The fighting 115boarded transports and steamed up the
Tennessee. To cooperate with the Union
troops. Grant ordered a flotilla of gunboats
commanded by Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote
to accompany the expedition. On 6 February,
while Grant disembarked his troops, the
flotilla continued upriver and at 11.00 am
opened fire on the fort. Realizing that the
Union forces were closing in by land and
river, Brigadier-General Lloyd Tilghman
decided to send the 2,500-man garrison out
of the fort to Fort Donelson some 12 miles
(19km) east. The winter rains had forced the
Tennessee out of its banks and the fort had
succumbed to nearly 6 feet (2m) of water.
Within three hours, the gunboats had
reduced the fort and forced Tilghman to
surrender before Grant's infantrymen even
arrived on the scene. 'Fort Henry is ours,'
read the news as it made its way east. 'The
flag of the Union is re-established on the soil
of Tennessee,' asserted Halleck.
The Federals had correctly pinpointed the
weakness in the Confederate defensive line:
the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.
Thinking that the Confederates would
reinforce Fort Donelson on the Cumberland
River, Grant destroyed the railroad over the
Tennessee, sent gunboats south toward
northern Alabama, and prepared to move
eastward toward the river stronghold.
Brigadier-General John B. Floyd commanded
the Confederates at Fort Donelson, and
Johnston decided to strengthen his line by
sending some reinforcements, withdrawing
part of the garrison at Columbus and
abandoning Bowling Green. Confederate
authorities had faced the crucial dilemma
that would plague them for the rest of the
war: how and where to defend the several-
hundred-mile line with insufficient forces at
their disposal.
Although reinforcing the fort seemed the
strategic thing to do, it ultimately proved to
be a colossal mistake. On 13 February,
Grant's army of 23.000 men had made it to
Fort Donelson and encircled it. The
following day, Foote's gunboats arrived and
began shelling the fort from the river,
expecting to force its surrender. After several
Ulysses S. Grant seized Fort Donelson and with it
considerate fame. When he was asked for terms after
defeating a Confederate breakout attempt, his reply
earned him the nickname 'Unconditional Surrender'
Grant. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)hours of heavy shelling, however, the fort's
well-positioned artillery forced the gunboats
to retire. The cold and blustery day ended
and the two disheartened armies prepared to
do battle the next day. During the night, the
Confederate command, convinced that
Grant had completely invested the fort by
now, determined to attempt a breakout and
head south. The next day, 15 February,
General Pillow, aided by some of General
Buckner's men. broke through the Federal
line after a brutal fight. When nothing was
done to break the entire army out of the fort,
Floyd ordered his army to return to
their fortifications.
That evening the Confederates held a
council of war and determined to surrender.
Floyd and Pillow abdicated their
responsibility as the highest-ranking
commanders and left the job to General
Buckner, a prewar friend of Grant's. When
Buckner requested terms of surrender on
16 February, Grant replied. 'No terms except