Hey everyone, welcome to episode 94 of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

With this episode, we'll wrap up the story of the Ford Henry Ford Donaldson campaign.

When we started off, as y'all will recall, Brigadier General Elysses S. Grant and flag

officer Andrew Foote were given the green light by their superior Major General Henry

Hallock to attack Ford Henry on the Tennessee River.

The federal troops were put ashore just downriver from the Ford and Grant planned to overwhelm

Henry with a combined Army Navy attack on February 6th, 1862.

But the same reigns that had already nearly flooded Fort Henry had also turned the local

dirt roads into muddy quagmires, so Grant's advance on the morning of the 6th was slowed

to a crawl.

But most of the Confederate defenders had already made a hasty exit, heading for Fort Donaldson

12 miles to the east, and so even before Grant's mud-spattered troops arrived at Fort Henry,

Foote's iron clad's and timber clads attacked the place and forced its surrender after

a short bombardment.

The victory opened the Tennessee River to the Yankee gunboats, which could range up the

river all the way into the deep south.

And even before the smoke had cleared at Fort Henry, the three federal timber clads proceeded

to do just that, raiding up river all the way to Florence in northwestern Alabama.

...