Battle of Fort Donelson The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from Febru- Union forces.[6] ary 11 to 16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the With the surrender of Fort Henry, the Confederates faced American Civil War. The Union capture of the Confed- some difficult choices. Grant’s army now divided Con- erate fort near the Tennessee–Kentucky border opened federate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's two main forces: the Cumberland River, an important avenue for the in- P.G.T. Beauregard at Columbus, Kentucky, with 12,000 vasion of the South. The Union’s success also elevated men, and William J. Hardee at Bowling Green, Kentucky, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant from an obscure and largely with 22,000 men. Fort Donelson had only about 5,000 unproven leader to the rank of major general, and earned men. Union forces might attack Columbus; they might him the nickname of “Unconditional Surrender” Grant. attack Fort Donelson and thereby threaten Nashville, Ten- The battle followed the Union capture of Fort Henry nessee; or Grant and Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, on February 6. Grant moved his army 12 miles (19 who was quartered in Louisville with 45,000 men, might km) overland to Fort Donelson on February 12 and 13 attack Johnston head-on, with Grant following behind and conducted several small probing attacks. (Although Buell. Johnston was apprehensive about the ease with the name was not yet in use, the troops serving under which Union gunboats defeated Fort Henry (not com- Grant were the nucleus of the Union’s Army of the Ten- prehending that the rising waters of the Tennessee River nessee.[4]) On February 14, Union gunboats under Flag played a crucial role by inundating the fort). He was more Officer Andrew H. Foote attempted to reduce the fort concerned about the threat from Buell than he was from with gunfire, but were forced to withdraw after sustain- Grant, and suspected the river operations might simply be ing heavy damage from Fort Donelson’s water batteries. a diversion.[6] On February 15, with the fort surrounded, the Johnston decided upon a course of action that forfeited Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. the initiative across most of his defensive line, tacitly ad- Floyd, launched a surprise attack against Grant’s army mitting that the Confederate defensive strategy for Ten- in an attempt to open an escape route to Nashville, nessee was a sham. On February 7, at a council of Tennessee. Grant, who was away from the battlefield war held in the Covington Hotel at Bowling Green, he at the start of the attack, arrived to rally his men and decided to abandon western Kentucky by withdrawing counterattack. Despite achieving partial success and Beauregard from Columbus, evacuating Bowling Green, opening the way for a retreat, Floyd lost his nerve and moving his forces south of the Cumberland River at and ordered his men back to the fort. The following Nashville. Despite his misgivings about its defensibility, morning, Floyd and his second-in-command, Brig. Gen. Johnston agreed to Beauregard’s advice that he should re- Gideon J. Pillow, relinquished command to Brig. Gen. inforce Fort Donelson with another 12,000 men, know- Simon Bolivar Buckner (later Governor of Kentucky), ing that a defeat there would mean the inevitable loss of who agreed to accept Grant’s terms of unconditional Middle Tennessee and the vital manufacturing and arse- surrender. nal city of Nashville.[7] Johnston wanted to give command of Fort Donelson to Beauregard, who had performed ably at Bull Run, but the 1 Background latter declined because of a throat ailment. Instead, the responsibility went to Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd, who had The battle of Fort Donelson, which began on February 12, just arrived following an unsuccessful assignment under took place shortly after the surrender of Fort Henry, Ten- Robert E. Lee in western Virginia. Floyd was a wanted nessee, on February 6, 1862. Fort Henry had been a key man in the North for alleged graft and secessionist activi- position in the center of a line defending Tennessee, and ties when he was Secretary of War in the James Buchanan the capture of the fort now opened the Tennessee River administration. Floyd’s background was political, not to Union troop and supply movements. About 2,500 of military, but he was nevertheless the senior brigadier gen- [8] Fort Henry’s Confederate defenders escaped before its eral on the Cumberland River. surrender by marching the 12 miles (19 km) east to Fort On the Union side, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, Grant’s Donelson.[5] In the days following the surrender at Fort superior as commander of the Department of the Mis- Henry, Union troops cut the railroad lines south of the souri, was also apprehensive. Halleck had authorized fort, restricting the Confederates’ lateral mobility to move Grant to capture Fort Henry, but now he felt that con- reinforcements into the area to defend against the larger 1 2 2 OPPOSING FORCES reinforcements arriving by steamship, including Charles Cruft’s brigade on loan from Buell.) Two regiments of cavalry and eight batteries of artillery supported the in- fantry divisions. Altogether, the Union forces numbered nearly 25,000 men, although at the start of the battle, only 15,000 were available.[13] The Western Gunboat Flotilla under Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote consisted of four ironclad gunboats (flagship USS St. Louis, USS Carondelet, USS Louisville, and USS Battle of Fort Henry and the movements to Fort Donelson. Pittsburg) and three timberclad (wooden) gunboats (USS Confederate Conestoga, USS Tyler, and USS Lexington). USS Essex Union and USS Cincinnati had been damaged at Fort Henry and were being repaired.[14] tinuing to Fort Donelson was risky. Despite Grant’s suc- cess to date, Halleck had little confidence in him, con- 2.2 Confederate sidering Grant to be reckless. Halleck attempted to con- vince his own rival, Don Carlos Buell, to take command Further information: Confederate order of battle of the campaign to get his additional forces engaged. De- spite Johnston’s high regard for Buell, the Union general Floyd’s Confederate force of approximately 17,000 men was as passive as Grant was aggressive. Grant never sus- consisted of three divisions, garrison troops, and attached pected his superiors were considering relieving him, but cavalry. The three divisions were commanded by Floyd he was well aware that any delay or reversal might be an (replaced by Colonel Gabriel C. Wharton when Floyd opportunity for Halleck to lose his nerve and cancel the took command of the entire force) and Brig. Gens. operation.[9] Bushrod Johnson and Simon Bolivar Buckner. During On February 6, Grant wired Halleck: “Fort Henry is ours. the battle, Johnson, the engineering officer who briefly ... I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th commanded Fort Donelson in late January, was effec- and return to Fort Henry.”[10] This self-imposed dead- tively superseded by Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow (Grant’s line was overly optimistic due to three factors: miserable opponent at his first battle at Belmont). Pillow, who ar- road conditions on the twelve-mile march to Donelson, rived at Fort Donelson on February 9, was displaced from the need for troops to carry supplies away from the rising overall command of the fort when the more-senior Floyd [15] flood waters (by February 8, Fort Henry was completely arrived. The garrison troops were commanded by Col. submerged),[11] and the damage that had been sustained John W. Head and the cavalry by Col. Nathan Bedford [16] by Foote’s Western Gunboat Flotilla in the artillery duel Forrest. at Fort Henry. If Grant had been able to move quickly, he Fort Donelson was named for Brig. Gen. Daniel S. might have taken Fort Donelson on February 8. Early in Donelson, who selected its site and began construction the morning of February 11, Grant held a council of war in 1861. It was considerably more formidable than in which all of his generals supported his plans for an at- Fort Henry. Fort Donelson rose about 100 feet (30 tack on Fort Donelson, with the exception of Brig. Gen. m) on approximately 100 acres of dry ground above John A. McClernand, who had some reservations. This the Cumberland River, which allowed for plunging fire council in early 1862 was the last one that Grant held for against attacking gunboats, an advantage Fort Henry did the remainder of the Civil War.[12] not enjoy.[17] The river batteries included twelve guns: ten 32-pounder smoothbore cannons, two 9-pounder smoothbore cannons, a 8-inch howitzer, a 6.5-inch rifle 2 Opposing forces (128-pounder), and a 10-inch Columbiad. There were three miles (5 km) of trenches in a semicircle around the fort and the small town of Dover. The outer works were 2.1 Union bounded by Hickman Creek to the west, Lick Creek to the east, and the Cumberland River to the north. These Further information: Union order of battle trenches, located on a commanding ridge and fronted by a dense abatis of cut trees and limbs stuck into the ground Grant’s Union army of the District of Cairo consisted of and pointing outward,[17] were backed up by artillery and three divisions, commanded by Brig. Gens. McClernand, manned by Buckner and his Bowling Green troops on the C.F. Smith, and Lew Wallace. (At the start of the attack right (with his flank anchored on Hickman Creek), and on Fort Donelson, Wallace was a brigade commander in Johnson/Pillow on the left (with his flank near the Cum- reserve at Fort Henry, but was summoned on February 14 berland River).