On the evening of February 11th, 1862, Brigadier
General Ulysses S. Grant holds a council of war meeting with his generals, all but one
of whom support his plans for an overland attack on Fort Donelson. The only general
who objects with reservations about the plan is Brigadier General John A. McClernand. The
next day, Grant’s expeditionary command begins moving out from its staging area at
the recently- subjugated Fort Henry, marching east overland towards Fort Donelson. Meanwhile,
Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote begins maneuvering his Western Flotilla into the Cumberland River
for a naval bombardment of the Confederate fort. However, unlike Fort Henry, Donelson
will prove to be a tough nut for the Federals to crack.
The Union columns begin marching via the Ridge and Telegraph Roads on the morning of February
12th. Now, accompanied by mild weather and quickly drying roads, Brigadier Generals McClernand
and Charles F. Smith set out with their commands, leaving Brigadier General Lew Wallace and
2,500 men to guard the Federal base at Fort Henry. The way to Fort Donelson and the nearby
town of Dover lay over steep hills and deep ravines. But an air of gaiety pervades the
march as it seems like a picture-book war in Dixie. Soldiers ditch their excess overcoats
and blankets. Nowhere do the Confederates seem to impede the Union troops’ advance.
At the same time that Grant is marching his command overland, Foote and his gunboats are
escorting troop transports carrying reinforcements up the Cumberland. The USS Carondelet precedes
the waterborne column with orders to announce its arrival to Grant by firing a few shells
at Fort Donelson. By the evening of the 12th, Grant’s land force has moved virtually unopposed
to the outskirts of the Confederate position surrounding Dover.
Suddenly, General McClernand’s cavalry patrols run into resistance about a mile from the
Rebel defenses when troopers under the rugged but as of yet unsung Colonel Nathan Bedford
Forrest set up a roadblock. Arrival of Union infantry soon forces the gray-clad horsemen
back inside the Confederate perimeter. Remembering Pillow’s ineptitude during the Mexican War,
Grant had boasted that he would march to Fort Donelson unopposed. The Tennessee politician
turned general was absent at that moment, having gone to Cumberland City to argue with
Brigadier General John B. Floyd for standing firm at the fort. But he had left Brigadier
General Simon B. Buckner in charge with orders to avoid pitched battle. The Kentuckian does
so, and the Union besiegers arrive without much difficulty.
Slowly, Generals Smith and McClernand take up positions to carry out Grant’s plan.
They will surround the fort and wait for Foote and his gunboats to repeat their easy victory
at Fort Henry. The Union Navy could batter the Confederates into submission. In General
Grant’s view, this will save time and lives. As the army commander and his staff set up
headquarters at the widow Crisp’s cabin on a slope along the eastern bank of Hickman
Creek behind Smith’s line, the rattle of musketry suddenly cuts through the otherwise-calm
winter evening to announce the first contact between the two armies.
The stage is set when the USS Carondelet briefly announces the Union Navy’s presence on the
Cumberland River. Slowly, Smith’s soldiers edge up a high ridge closer to the rifle pits
held by Buckner’s division closest to the fort. McClernand’s soldiers begin to march
toward their right to reach the river above the town. With darkness descending over Fort
Donelson, however, and lacking complete information on the situation, Grant’s army soon settles
down to await daylight when they can complete their encirclement of the Confederate force.
That night, the Federals peer across the intervening ravines at the luminous campfires in the Confederates’
armed camp beyond the earthworks. The Southerners are backed up against the Cumberland River
with avenues of escape fast disappearing. But the Rebs had come here to fight, not run,
and down at the river, Lieutenant Colonel Milton Haynes keeps his water battery gunners
at work, if only to boost morale for facing the dreaded Yankee gunboats the next day.
On the river itself, two remaining steamboats left to Confederate service shuttle Floyd’s
Virginians in from Cumberland City amid flaming torches and cheers from the shoreline. When
General Floyd arrives in person at dawn on Thursday, February 13th, he sets up headquarters
in a picturesque hotel in Dover, near the upper steamboat landing, and assesses the
situation. Two sharp infantry attacks and a naval bombardment
mark the first day of fighting at the Battle of Fort Donelson - February 13th. This is
seen as a test of Confederate strength and defenses, but not a pitched battle. All three
of the actions begin in the morning and continue into the afternoon, set against a backdrop
of continuous and crackling sharpshooter fire and occasional artillery bursts. Generals
Smith and McClernand are to demonstrate but not attack the enemy. They almost immediately
ignore these orders from Grant. The army commander had also instructed Commander
Henry Walke and the USS Carondelet to make a diversionary bombardment of the fort to
enable the land forces to complete their encirclement. Walke draws heavy fire from Haynes’ water
battery gunners without accomplishing much, but as the soldiers’ slang of the day would
have it, “the ball was opened.” As it turns out, the main land fights are of greatest
interest to the Federals, since they indicate that Fort Donelson’s investments might be
more difficult than anticipated. The initial fight on February 13th begins
on Brigadier General C. F. Smith’s front as his Second Division tries to move closer
to General Buckner’s position on the Eddyville Road sector. No one has decent maps, and to
uncover Confederate battery positions, Smith directs Battery D, 1st Missouri Artillery,
to shell the Rebel defenses. Then, after a hearty breakfast, the white-haired brigadier
orders a simultaneous advance of Colonel John Cook’s 3rd Brigade and Colonel Jacob G.
Lauman’s 4th Brigade. Out marches the enthusiastic Northerners in battle array, a clear violation
of General Grant’s orders not to bring on a major battle. A hot fire from the Southern
defenders in the entrenchments also disorganizes Smith’s movement. By late afternoon, Lauman
and Cook have successfully extricated their men with a nasty firefight, leaving nearly
a hundred dead comrades on the hillside before Buckner’s earthworks.
The thrill of first battle is muted for both sides by sights and sounds of the first casualties.
Even Commander Walke’s Carondelet and the water batteries suffer losses as a prominent
Confederate gun captain is cut down by a screw-tap loosened by the explosion of a Union shell,
and one 128-pounder Confederate projectile knifes through the gunboat’s side, skipping
about like a wild animal, wounding several seamen with wood splinters and bursting a
steam heater before dropping, still hissing, over the side of the ship and into the water.
Young gunboat crewmen learn quickly that the ironclads offer no safe haven from the danger.
Out in the woods, the redoubtable Nathan Bedford Forrest - just beginning to earn fame as one
of the finest and toughest cavalry officers of the war - draws blood. Annoyed by one pesky
marksman from the famed Birge’s Western Sharpshooters, he had borrowed a Maynard rifle
from one of his officers and shot the offender out of a tree. This young sharpshooter would
be one of the first of many “Yankees” killed by Forrest in the war.
Artillery fire also sounds that morning in McClernand’s sector as his men undertake
to march around Dover via the Wynn’s Ferry and Pinery Roads. Illinois cavalrymen first
catch sight of the Cumberland as they mount Dudley’s Hill, and they quickly draw fire
from the Confederate entrenchments and artillery positions in that sector. One especially nettlesome
battery - Captain Frank Maney’s Tennessee Battery from Humphrey County - peppers McClernand’s
marching Federals with long-range fire. General McClernand determines to put an end to this
impertinence. In defiance of Grant’s instructions once
again, he sends a brigade crashing through debris-clogged ravines against the main Confederate
position in an attempt to silence the offending guns. Colonel William R. Morrison’s 3rd
Brigade makes the assault under the personal leadership of Colonel Isham N. Haynie of the
48th Illinois, sweeping down the from the Wynn’s Ferry Road into Erin Hollow in parade-ground
formation. The fight ends in fifteen minutes. As with
General Smith’s “reconnaissance in force”, abatis, accurate enemy fire, poorly-disciplined
attackers, and unfavorable terrain cuts the Haynie-Morrison attack to ribbons. Another
150 Federal dead litter the hillside near the offending battery’s position. But here,
dry leaves catch fire during the fighting and threaten a cruel death to the wounded
attackers. When the shooting ceases, humane Confederates leap from behind their works
and rush out into no-man’s land to rescue their erstwhile enemies. Minutes later, the
two sides are once again back to shooting one another.
Both sides expect to see the the gunboats attack Fort Donelson, for Grant has great
faith that his friend Foote can win another striking victory as he had done at Fort Henry.
Nevertheless, the Flag Officer is hesitant as a result of the punishment his flotilla
had suffered in the earlier battle. So Grant orders Brigadier General Lew Wallace to bring
reinforcements overland from the Tennessee River post and forms them into a Third Division,
positioned between Smith and McClernand to cover the Indian Creek valley sector. Grant’s
command is now approaching 21,000 men surrounding Dover as he waits impatiently for the gunboats
to do something. Overnight, temperatures plummet to 12 degrees
Fahrenheit, and cold winds whip snow, sleet, and freezing rain against the soldiers huddled
on both sides of the lines. Fires are forbidden for fear they will disclose positions to the
enemy. Many young Union volunteers wish they had not so quickly discarded blankets and
overcoats on the march from Fort Henry. Few units in either army are as blessed as Confederate
Colonel Roger Hanson’s 2nd Kentucky of Brigadier General Buckner’s Right Wing with their
hooded parkas. Many of their Southern comrades have to wrap themselves in old quilts and
blankets and even cut up pieces of carpet to guard against the brutal weather. It was
a night of "great suffering and hardship," recalled one Union brigade commander. Neither
army is especially ready to fight when a cold dawn emerges on Valentine’s Day, February
14th. But Grant is up early and looking for action. He and his staff ride to the river
at about 9:00 AM to consult with Foote aboard his flagship.
Grant directs the newly-arrived troops aboard the transports to leave their comfortable
quarters and join the shivering soldiers surrounding Fort Donelson. Then he turns to Foote and
persuades him that the gunboats might simply run by the water batteries and enfilade the
Rebel positions, thus forcing surrender. Foote wants to await the arrival of flatboats carrying
heavy mortars to subdue the fort. Grant says no, declaring that the army needs support,
and that it is time to finish their work. The grumbling flag officer calls his boat
captains together, gives them instructions about preparing for combat, and then turns
to his battle plan. They will proceed as they had done at Fort Henry.
The Confederate gunners, meanwhile, had remained at their guns all that frigid night, anticipating
an advance by the gunboats under the cover of stormy darkness. Occasionally they fire
a shot down the river just to annoy Foote’s flotilla and the transports. Early on Saint
Valentine’s Day, Captain Reuben Ross in the upper battery spots a large plume of smoke
indicating something is afoot. He sends word to Floyd’s headquarters, but the Confederate
generals are busy with other matters. As Floyd indicates in a telegram to General Johnston
claiming he now faces 40,000 Yankees, “I will fight them this evening.” Indeed, Floyd,
Pillow, and Buckner intend a surprise foray to break the land siege. It takes time to
muster the troops in position and, at the pivotal moment for the breakout attempt, the
gunboats hover into view on the river. Flag Officer Foote’s flotilla comes around
a bend in the river at about 2:00 PM on February 14th. Steaming against a floodtide of the
muddy river, it takes a half hour to close with the water batteries. The City Series
ironclads USS St. Louis, Louisville, Pittsburg, and Carondelet, lead the van steaming abreast
as at Fort Henry. Then comes the timberclads USS Tyler and Conestoga about one quarter-
mile in the rear. Meanwhile, Captain Ross sends some shots toward the Union transports,
scattering them after they have landed their human cargoes. He then turns his battery on
the gunboats, which had opened fire about one and one-half miles from the batteries.
As the craft move to point-blank range, they suffer cruel punishment from Ross and his
heavy guns. The Rebel gunners have carefully plotted ranges by markings on trees along
the riverbanks, and they have devised special sighting devices on their cannons. Floodwaters
have already swept a barricade of floating trees some 900 yards from the batteries. It
is up to the water batteries to save the day on their own.
The naval action at Fort Donelson assumes a different cast from that at Fort Henry as
Foote closes to within 450 yards of the batteries shortly after midafternoon. These batteries
are more elevated above the water than Fort Henry’s row of guns, and the plunging fire
from the two water batteries at Fort Donelson soon finds the gunboats’ vulnerability.
They rake the craft fore and aft with shot and shell. Before long, all but the gunboat
Carondelet are drifting back downstream in defeat. During the artillery exchange, Flag
Officer Foote is wounded, ironically in the foot. His flagship, USS St. Louis, has been
reduced to shambles during the exchange. Shivering Confederates all over Fort Donelson’s perimeter
take up cries of victory. They had not expected to beat the gunboats as, at one point, an
excited Nathan Bedford Forrest shouted to an aide: “Parson, for God’s sake, pray;
nothing but Almighty God can save that fort!” The inexperienced Confederate gunners have
achieved an astonishing 50 percent hit record on the gunboats. The humiliated naval officer
counts fifty-four dead or dying among his severely-battered craft. As another harsh
winter night settles over the gloomy Union besiegers, they listen to the celebrations
across in the Confederate lines. It is the Confederacy’s greatest triumph at Fort Donelson,
and Grant is anything but sanguine now about prospects for a quick victory. He would let
the Navy make its own excuses for defeat. But he writes to his wife, Julia, that night
that the taking of Fort Donelson, “bids fair to be a long job.”
The moment of decision had arrived for the Confederacy in the West. Announcement of the
Confederate triumph flashes over telegraph wires to Johnston, countering earlier predictions
of dire defeat at the hands of the dreaded gunboats. Johnston wires back to Floyd: “If
you lose the fort, bring your troops to Nashville if possible." But with victory seemingly in
their grasp, the brigadiers hesitate about their next step.
General Floyd convenes a council of war at which the participants determine whether to
continue the battle or fight their way out of the Federal trap. Pillow wants to remain;
Floyd and Buckner prefer to get out under the cover of a surprise attack the next morning.
Details of the scheme are murky. Pillow understands that when the avenue of escape opens, the
troops would return to their rifle pits to secure baggage, artillery, rations, the water
battery gunners, and other troops. On the other hand, Buckner thinks that the attackers
will keep going once they have breached the Union lines. There would be no turning back;
gunners, supplies, and excess personnel would be left to their fate. With nothing truly
resolved except that they would attack in the morning, Brigadier General Bushrod Johnson,
for one, departs the meeting gloomier and more anxious than before. "Our success against the right wing was complete”
Confederate observer at Fort Donelson February 15th, 1862 Just as Foote’s appearance had disrupted
Confederate plans that afternoon, the unexpected victory at the water batteries confuses the
Southern generals as to the urgency of leaving or fighting on. At any rate, the troops gather
for the massive Confederate assault scheduled for daybreak on Saturday, February 15th, lumbering
into position during the winter night. Snow and wind muffles sounds of the movement. None
of the Federals detect the shifting columns. Buckner’s men withdraw from their entrenchments,
leaving only a single regiment of 450 men, armed with shotguns, to face Smiths’ whole
division. Delays prove inevitable, however, as weary soldiers navigate slick roads. Buckner’s
force is still not in position when Generals Pillow and Johnson start their attack at 6:00
AM on February 15th. McClernand’s cold and sleepy soldiers stumble out of their makeshift
bivouacs as the first warning shots and sounds of the infamous “Rebel Yell” break the
cold morning air. The big push to flee starvation, Yankee prison camps, and the stigma of surrender
had begun. Gideon Pillow would style it “the battle of Dover.”
The snow, underbrush, and tactical inexperience further delays any quick resolution. The fighting
turns into a slugfest between the Confederates' heavy attack columns and McClernand's thin
line of defenders in the vicinity of the Forge and Wynn's Ferry Roads. By 8:00 A.M. however,
the Federals are in trouble, as fighting envelopes the country lanes and ravines and blood-stained
snow mark points of contact between the two battle lines. Forrest’s cavalry troopers
dislodge a stubborn Union field battery, and the Confederate infantry slowly bend McClernand’s
First Division back under heavy pressure. As the young Union soldiers expend their ammunition
they simply drop out of line, holding their empty cartridge boxes aloft, and begin a slow
withdrawal. McClernand sends couriers to Lew Wallace’s command post for help. But the
Indiana general hesitates to act without Grant’s instructions. Somehow, the army commander
had disappeared. Early that morning, Grant had ridden once more with the wounded and
humbled Foote aboard his gunboat. Headquarters aides do not know what to do in their leader’s
absence, and intervening woods hide the sounds of the unfolding battle from the command conferences
at the river. Thus, by noon, Pillow and Johnson have carried Confederate fortunes to the brink
of success. Avowedly, Federal defeat was caused mostly by fatigue, supply shortages, and inept
defensive moves, not by any lack of pluck or valor. Nonetheless, McClernand's division
had been beaten back from its position. The attackers are unable to finish their task.
By early afternoon, the relentless drive of Pillow and Johnson, now supported by Buckner,
had gained the objective.The Federals have been driven back from the Forge Road and westward
along the Wynn’s Ferry Road toward Fort Henry. Two of McClernand’s three front line
brigades have been crumpled, and the third is being forced into precipitous retreat.
Still another brigade is crushed as it rushes from reserve. At that hour, the way out of
the Fort Donelson trap is open to the Confederates, stretched along a mile-long battle line. The
soldiers are ready; their leaders are not. During the subsequent two hours, the Confederate
generals yield the initiative back to the enemy.
A combination of circumstances snatches defeat from victory. General Wallace has finally
taken the initiative and moves to a blocking position astride the Wynn’s Ferry Road,
where he stymies the Confederate attack. The Rebel attackers run out of momentum and General
Pillow, according to his interpretation of the original plan, now orders everyone back
to the trenches preparatory to evacuation. He also notices signs of a Federal attack
on Buckner’s weakly-held position in the distance. Buckner, however, raises strong
objection and questions Pillow’s authority to change the plan. The two generals haggle
while their soldiers mill around waiting for further orders. At this point, Floyd appears
in between his two subordinates, and then finally orders all the troops back inside
the defensive perimeter. Just then, Grant returns to the field. Finally
found by anxious couriers, he had ridden hard over icy roads to reach the scene of catastrophe
brewing on his right flank. Conferring with Generals McClernand and Wallace, Grant senses
that the crisis in the battle, perhaps his own career, has been reached. He sees McClernand’s
men “standing in knots”, talking excitedly with no officers giving directions. He also
notices that the soldiers have their muskets but no ammunition, even though there is tons
of it close at hand. Calling out to an aide to ride along the line with him, he shouts
at the stunned troops: “Fill your cartridge-boxes quick, and get into line; the enemy is trying
to escape and he must not be permitted to do so.”
This works like a charm. Grant also discerns from prisoners what is happening on the Confederate
line and that the victorious enemy might be just as demoralized as his own men. Whoever
seizes the initiative at this point will achieve victory. Chomping down hard on an unlit cigar,
he orders McClernand and Wallace simply, “Gentlemen, the position on the right must be retaken.”
He also sends word to Foote requesting a show of force from the gunboats. Grant’s quick
and determined leadership helps spring his soldiers into action, and they quickly stabilize
their lines, pushing the Confederates back into their original defenses. The opportunity
to escape was within reach of the Confederates, but was now lost to them.
Nearly 1,000 soldiers on both sides are dead, with about 3,000 wounded still laying across
the field; some freeze to death in the brutal snowstorm. At 1:30 AM on February 16th, the
Confederate generals hold a council of war at the Dover Hotel. Here, the generals decide
it is time to surrender the fort and its army. Brigadier General Floyd, afraid that if captured,
he would be indicted for corruption during his service as Secretary of War under President
Buchanan, quickly turns his command over to General Pillow. However, Pillow also fears
reprisals from the North if he were to be captured, and passes the command of Fort Donelson
over to Buckner, who agrees to remain behind and surrender the army.
Disgusted at the generals’ show of cowardice, Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest announces,
“I did not come here to surrender my command,” and promptly storms out of the meeting. He
proceeds to lead about seven hundred of his cavalrymen on their escape from the fort.
They then begin a long march through the snowstorm toward Nashville. Colonel Forrest will fight
another day. General Buckner sends a message to General
Grant asking for terms of surrender. Having helped Grant out of financial situations in
his pre-war civilian life, Buckner was hoping that Grant would be merciful to the commander.
However, the message he receives from Grant is that “No terms except unconditional and
immediate surrender can be accepted.” He adds, “I propose to move immediately upon
your works.” Buckner agrees to Grant’s “unconditional
surrender.” Fort Donelson falls that day, February 16th, and its army is marched off
to Northern prison camps. The decisive victory at the Battle of Fort Donelson propels Ulysses
S. Grant to national stardom, earning him the nickname “Unconditional Surrender”
Grant. It also earns him the attention of President Lincoln. Close to a third of General
Johnston’s forces are now prisoners. Grant had captured more soldiers than all previous
American generals combined, and Johnston was now deprived of more than 12,000 soldiers
he would later need in the battles to come. With his decisive victory at Fort Donelson,
Grant is promoted by President Lincoln to the rank of Major General and given command
over the newly-formed Army of the Tennessee. With Forts Henry and Donelson now fallen,
Grant can now launch an invasion further south through Tennessee.
