They recalled, too, that he was master upon the waters, that there was no Southern fleet to face his, as it sailed up the Southern rivers.

The telegraph was already announcing that the gunboats, which had been handled with such skill and courage, would be in the Cumberland ready to co-operate with Grant when he should move on Donelson.
Buell was moving also to form another link in the steel chain that was intended to bind the Confederacy in the west.

Here again the mastery of the rivers was of supreme value to the North.

Buell embarked his army on boats on Green River in the very heart of Kentucky, descended that river to the Ohio, passing down the latter to Smithland, where the Cumberland, coming up from the south, entered it, and met another convoy destined for the huge invasion.
But the first convoy had come, also by boat, from another direction, and from points far distant.

There were fresh regiments of farmers and pioneers from Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.