He left General Lew.  Wallace with 2,500 men.  With the remainder of his division he occupied our left, extending to Hickman creek.  McClernand was on the right and covered the roads running south and south-west from Dover.  His right extended to the back-water up the ravine opening into the Cumberland south of the village.  The troops were not intrenched, but the nature of the ground was such that they were just as well protected from the fire of the enemy as if rifle-pits had been thrown up.  Our line was generally along the crest of ridges.  The artillery was protected by being sunk in the ground.  The men who were not serving the guns were perfectly covered from fire on taking position a little back from the crest.  The greatest suffering was from want of shelter.  It was midwinter and during the siege we had rain and snow, thawing and freezing alternately.  It would not do to allow camp-fires except far down the hill out of sight of the enemy, and it would not do to allow many of the troops to remain there at the same time.  In the march over from Fort Henry numbers of the men had thrown away their blankets and overcoats.  There was therefore much discomfort and absolute suffering.

During the 12th and 13th, and until the arrival of Wallace and Thayer on the 14th, the National forces, composed of but 15,000 men, without intrenchments, confronted an intrenched army of 21,000, without conflict further than what was brought on by ourselves.  Only one gunboat had arrived.  There was a little skirmishing each day, brought on by the movement of our troops in securing commanding positions; but there was no actual fighting during this time except once, on the 13th, in front of McClernand’s command.  That general had undertaken to capture a battery of the enemy which was annoying his men.  Without orders or authority he sent three regiments to make the assault.  The battery was in the main line of the enemy, which was defended by his whole army present.  Of course the assault was a failure, and of course the loss on our side was great for the number of men engaged.  In this assault Colonel William Morrison fell badly wounded.  Up to this time the surgeons with the army had no difficulty in finding room in the houses near our line for all the sick and wounded; but now hospitals were overcrowded.  Owing, however, to the energy and skill of the surgeons the suffering was not so great as it might have been.  The hospital arrangements at Fort Donelson were as complete as it was possible to make them, considering the inclemency of the weather and the lack of tents, in a sparsely settled country where the houses were generally of but one or two rooms.