saved by the death of Albert Sidney
,Johnston in the hour of vic-Lory, and certainly
by the opportune arrival of Buell's army\, next
(lav. But he had shown the resolution and
serenity of a constant mind and had continued
figlhting next day as stoutly as if he had won the
day before. He had indeed the gift never to
know when he was beaten. At Vicksburg he
had increased greatly his reputation by his able
transfer of his army from one side of the 'Mis-
sissippi to the other, followed by his brilliant
manuouvres and the successful siege and capture
                     479