ÿhis Brigade and assigned to the command of our right, extending from the Fort to the angle, half a mile. From this point, and on Buckner s left, the Brigade of Colonel Heiman held the trenches. Next on his left was Drake s Brigade, to which the 15th Arkansas belonged. Then followed other Brigades of Virginia, Mississippi, and Tennessee troops commanded as a Division, by Bushrod Johnson, and extending to our extreme left.
On the 13th, General J. B. Floyd arrived with his Brigade of Virginians and took position on the right, reinforcing Buckner. He was now the Senior Officer and assumed full command, and assigned to the command of the entire left wing of the army, General Gideon Pillow, who had arrived on the 10th, being next in rank to General Floyd.
The defensive works of Ft. Donelson, when completed, (461) consisted of the rifle-pits, heretofore mentioned, with a number of field batteries behind breastworks along the line, and the Fort proper on the river. This Fort was well located for defense of the river, but was commanded by higher hills on two sides of it. Its armament consisted of two batteries, one of eight guns and the other of four guns, mounted and in position thirty feet above the then high stage of the water. There was one thirty-two pound rifle gun, one ten inch Columbiad, three thirty-two pound Carronades, and seven thirty-pounders.
With the exception of Fort Henry, no more ill-advised selection could have been made of location for defense. The whole area enclosed was overlooked by higher hills on the west and south, in easy range of heavy guns, which the enemy would mount on them when necessary and thus render the place untenable. With the exception of an occasional shot between the pickets and the fire of the enemy s sharp-shooters,CHNKWKS ”øÿÿÿÿTEXTTEXTÜ FDPPFDPP FDPCFDPCŒSTSHSTSHŽ STSHSTSH Ž2SYIDSYIDPŽSGP SGP dŽINK INK hŽBTEPPLC lŽBTECPLC „ŽFONTFONTœŽ