Almost a year into the American Civil War, Union forces laid siege to Fort Donelson. In this episode, we're going to find out why this fort was strategically important, and how Ulysses S Grant got his nickname - Unconditional Surrender.Don is joined by Chris Mackowski, Copie Hill Fellow at the American Battlefield Trust and professor at the Jandoli School of Communication at St Bonaventure University.Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.
Chapter 1: Why was Fort Donelson strategically important?
In today's telling, we're still in early days, in the winter of 1862, when we find ourselves in northwestern Tennessee, between the mighty Tennessee River and its parallel waterway to the east, the Cumberland. It's a place called Fort Donaldson that would tip the balance in the West for the Union. A battle that would bring a little-known Brigadier General named U.S. Grant into the limelight.
And to explain the tactical strategies of this battle and critical consequences for both sides, I am speaking with Professor Chris Makowski. Chris is the Copey Hill Fellow at the American Battlefield Trust, our good friends. Hello Chris, welcome to the show. Don, I'm delighted to be here. Thanks for having me. I found myself staring at a map with this one, studying the geography.
We should explain what's at stake here, Chris. Kentucky, which has remained with the Union, has two major rivers that connect with the Ohio. Head due south on these rivers, you end up going into Confederate Tennessee. Control them, the Tennessee and the Cumberland, you got a straight shot into other states to the south, like Mississippi and Alabama.
Chapter 2: What role did the rivers play in the Civil War?
But it's ultimately Nashville that's in the crosshairs of the Union, isn't it?
Es ist. Nashville ist wichtig, weil es eine große Produktion für die Konföderation ist. Es ist auch sehr nahe an der norderlichen Frontier der Konföderation. Also aus einer norderlichen Perspektive, das sind einfache Auswirkungen. Wenn du dazu kommen kannst, kannst du eine konfederatische Staatskapital erzeugen. Du kannst ihre Produktionen kapitalisieren. Und so gibt es viele verschiedene Gründe.
Und natürlich nur der Moral-Bust, um zu sagen, dass du eine Staatskapital und Konföderation erzeugt hast. Wenn du dich an diese Geografie anschaust, ist es alles um die Berge, ist es nicht? So the rivers really act as waterway highways deep into the heart of the Confederacy.
As you point out, if you get into the Tennessee River in particular, you can go south all the way through Tennessee, down toward Mississippi, into Alabama, circle back up into eastern Tennessee. So these waterways really go deep into the Confederacy in ways that you can't easily get to by road, but you can certainly sail right in, steam right in, I should say.
Wenn wir an den Zivilkrieg denken, denken wir natürlich an diese großen Armeen. Ich meine, das war das große Thema, diese riesigen Armeen, die in unserem Land herumlaufen. Aber der Fakt ist, dass es in diesen Tagen eigentlich eine verbesserte Anwendung von Wasserwegen und especially von den Bergen gab. Es gab eine Navy, die die Union, die die Konfederaniemen, nicht anmachten konnten.
And the North is trying to figure out how to use that navy. Their navy is a big blue water navy. And now we've got what are called brown water operations in the rivers. And so the army, the navy, like who's in charge here? How do we do this? Who's responsible for outfitting these ships, supplying them? Where do the men come from? And the Union has to invent all of this stuff. The South does too.
But they have far less infrastructure in order to pull something together. So they're constantly kind of stealing and snatching from northern technology as the north leapfrogs ahead. That's going to become a huge component here because as the Army and Navy get their act together, that's going to be a huge component for Ulysses S. Grant's success in this campaign and throughout the war.
Yeah, right. So let's remind ourselves where we're at right now. Early days in the war, as I say, the last major clash between the Union and the Confederacy was Bull Run back in July, which was a huge wake-up call for the Union, a major loss. That this was going to require a real army and a larger strategy that includes a Western campaign, and that would eventually be led by Grant.
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Chapter 3: How did Ulysses S. Grant plan the assault on Fort Donelson?
February 6th, 1862, the Union takes Fort Henry on the Tennessee River fairly easily. Take us from that moment onward.
Sure. So Henry and Donaldson are actually placed where they're at because up to that point, Kentucky had started the war as a neutral state. So that's as far north in its frontier that the Confederacy can put some forts without violating that neutrality. Now, the Confederates will eventually violate that neutrality. Grant will then... Er versucht, Paducah, Kentucky zu nehmen.
Es gibt also ein bisschen Rück und Fort in 1861, das hier im Westen überwacht wird. Aber als Grant dann auf diese Wasserwege schaut, die wir gesprochen haben, wie er sich in die Konfederanz stürmt, was er tun will, ist, zuerst den Tennessee River zu kommen, Fort Henry zu nehmen und And then after that, skip across to get Fort Donaldson. They're only separated by about 12 miles of land.
But to get there river-wise, you have to go all the way back downriver on the Tennessee, upriver on the Ohio, then upriver on the Cumberland. Grant's got good cooperation from his partner, Flag Officer Andrew Foote. Und so ist Foote instrumental in der Erzeugung von Fort Henry. Er konnte es durch ein Bombardement und die Nutzung von Flutwassern, die die Konfederaten auslösen.
Dann sagte Grant, was wir jetzt tun werden, ist, dass wir nach Donaldson gehen und das gleiche wieder probieren. Und so muss Foote dann den Flussweg nach oben und nach unten folgen und von der Flussseite von Fort Donaldson attackieren, während Grant über Land marschiert, um den Fort von der Landseite zu befinden.
And using the same sort of plan that was so successful at Henry, they're going to repeat that at Donaldson and try to take the fort.
But that's the geography question I have. Even though it's just 12 miles, that's a long way. And so do they have to take the boats back up to the top and then come down the other river? Is that the idea?
Sie tun das. Und Foote muss auch einige Veränderungen an seinen Schiffen gemacht haben. Er konnte also nur fünf seiner Ironclads in Aktion bringen bei Fort Donaldson. Ich verstehe. Aber das ist genug, um die Konfederanten zu spüren. Der gesamte Theaterkommandant dort ist ein Typ namens Albert Sidney Johnston. Er ist der Top-General im Westen für die Konferenz.
Und er denkt nicht, dass die Erde und die Pforte den Artilleriefeuer von Union-Fahrzeugen auslösen können. Nichtsdestotrotz beeinflusst er Fort Donaldson. Er sagt also, unsere Truppen werden das nicht halten können. Lasst uns mehr Truppen da hinkriegen. Es ist also ein riesiger strategischer Fehler von einem Mann, der tatsächlich ein ziemlich scharfer General ist.
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Chapter 4: What were the challenges faced by Union forces during the siege?
Sobald Grant dort herkommt und er anfängt, die Pforte zu besiegen, sind die Konfederaten dort eingeschritten. And here come those gunboats steaming up the river and they start this artillery duel with the 11 pieces that are in Fort Donaldson. And lo and behold, the Confederate artillery drives off the five gunboats. It's about an hour and a half, two hour duel.
And the Confederates are able to hold on and damage the gunboats so badly that they have to withdraw and basically aren't a factor.
It has to do with the elevation, doesn't it? Fort Henry was very low and so those gunboats could sort of take direct aim at the installation. But over here at Fort Donaldson is a much higher elevation, so they're shooting down at those gunboats and vice versa. The gunboats have difficulty as they get closer to even getting up to them. So that's really the difference between that.
Grant was expecting a pretty easy walk here, wasn't he? He said this would be taken in two days.
He really did. In fact, after he captures Fort Henry, he says, I expect to have Fort Donaldson by the 8th, two days later. Supply issues, issues with the boats. So he's not able to do that, you know, weather works against him. So his men are eventually going to kind of surround that fort and they're going to have to, looks like they're going to have to conduct a siege.
Yeah, this is cold weather too. Remember, we're in February, even though it's Tennessee. I mean, Tennessee is cold in February, so this is really hard to manage, but it gets really dicey with the weather. It makes all those roads knee deep in mud, you know, all that kind of stuff that we deal with. was sich während der Kriege wirklich hier ausmacht.
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Chapter 5: Who were the Confederate leaders at Fort Donelson?
Und das hat tatsächlich ein wirklich schwieriges Problem bei den Union-Soldaten, weil es erst warm wird, nachdem sie Fort Henry begriffen haben. Also lassen sie ihre Klamotten neben der Straße. Sie markieren Fort Donaldson. Und am Abend um die 14 Uhr steigen die Temperaturen in die Einzeldigiten. Da ist drei Inch der Schnee. Und sie haben alle ihre Klamotten und Klamotten hinter sich gelegt.
Sie dürfen keine Feuerzeuge haben, weil es ihre Location gibt. Also ist das Wetter hier wirklich, wirklich schwierig. Erzähl mir über Brigadiergeneral John B. Floyd.
He's appointed the commander of Fort Donaldson. He does not believe any kind of retreat is necessary. He digs in here.
So, Floyd ist ein politischer Anwalt, er ist ein ehemaliger Staatssekretär der Krieg unter Präsident Buchanan. Er ist derjenige, der tatsächlich eine ganze Menge federalen Installationen der Konfederative übernimmt, bevor er verabschiedet ist. Also, er ist tatsächlich besorgt, dass er, wenn er es jemals erzeugt hat, er von den USA-Gewerkschaften auf Tatsachen von Tatsachen erhoben wird.
Also, das ist einer der Gründe, weshalb er persönlich wirklich versucht, sich selbst zu halten, um seine eigene Haut zu retten. But he doesn't have a whole lot of military experience, so he's going to lean heavily on his second-in-command Gideon Pillow. Pillow had served in the Mexican War, a long service in the pre-war army, had distinguished himself during the Mexican War.
But Grant, interestingly enough, knows that if he approaches Fort Donaldson, He doesn't think very highly of Pillow at all. He says, I bet I can get within gunshot range of that fort without them ever shooting at me because Pillow is so meek. So that's the kind of a weird command dynamic that is overseeing the Confederates at this position.
I just want to give people the parameters here. We're talking about a big engagement. I mean, in total, there's 40,000 or so forces between these two sides. 25, upwards of 25,000 for the Union, 17,000 for the Confederates. This is a major battle we're talking about. Action really happens between February 13th and the 16th of 1862. Of course, there's days on either side of that that go on.
But it begins, as we say, with an engagement of the gunboats coming up river approaching. That first clash sort of kicks things off. Take us through these days as they happen with Grant's thinking tactically as to how he's going to adjust.
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Chapter 6: What led to Ulysses S. Grant's 'Unconditional Surrender' nickname?
At first, as I said, the gunboats are supposed to be the stars of the show. That engagement that takes place on the 14th, the federal gunboats are lobbing what become known as Iron Valentines into the fort and the fort's able to resist. Interesting fact here is that one possibility is for the boats to run past the fort.
and then land troops on the far side where they don't have protection from their guns. Now, we're going to find out in a few minutes that Grant's going to have this grand surrender. He's going to become famous across the country for unconditional surrender. But if the gunboats had captured the fort on the 14th, there isn't the opportunity for that.
So the fact that the gunboats fail actually allows Grant to then kind of break out as a star in the military world. In what way? What do you mean? He will demand unconditional surrender at the end of this engagement. And that captures newspaper headlines. As you'd mentioned, the union loss at Bull Run is still weighing heavily on people. There have not been a lot of union successes.
And so when he captures this fort, captures an entire Confederate army, does so with bold terms like unconditional surrender, it makes him a national hero. Yeah. Und das war die Entscheidung, dass er das nicht als Siege macht, sondern eher als Angriff machte.
So, really, events get taken out of his hand, because after the failure of the gunboats, he's going to kind of hunker down, take a look and decide what to do next, and the Confederates are going to break through.
And that's really going to force his hand, and then he's going to do a counterattack that's going to drive the Confederates back into the position, allow him to capture the garrison, and then, of course...
Yeah, because later on, I mean much later on next year, we're talking about Vicksburg and that becomes an extended siege, you know, very famously. It's just a cruel bombardment of this place that Grant oversees.
So that could very well have happened here in some form, but rather it takes a different turn because, as you say, the Confederates on February 15th drive the Union back from their positions, a place called Dudley Hill.
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Chapter 7: How did the Confederate forces respond to the Union's siege?
And Confederates do that because they know if they do get encircled and they are besieged, they'll get starved out. And so their only chance is to break free, try to make a dash at Nashville while they can. Grant's not able to fully encircle the outer defenses of Fort Donaldson. There's the fort itself and then a few hundred yards out in advance there's a set of outer works. Grant can't
And the Confederates gain a lot of ground
But oddly, their commanders, and tell me who makes this decision, send them back to their earthenworks after this day of battle, giving up the ground or at least ceding it back to the Union should they decide to take it.
So just at daylight on the 15th, the Confederates under Gideon Pillow, he's going to lead that breakout, try to push through on the Union right flank to get one of the roads away from the fort. He's looking at Charlotte Road. That's going to provide an opportunity to connect with another road, Wynn's Ferry Road. And these are the roads that are going to lead out to Nashville.
And Pillow is able to actually drive the Federals back. But there's such poor communication among the commanders between Pillow and Floyd and also between their top subordinate a guy named Simon Bolivar Buckner. They all have a council of war on the night of the 14th where they come up with this plan and they all leave that council of war with different expectations about what's going to happen.
So Pillow, when he breaks through on the 15th, then calls his men back, now we got to get ready to get away. Buckner told most of his men, pack up, we're making a sprint out of here as soon as the doors open. I'll be back with more American History after this short break.
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This is the tactical advantage of a Grant, isn't it? He is able to keep his head cool under these circumstances, sort of check himself as to what, you know, another commander might react in retreat or something like that. He can see down the road. He can see the next day. Don't worry, we're going to take it back.
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