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.
On the return of Captain Walke to Fort Henry on the 10th, I had requested him to take the vessels that had accompanied him on his expedition up the Tennessee, and get possession of the Cumberland as far up towards Donelson as possible.