Historically Speaking Forts Henry and Donelson at 150 Fort Donelson/Henry National Battlefield: The National Park Service recreated the Confederate battery position overlooking the Tennessee River to commemorate the February 1862 battle. 66 ARMY I February 2012 he year 1861, as we saw in the November 2011 “His- By BG John S. Brown U.S. Army retired torically Speaking” article, ended badly for the T United States of America. Not only had civil war rent the country, but also Federal efforts to reimpose control were met with a disaster at First Bull Run in July, followed by a lesser disaster at Ball’s Bluff in October. The Army of the Potomac, now under the leadership of MG George B. McClellan, licked its wounds and undertook much-needed reorganization and training. How long this would take no- body knew, including McClellan. At sea, an initially leaky blockade got under way, but the excesses of the Trent Affair brought the United States dangerously close to war with Great Britain. In politics, the Joint Committee on the Con- duct of the War emerged to provide a mix of supervision, Photographs by Dennis Steele February 2012 I ARMY 67 Period guns and cannon are located at another Confederate battery position on the Tennessee River. investigative oversight, meddling and partisan vendetta that would last the rest of the war. West of the Appalachi- ans there had been a mixture of small- scale victories and defeats as Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky struggled to determine which side they were on. ne Union commander who had shown well in the initial chaos west of the Appalachi- Oans, BG Ulysses S. Grant, was a West Point graduate with a check- ered past but commendable contem- porary vigor. He secured Cairo, Ill.; preemptively seized Paducah, Ky.; and bested a larger Confederate force in a sharp engagement at Belmont, Mo. Now he was eager to test the cor- don of strong points that Confederate commanders, under the overall com- mand of GEN Albert Sydney John- ston, had thrown up across Tennessee and central Kentucky. On February 1, 1862, 150 years ago meeting engagements and artful use of such modern tech- this month, MG Henry W. Halleck indulged him in his ag- nologies as trains, steamships and the telegraph. Grant gressiveness and encouraged him to launch. The vast ex- knew less about Napoleon’s battles than many of his con- panses of the Western Theater were precariously tied to- temporaries but perhaps grasped more of Napoleon’s gether by a thin network of rail lines and by waterborne essence. He would use every means to speedily bring fo- traffic on the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and cused, unrelenting, decisive pressure on the enemy. Cumberland Rivers. These last two ran parallel for 60 In the case of the approach to Fort Henry, Grant’s innov- miles across the breadth of Kentucky, pointing like a dag- ative choice was via steamship. Hastily built armored gun- ger at the heart of Tennessee, through which they contin- boats led troop transports up the Tennessee River, plowing ued. Mindful of the threat, the Confederates built Fort against the current but nevertheless arriving unexpectedly Henry and Fort Donelson to choke off traffic up the Ten- and disembarking expediently. This mechanized amphibi- nessee and Cumberland Rivers, respectively. These vital ous approach spared his troops more than 100 miles of forts, athwart jugular veins, were Grant’s first targets. marching and suddenly presented his outnumbered oppo- Grant was an innovator in what we now call operational nent with a division closing in from each side of the river. art. The Civil War in the East maintained a Napoleonic char- Considering his position now indefensible, Confederate acter through much of its course. Great armies maneuvered BG Lloyd Tilghman dispatched the majority of his force to in grand array to fight pitched battles across relatively famil- Fort Donelson, 11 miles away on the Cumberland River, iar ground. In the West troops were fewer, distances vaster, keeping behind a tiny contingent to hold the fort. This con- civilization sparser and lines of communication more pre- tingent surrendered on February 6 after an audacious gun- carious. Circumstances lent themselves to deep maneuvers, boat bombardment, before the ground troops had properly closed. With the Tennessee River open to him, Grant BG John S. Brown, USA Ret., was chief of military history at quickly dispatched his gunboats 20 miles farther upriver to the U.S. Army Center of Military History from December destroy the sole crossing of the Memphis & Ohio Railroad 1998 to October 2005. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 66th over the Tennessee. This severed Confederate rail commu- Armor, in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War and returned nications. With a single stroke, Grant gained mechanized to Kuwait as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Di- access into the heart of Tennessee while denying his enemy vision, in 1995. He has a doctorate in history from Indiana the mechanized logistics to tie together their theater. University. His book, Kevlar Legions: A History of Army On February 12, Grant sent his two divisions hurtling Transformation 1989–2005, was recently published. through nasty winter weather along two dirt roads across 68 ARMY I February 2012 Above, the Fort Henry guns were situated on the east side of the Tennessee River. Left, a Confederate monument on the battlefield was dedicated in 1933. Below, a cannon’s placement represents a Confederate position protecting the land approach. February 2012 I ARMY 69 The Dover Hotel was used as a Confederate headquarters during the battle, and it was where Grant’s unconditional surrender terms were accepted. The National Park Service has preserved it. rugged hills and through marshes, streams and woods that now iconic demand for unconditional surrender, and did led to Fort Donelson. Meanwhile, his gunboats and trans- so. Punning on Grant’s initials, irreverent soldiers took to ports steamed down the Tennessee, picked up another di- calling him “Unconditional Surrender” Grant. vision and steamed up the Cumberland, and landed on its In about two weeks Ulysses Simpson Grant’s bold stroke banks. This division was well positioned to thwart and radically altered the strategic situation in the West. Con- flank any effort to intercept Grant’s approach through the federate defenders, their cordon asunder, abandoned Ken- difficult terrain separating the Tennessee and Cumberland tucky and retreated 100 miles. The Confederacy was in ef- Rivers. Put off by the weather, Confederates commanded fect split along the Tennessee River to the border of by BG John B. Floyd made no such attempt. Instead they Mississippi. Confederate forces in eastern and western found themselves enveloped within the defenses of Fort Tennessee fought separate battles. Mighty rivers had be- Donelson. come highways regardless of the direction of their current, speeding armies along and supporting them in operational rant’s force of approximately 25,000 soldiers now maneuvers. The same would be true of railroads. Opera- surrounded Floyd’s roughly 15,000 in the most crit- tional and strategic plans, actually capable of defeating the ical node along the lower Cumberland. Grant had Confederacy, were beginning to fall into place. Perhaps Gnot quite achieved full closure when Floyd at- most important, the man capable of implementing them tempted a breakout through terrain still thinly populated was making his presence felt. ( by Union troops. The attack succeeded in punching a hole through the Union lines, but in the face of confusion and Recommended Reading: counterattacks Floyd lost his nerve and ordered a with- drawal back into the original positions. Cavalry comman- Esposito, Vincent J., The West Point Atlas of American der Nathan Bedford Forrest subsequently found his way Wars, Volume I: 1689–1900 (New York: Frederick A. out with his cavalry, and Floyd slipped across the river Praeger, 1959) with perhaps 1,500 others. This left approximately 11,500 Foote, Shelby, The Civil War: A Narrative: Fort Sumter Confederate troops still inside when Grant’s energetic to Perryville (New York: Random House, 1958) counterattacks closed the trap again. The Confederate McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil commander remaining at Fort Donelson, BG Simon Bolivar War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) Buckner, sought terms. He was presented with Grant’s February 2012 I ARMY 71.