"General Grant means to push things." The desultory firing, those warning guns, ceased entirely, and for a while both armies stood in almost complete silence.

Then a Northern battery on the right opened with a tremendous crash and the battle for Donelson had begun.

A Southern battery replied at once and the firing spread along the whole vast curve.

Shells and solid shot whistled through the air, but the troops back of the guns crouched in hasty entrenchments, and waited.
The great artillery combat went on for some time.

To many of the lads on either side it seemed for hours.