The gunboats did not arrive the next day, as expected, but the time was occupied in perfecting the investment of the place, and in feeling of the enemy. Some smart skirmishes occurred, but nothing of importance to either side resulted from them. A gallant attempt was made by McClernand to capture a battery, but it failed. At night Grant's line extended for three miles along a series of hills parallel to the enemy's line. The reënforcements did not arrive, and Foote's squadron was not heard from. The weather changed from heavy rain to intense cold, and the thermometer fell nearly to zero. The troops suffered fearfully from cold; for without tents, and without sufficient clothing, they bivouacked in line of battle, sleeping, if they slept at all, on their arms. The rebel pickets were within easy range, and no fires could be built. Some of the raw troops had even thrown away their blankets in the toilsome march through the mud. Before morning a driving storm of hail and snow set in, horribly increasing the sufferings of the troops. What a terrible price was paid for the integrity of this blessed Union! What an awful sacrifice for the liberty in which we now rejoice! I tremble when I think of the horrors of that dreadful night, in the snow, and the sleet, and the piercing cold, where the devoted patriots lay under the fire of the enemy! All night long the rebel pickets fired, and the groans of the wounded and the dying mingled with the howls of the storm. All the horrors of war seemed to be blended together in one discordant mass--hunger, cold, and all the torturing agony of suspense and anxiety. From what I know of Grant, I am sure he suffered the most, for the tortures of his men were his own; but peace and freedom were the glittering prize for which he fought and endured the bitter anguish of that horrid night. I wonder that even his iron will did not yield in the presence of the calamities which were there heaped upon him and his men; for he endured all that the humblest soldier endured. Besides the burden they had to bear, he carried the responsibility of the enterprise upon his shoulders; but he was as confident as he was patient and self-sacrificing. For the glorious cause in which he had embarked, he endured all which that awful period had in store for him. Glory, honor, and an immortal name to the man who had the fortitude to endure the horrors of that terrible night! I am amazed as I view him, the thinking power of the expedition, resolutely maintaining his bold front through the accumulated miseries of that gloomy trial-hour! Think of the man who had the hardihood to beleaguer a fortress garrisoned by twenty-one thousand men with fifteen thousand, and to stand by them confidently through such a storm and such a night! It was watching and waiting for the morning. Conscious of his comparative weakness, Grant sent a messenger to Fort Henry for the garrison which had been left there.