MARCH 5TH, 1862: Flag Officer Foote observed that the gunboats could not immediately attack the Confederate defenses at Island No. 10 downriver from Columbus. "The gunboats have been so much cut up in the late engagements at Forts Henry and Donelson in the pilot houses, hulls, and disabled machinery, that I could not induce the pilots to go in them again in a fight until they are repaired.
"I regret this, as we ought to move in the quickest possible time, but I have declined doing it, being utterly unprepared, although General Halleck says go, and not wait for repairs; but that can not be done without creating a stampede amongst the pilots and most of the newly made officers, to say nothing of the disasters which much follow if the rebels fight as they have done of late."
--Old B-Runner
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