Battle of Fort Donelson

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Battle of Fort Donelson
Battle of Fort Donelson, artist impression by Kurz and Allison, 1887.
Battle of Fort Donelson , artist impression by Kurz and Allison, 1887.
date 12-16 February 1862
place Stewart County , Tennessee, USA
output Union victory
Parties to the conflict

United States 34United States United States

States of America Confederate 1861-4Confederate States of America Confederate States of America

Commander
Troop strength
15,000-25,000
about 17,000
losses
2,832 killed
: 500
wounded: 2,108
missing / captured: 224
15,829 killed
: 466
wounded: 1,534
missing / captured: 13,829

The Battle of Fort Donelson was a battle in the western theater of the American Civil War that took place February 12-16, 1862 near the small town of Dover , Tennessee . The capture of Fort Donelson opened the Cumberland as a Union incursion route for an invasion of the south, forcing the Confederates to surrender parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, including the capital, Nashville .

Starting position

Confederate location

The Confederation's strategy in the western theater of war was to defend heavily fortified sites along the Kentucky-Tennessee border. These were from east to west: Cumberland Gap , Mill Springs, Kentucky , Bowling Green , Kentucky, the forts Donelson and Henry in Tennessee, Columbus , Kentucky and Island No. 10 in the Mississippi . To defend this nearly 850 km long line, General Albert Sidney Johnston had around 70,000 soldiers available at the turn of the year 1861/1862, who were stationed at the places mentioned. These forces closed the rivers and the Cumberland Gap to Union forays into the depths of Confederate territory. The low strength seemed sufficient as long as the stretch of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad Company running close behind this line could be used to shift troops and thus to quickly shift the center of gravity. In contrast to the fortified sites on the Mississippi, however, those along the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River were poorly chosen in terms of terrain and poorly occupied.

State of the Union

The Union had taken control of the west bank of the Mississippi opposite the city after the Confederate occupation of Columbus. In January, Brigadier General George Henry Thomas managed to force a southern brigade near Mill Springs to abandon the area north of Cumberland. Brigadier General Grant and three divisions jointly operated with the Navy in late January successfully advanced against Fort Henry up the Tennesse. The measures taken by the northerners remained uncoordinated because of inconsistent leadership - Major General Henry Wager Halleck was responsible for the western part and Major General Don Carlos Buell for the eastern part of the theater of war.

Prepare for attack and defense

Marching routes of the US divisions from Ft. Henry to Dover

With the capture of Fort Henry, the railway bridge south of the fort also fell into the hands of the Union troops. This interrupted the supply and communication line for the southerners. Grant planned to take Fort Donelson on February 8th. However, bad weather and a lack of supplies prevented the Union troops from implementing the plan immediately. When the marches finally began on February 11th, the temperatures were at spring-like 20 ° C, which many soldiers of the Union believed in the erroneous belief that winter was over. So they threw away their heavy winter equipment. This got its revenge on February 14th, when temperatures dropped below minus 10 ° C.

Just one day after the defeat at Fort Henry, on February 7th, Commander West, General Johnston, met with his subordinates, Major General William Joseph Hardee and General PGT Beauregard, for a council of war in Bowling Green. Johnston initially decided to dodge south of the Cumberland with all his might. The evasive movement should be secured by the crew of Fort Donelsons, which should then unite with the main forces at Nashville, Tennessee. The next morning he changed that decision. He now intended to strengthen Fort Donelson and at the same time evade southward with all other forces. He instructed General Beauregard to fight all forces west of Tennessee, which included the crew of Columbus and which he could only inadequately direct, to Iceland No. 10 to dodge.

Lower battery Ft. Donelsons at Cumberland

To reinforce Fort Donelson, Johnston dispatched 12,000 men and appointed Brigadier General Floyd , former Secretary of War under President Buchanan , to be in command. Fort Donelson consisted of warehouses and weatherproof winter shelters. It was at a height northwest of Dover up to 30 m above the Cumberland. On the river side, two batteries provided protection from landing attempts carried out upstream. On the land side, the soldiers first had to set up fighting stalls and field fortifications for the necessary protection.

Fight February 12-14

Grant reached the area around Fort Donelson on February 12 with 15,000 soldiers. On February 13, the three Union divisions conducted armed reconnaissance to find weaknesses in the Confederate defense. All attempts at reconnaissance were repulsed. Granted, convinced that Fort Donelson would not let himself be taken by storm like Fort Henry, he prepared for a siege.

Siege ring on February 14th

The next morning, Captain Foote steamed up the Union flotilla of four steel and two wooden gunboats and 10,000 reinforcements up the Cumberland. The reinforcements landed north of Fort Donelson, and Foote attacked the fort with the gunboats. However, the boats drove into the area of ​​activity of the two Confederate river batteries. While their fire remained largely ineffective, each received more than 40 hits and the boats had to turn north to repair the damage. 54 seamen were killed or wounded; the Confederates had no casualties.

Despite this success, Fort Donelson was still enclosed on three sides on land and the Union flotilla continued to rule the river. The Confederate forces at this point had three options:

  1. to surrender to the Union troops,
  2. to wait and hope for help or
  3. break out and join forces with Johnston's troops in Nashville.

The three Confederate commanders discussed the options that night and decided on the third.

February 15th

Confederate attack on the morning of February 15th

Brigadier Generals Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner agreed that night to break out the next morning. To do this, the Dover to Nashville road had to be opened and kept open for the duration of the outbreak. The Confederates therefore moved more than two-thirds of the troops to the right flank of the Union. This nocturnal relocation of troops remained hidden from the Union troops due to the heavy snowdrift that prevailed during the night.

Grant was five miles north of Fort Donelson for a conference with Foote. He did not expect an attack by the southerners. Grant had ordered the division commanders to hold the positions they had reached. The attack by the southerners hit the Union soldiers by surprise, but not unprepared. Because of the cold, all soldiers in the positions were awake.

Grant had not assigned a deputy for the duration of his absence. When Brigadier General McClernand's division was pushed back by the force of the attack, the other two division commanders did not comply with his request to reinforce him. With McClernands division running out of ammunition, the Confederates were able to open and keep the road to Nashville open.

After the successful attack, Brigadier General Pillow rode the lines he had reached and was shocked by the degree of exhaustion of his soldiers as well as by the organizational chaos of the troops, which had also suffered great losses. This convinced him that the soldiers could not withstand the rigors of a cross-country breakout and would not be able to repel the anticipated flank attacks Grant. In view of these arguments, Floyd allowed himself to be dissuaded from the outbreak and, against the fierce resistance of Buckner, ordered the troops who had so far been successful to return to the supposed safety of the positions in the fort.

Union counterattack on the afternoon of February 15

At this point Grant reached the battlefield and ordered an immediate counterattack. "Whoever attacks first in such a situation will be victorious." At the same time he ordered the flotilla to attack again from the north. In the evening the former positions were reached again. About 1,000 dead and 3,000 wounded on both sides remained on the battlefield, many of whom were wounded in the cold night.

The three Confederate commanders did not agree on how to proceed. A nocturnal escape attempt was canceled. While Pillow voted to try to break out again, Floyd and Buckner were in favor of surrender. Floyd transferred command to Brigadier General Pillow, who immediately passed it on to Buckner. Floyd crossed over to the east bank of the Cumberland with four Virginia regiments of his brigade. He left the fifth regiment from Mississippi behind. Pillow took a boat across, accompanied by an officer of his staff. Buckner allowed Lt. Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest to flee with his cavalry battalion, with almost every rider still transporting an infantryman on horseback. Forrest managed to escape with about 700 soldiers over an icy stream that was too deep for infantry, and he did not meet any Union soldiers.

The surrender

After the disappearance of the two former superiors and the successful penetration of the cavalry, Buckner submitted an offer to surrender negotiations to Grant that night. Grant sent Buckner this answer:

" SIR: Yours of this date, proposing armistice and appointment of commissioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. "

"Sir, I have received your proposal for a ceasefire and negotiation of the terms of surrender through your plenipotentiaries. No conditions other than unconditional and immediate surrender are acceptable to me. I intend to take immediate action against your positions. "

Buckner was upset by these harsh and less chivalrous words. After all, he had lent money to Grant in 1854, who was luckless and unsuccessful after his retirement from the service. However, the hopeless situation forced him to submit to unconditional surrender. Between 12,000 and 13,000 men were taken prisoner with him.

Reasons and Effects

The Dover defeat was the Confederation's largest since the war began. A number of inconsistencies led to this: General Johnston reinforced the fort, although he did not intend to hold it. Floyd, who had proven his incompetence in the mountains of western Virginia , was given command. Floyd also feared being wanted by the Union. He had been Minister of War under President Buchanan during the secessionist crisis and had been accused of deliberately sending weapons to the south and dispersing the army to the west. A congressional committee had acquitted Floyd of the allegations, but believed he would be charged with treason if he was imprisoned.

The strategic effects were even more far-reaching and the most important of the war so far. Nearly a third of Johnston's forces east of the Mississippi had been captured. The rest was half in Columbus and half in Nashville - 280 kilometers apart. In between stood Grant's victorious troops, who ruled the railroad and the rivers.

The Ohio Army under Buell and the newly formed Mississippi Army under Major General John Pope advanced on Nashville and Columbus. On February 23, Johnston had to evade Nashville and the first Confederate capital fell and remained in the hands of the Union until the end of the Civil War.

The New York Tribune , a gauge of the mood of the population in the Union, wrote confidently that from now on the Union cause would be carried to every corner of the country. The rebels were panicked and desperate.

President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general for his services. Simon Bolivar Buckner remained in captivity until August 1862 and only returned to the south after a prisoner exchange. The newspapers took up the demand for an unconditional surrender and justified Ulysses S. Grant's nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.

literature

  • James M. McPherson : Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-19-516895-X .
  • James M. McPherson (Editor): The Atlas of the Civil War. Philadelphia 2005, ISBN 0-7624-2356-0 .
  • James M. McPherson: Die for Freedom. The history of the American Civil War. List Verlag Berlin, ISBN 3-471-78178-1 , also Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 2000.
  • Kendall D. Gott: Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign. Mechanicsburg, PA 2003.
  • Benjamin F. Cooling: Forts Henry and Donelson: Key to the Confederate Heartland. Knoxville, TN 1987.
  • Shelby Foote : The Civil War, a narrative: 1. Fort Sumter to Perryville. Random house Inc., New York 1986. ISBN 0-394-74623-6 .
  • United States War Department: The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Govt. Print. Off., Washington 1880-1901.

Web links

Commons : Battle for Fort Donelson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Grant strengthened his corps during the fighting.
  2. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 397 f.
  3. The War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume VII, p. 167 ff: Union losses (In addition, the losses of the flotilla amounted to 10 fallen and 44 wounded naval officers and sailors.)
  4. Fox's Regimental Losses: Confederate Losses (The information about the amount of the losses differ because there is no information about how many wounded were evacuated before the attack and how many soldiers succeeded in breaking out)
  5. Foote speaks of 50,000 soldiers. Shelby Foote: The Civil War, a narrative: 1. Fort Sumter to Perryville. P. 173.
  6. James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom. P. 394 f.
  7. James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom. Pp. 337 f., 393 f.
  8. Shelby Foote: The Civil War, a narrative: 1. Fort Sumter to Perryville. P. 198.
  9. James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom. P. 397 f .; Shelby Foote: The Civil War, a narrative: 1. Fort Sumter to Perryville. P. 192 f .; The War of the Rebellion. Series I, Volume VII, p. 861 f .: Memorandum of the Council of War
  10. The War of the Rebellion. Series I, Volume VII, p. 166 f .: Foote's report on the attack
  11. ^ Ulysses S. Grant: Personal Memoirs. Vol. XXII hold positions
  12. ^ Ulysses S. Grant: Personal Memoirs. Vol. XXII Immediate counterattack
  13. The War of the Rebellion. Series I, Volume VII, p. 292 ff .: Witness statements on the council of war and the flight
  14. The War of the Rebellion. Series I, Volume VII, p. 161: Unconditional Surrender
  15. The War of the Rebellion. Series I, Volume VII, p. 159: Consent to surrender
  16. ^ Kendall D. Gott: Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign. Mechanicsburg, PA 2003, p. 67.
  17. James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom. P. 402 f. Effects of the campaign.

Coordinates: 36 ° 29 ′ 37.7 ″  N , 87 ° 51 ′ 21.7 ″  W.