116 The American Civil Warunconditional and immediate surrender can
be accepted.' The words that forever
immortalized him as 'Unconditional
Surrender' Grant gave the Union its first real
victory of the entire war.
Strategically, the loss of the river forts was
catastrophic to the Confederacy, but equally
significant was the fact that Grant also
captured the reinforcements sent to support
the garrison. Some 12,500 soldiers and
40 guns were surrendered. The next day, the
Northern press printed a sensational story of
the Donelson campaign, made Grant an
unsuspecting hero, but gave Halleck credit
for planning the entire invasion. Frustrated
by the news that 'All was quiet along the
Potomac,' all winter, Lincoln was elated by
the news along the Tennessee and
Cumberland Rivers and instantly rewarded
the nation's new hero with a promotion to
major-general of volunteers.
The Union invasion along the rivers
forced the Confederates to retreat south all
the way to the Tennessee-Mississippi and
Alabama border. Northern gunboats now
threatened Southern river towns as far south
as Clarksville and Nashville. Columbus, a
Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi,
also succumbed to the Federals, as did a
significant portion of Middle Tennessee.
Tennessee Governor Isham Harris prepared
to abandon Nashville and move the
government with him to Memphis.
Significantly, the rivers, the great market
highways that had provided a regional unity
at harvest times, had now become the axis of
military invasion and the great weakness of
the Confederacy during the winter.