It was on Feb. 2, 1862, that the first great move was made af-ter Bull Run. This broke the line of the foe at the West and gave the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er, a-bove Vicks-burg, in-to the hands of the North. Com. Foote, with four gun-boats, and Gen. Grant with his troops, moved a-gainst Fort Hen-ry on the Ten-nes-see Riv-er, and on Feb. 2d, made it give up. A week went by and on the Cum-ber-land Riv-er, which there runs near the Ten-nes-see Riv-er, an-oth-er fort of the foe, Don-el-son, twelve miles from Fort Hen-ry, was tak-en by the same men. There was a stiff fight at Fort Don-el-son and 2,300 of Un-ion sol-diers fell. At last that fort was tak-en and 15,000 pris-on-ers with it. All the troops of the foe then had to leave the State of Ken-tuc-ky. All the friends of the Un-ion cause were full of joy. [Illustration: THE ATTACK ON FORT DONELSON.] Just in the midst of the great good news from the West came a thing most sad to the hearts of the Pres-i-dent’s fam-i-ly. One dear boy fell ill. It was Wil-lie Lin-coln. While full of the weight of cares for his land, there came nights and days when it fell to Lin-coln’s lot to have to watch the slow steps of death. “It is the hard-est tri-al of my life,” said the sad fa-ther. At last the dear child was gone. One said to the Pres-i-dent, “A vast num-ber pray for you to-day.” Mr. Lin-coln said “I am glad of that. I want them to pray for me. I need their pray-ers; and I will try to go to God with my sor-row. I wish I had a child-like faith. I trust God will give it to me. My moth-er had it. She died man-y years a-go. I re-mem-ber her pray-ers; they have al-ways fol-lowed me. They have clung to me through life.” A new style of boat, a small queer craft, was brought forth by the war. She did a great work in Hamp-ton Roads when ships of wood of the North, as they lay at an-chor there, had gone down, when shot at and “rammed” by a new sort of foe. The Se-cret-a-ry of the Na-vy at that time was Mr. Welles. He heard that the foe were to raise the hull of the “Mer-ri-mac,” a fine craft which the foe had hurt and sunk at Nor-folk. They would raise the ship, cov-er it with i-ron, and thus make a ves-sel which would be of far more use in war than an-y thing then built. The As-sist-ant-Sec’y of the Na-vy, Mr. Gus-ta-vus V. Fox, went to talk with the Pres-i-dent. Lin-coln spoke to him a-bout the new craft and said: “We must not let the foe get a-head of us in such an im-por-tant thing as pla-ting ves-sels with i-ron.” This thought sank deep in-to the mind of Mr. Fox, and plans were soon set on foot to see what could be done to get some “i-ron-clads.” Capt. Er-ics-son made a mod-el of a craft ne’er be-fore seen. It had a hull un-der wa-ter, and an i-ron-clad tur-ret which could be turned.