Blue and Gray Weekly, No. 13

This issue of Blue and Gray Weekly contains the opening chapters of "Fort Donelson; or, The Boys in Blue's Great Charge," by Lieutenant Harry Lee. The serial follows the Fairdale Blues, a Union youth militia company commanded by Captain Jack Clark, during the siege of Fort Donelson in February 1862. After scouting near the Confederate fort, the Blues receive a warning from scout Sanders that Confederate cavalry under General Nathan Bedford Forrest are approaching with two thousand mounted troops and artillery. Despite overwhelming odds, Clark resolves to defend his position rather than retreat. The company constructs defensive fortifications on a wooded hillside with ravines and creeks providing natural barriers. When Forrest attacks at night, the Blues hold their ground through sustained musket fire, then execute a flank charge to capture the Confederate battery—the focal point of the narrative tension.