6 Feb, 1962: Thursday

Government - Confederates
President DAvis spends time writing discontented officers over friction in command.

Miitary - Confederate
Brigadier GEneral Lloyd Tilghman, in command of the defense of Fort Henry, knowing himself to be under threat from both land and water, sends most of his garrison via hospital boat across to the stronger Fort Donelson on the Cumberland.

Tilghman and a few men stay behind to defend Fort Henry and delay pursuit.

At 11 am, Flag Officer Andrew Foote of the Union with his four ironclads, followed by three gunboats, attack the fort. The defenders fire back and 59 shots hit the flotilla, only a few causing damage. The boiler of Essex is peirced, scalding 28 officers and men.

Shortly before 2 pm, Tilghman surrenders. Captured are 12 officers, 66 men, and 16 patients on the hospital boat.

The Confederates lost 5 killed, 6 wounded, 5 disabled and 5 missing for a total of 21 casualties. The Union forces lose 11 men killed, 31 injured, and 5 missing.

Grant's army of 15,000 does not arrive in time for the battle.

At Fort Donelson, Brigadier GEneral Bushrod R. Johnson succeeds Tilghman in command, and calls for reinforcements.

Military - Union
With Fort Henry in the hands of the Union, a major impediment to the advance south is removed. Union troops are now able to bypass the Mississippi and use the Tennessee. However, ten miles away on the Cumberland is a much more formidable fortification, Fort Donelson.

Foote takes his ironclads northward for repairs.

Alabama
Florence
The three wooden gunboats used in the attack on Fort Henry proceed on a raid up the Tennessee to Florence, Alabama.

South Carolina
There is a Union reconnaissance to Wright River.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971