I felt sure that all the troops would be up by that time.
Fort Henry occupies a bend in the river which gave the guns in the water battery a direct fire down the stream.

The camp outside the fort was intrenched, with rifle pits and outworks two miles back on the road to Donelson and Dover.

The garrison of the fort and camp was about 2,800, with strong reinforcements from Donelson halted some miles out.

There were seventeen heavy guns in the fort.

The river was very high, the banks being overflowed except where the bluffs come to the water's edge.
A portion of the ground on which Fort Henry stood was two feet deep in water.