Crossing the rifle-pits, the Unionists were in the enemy’s camp, though still more than half a mile from the fort. Here were the wall tents of a regiment, all standing in complete order, with the camp-fires still blazing, the copper pots of soup for dinner boiling over them, and the half-made biscuits in the pans. Inside the tents everything was just as the enemy had left it—pistols, shot-guns, muskets, bowie-knives, clothing, tables partially set for dinner, letters half-written, with the ink scarcely dry upon the open page, cards thrown down in the midst of the game, overcoats, blankets, trunks, carpet sacks, and so on through all the articles of camp life. It seemed as if the men were out at guard-mounting, and expected to return in ten minutes. Along the river bank were long rows of log barracks, enough to accommodate two or three thousand men, and finished comfortably. Inside they bore the same indications that the inmates had decamped without a moment’s warning. ADVANCE OF NATIONAL GUNBOATS UP THE TENNESSEE RIVER. In accordance with the instructions of Commodore Foote, given before the attack on Fort Henry, immediately after the capture of the fort, February 6, the gunboats Conestoga, Lexington and Tyler, under the command of Lieutenant Phelps, advanced up the river twenty-five miles, to the crossing of the Bowling Green and Memphis railway, breaking up a portion of the railway bridge, and rendering it impassable. They next proceeded to destroy the rebel gunboats and transports, capturing large quantities of munitions of war and supplies, and advanced up the river for upwards of two hundred miles to Eastport, in Mississippi, and Florence, at the foot of Muscle Shoals, in Alabama, annihilating the rebel flotilla in the Tennessee river. The expedition was welcomed at every point by the inhabitants. Twenty-five Tennesseans enlisted at Cerro Gordo, where also three steamers were seized, containing 250,000 feet of valuable ship timber. Toward the latter part of February, intelligence reached Fort Henry that the rebels were fortifying a point on the Tennessee river, near the Mississippi State line, whereupon Lieutenant-Commanding William Gwin, with the gunboats Tyler and Lexington, were sent forward to reconnoitre the position. Having learned that the rebels had occupied and were fortifying a place called Pittsburgh, nine miles above, on the right bank of the river, he determined to attack them. At twelve M. the Taylor, followed by the Lexington, Lieutenant-Commanding Shirk, proceeded up the river. When within twelve hundred yards of Pittsburgh, they were opened upon by the rebel batteries, consisting of six or eight field pieces, some rifled. Getting within one thousand yards, the Taylor and Lexington opened a well-directed fire, and had the satisfaction of silencing the batteries.