The London Times on the Fall of Fort Henry

A success has been achieved by the Federal arms in the reduction of a work called Fort Henry, on the Tennessee river, and the capture of its garrison, consisting of sixty men.  The narrative of the action does not present any feature of interest.  It was the usual American fighting a long cannonade on both sides with little loss, and then a surrender, hailed with loud rejoicings by the victors.  In this case there would hardly have been a casualty had not a shot struck the boiler of one of the gunboats and scalded to death thirty-two of her crew.  But though as a military exploit, the capture of Fort Henry calls for little notice, yet the intelligence is interesting as showing the position of the contending parties in the West, and the course with which the warfare in that region is taking.

Gen. Beauregard, who is said to have taken a command of the Confederate army of the West, has no doubt been directed to defend the country in the neighborhood of Bowling Green, and to prevent any march from that region to Nashville, the capital of Tennessee.  Provided he refrains from the foolhardiness which led to the late defeat, it is probable that the advance of the Federal troops southward can be effectually checked by an inferior force holding the strong positions which present themselves in a rough forest country.

The scheme of the Federals for the deliverance of Kentucky and the invasion of Tennessee, if carried out with energy, will test the strength of the South in that region severely.  Of the resources of the Confederates is difficult to form an estimate, but it is probable that they do not want men, however deficient they may be in arms and gunpowder. – The dispatch of Gen. Beauregard shows that they are fully aware of the importance of the Western campaign, and as the North also has an active General at the head of its army, we look for a display of energy on both sides as soon as the spring is sufficiently advanced.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 2