The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

The fighting 117

On the heels of the defeats in the west,
there was a somber mood in Richmond on
22 February, the day Jefferson Davis was
inaugurated President of the Confederacy. As
the rain poured, the Confederate President
claimed that 'The tyranny of the unbridled
majority, the most odious and least
responsible form of despotism, has denied us
both the right and the remedy. Therefore we
are in arms to renew such sacrifices as our
fathers made to the holy cause of
constitutional liberty.' While he was speaking,
the citizens and soldiers of Nashville were
evacuating the city. By the 25th, the Tennessee
capital had surrendered to Union commander
Don Carlos Buell. Wanting to move quickly to
restore civilian government to the occupied
region, Lincoln had named Andrew Johnson
military governor of the state.

Confederate Commander Simon Bolivar Buckner

was a prewar friend of Grant and had loaned him

money. When John B. Floyd and Gideon Pillow

abdicated responsibility for surrendering Fort Donelson.

Buckner yielded to circumstances and accepted

Grant's unfriendly terms of 'Unconditional Surrender'.

(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

West of the Mississippi River, Major-

General John Pope assumed command of the

Army of the Mississippi at Commerce,

Missouri. He ordered his troops to move

against New Madrid, Missouri, in an attempt

to dislodge the Confederate stronghold at

Island No. 10 near the Kentucky-Tennessee

border. By the time the Confederates had

evacuated Columbus, Kentucky, Federal

troops under Brigadier-General Samuel R.

Curtis had pushed the Confederates under

Major-General Sterling Price south out of

Missouri and into the northwestern portion

of Arkansas. At Fayetteville, Confederate

General Earl Van Dorn joined Price in an

The St Louis was one of the earliest ironclad gunooats

constructed. It saw action against Confederate batteries

at Columbus, Kentucky, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and

Memphis. In October 1862, its name changed to

Baron de Kalb and it participated in river action

against Vicksburg in 1862-63. A Confederate torpedo

sank the ironclad on 12 July 1863, in the Yazoo River.

(Ann Ronan Picture Library)