On the 31st, Brigadier-General Jefferson C. Davis with three brigades, made a bold dash in the direction of Rover and Franklin. During an absence of thirteen days the two brigades of cavalry he had with him visited eight towns and secured one hundred and forty-one prisoners, including two colonels and several other officers, without the loss of a man. BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON, TENN. On the 3rd of February, 1863, Major-General Wheeler, Brigadier-General Wharton and Colonel Forrest, with five thousand Confederates and twelve cannon, marched on Fort Donelson. They were met half a mile from the fort by a skirmishing party, under Captain McClanahan, sent out by Colonel A. C. Harding, commanding the garrison, which consisted of nine companies of the Eighty-third Illinois, one company of the Fifth Iowa cavalry, and two sections of Flood’s battery, in all about six hundred effective men. The battery consisted of four rifled brass pieces, in addition to which there was one siege gun, a rifled thirty-two pounder, in position. The skirmishers fell inward slowly, firing upon the enemy as they retired, until they were called in. The Confederates now displayed a white flag and demanded the surrender of the fort and garrison. Colonel Harding replied that he “would fight while he had a man left.” He had formed his line of battle, (in the shape of a crescent,) one flank on the river and the other extending to a brick building near the intrenchments; he had sent for gunboats, and was content to abide the issue. The enemy completely encompassed the town; and the fire of artillery opened on both sides. His men were all mounted; and made charge after charge upon the gallant defenders, whose Springfield rifles emptied scores of saddles at each assault. The rebel General Wharton dismounted his men, gained the rear of the town, and they then forced their way into it. Colonel Forrest, who had fired his troops with daring emulation, led his brigade, in line more than a mile long, to the attack. It was met by a perfect storm of lead. The troops pressed on through the fatal hail, driving the Federals from their rifle-pits and chasing them into the town, but here the pursuers were greeted with a deadly shower that threatened them with annihilation, and they wavered, turned and fled. But they were soon rallied, reformed, and again urged into the mouth of destruction; and, in this spirit, was the contest kept up from noon till half past seven o’clock, when another flag of truce was sent in with a second demand for an unconditional surrender.