Union theater commander Henry W. Halleck had given Brigadier General U.S. Grant permission the previous week for a joint land and river assault on the Confederate Tennessee River forts in western Tennessee. Two Union divisions began boarding transports on February 3, 1862 and two days later were on the ground near Fort Henry, Tennessee. Meanwhile, naval commander Andrew Hull Foote gathered his gunboats to attack from the water. (By John Osborne)