Fort Henry And Donelson Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Fort Henry And Donelson Essay, Research Paper Fort Donelson, Tennessee, guarding the Cumberland River, became the site of the first major Confederate licking in the Civil War. Victory at Donelson started Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant on his route to Appomattox and the White House. His cool judgement under force per unit area saved the twenty-four hours after the Confederates threatened to interrupt his troop lines, yet errors by his oppositions handed him a triumph that he did non to the full gain on his ain. Possession of the better portion of two provinces critical to the South depended on the result of the conflict at Fort Donelson. When war began in April 1861, Kentucky declared its neutrality, in response to deep struggles of sentiment among its citizens. Sing neutrality impossible to keep, North and South maneuvered for place one time Kentucky was opened to military operations. The Confederates constructed munitions on both the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers merely south of the Kentucky line. They built Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, on land susceptible to implosion therapy, but chose higher land for Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Both sides wanted Kentucky but recognized that the first to traverse its boundary lines risked losing popular support. Confederate Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow headlong seized Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi River bluffs, a move that appalled President Jefferson Davis, who foremost ordered Pillow to retreat, so allowed him to remain when he realized that the title could non be reversed. Grant, commanding at Cairo, Illinois, so occupied Paducah at the oral cavity of the Tennessee and Smithland at the oral cavity of the Cumberland, strategic points neglected by General Gideon Pillow. In November Grant tested Confederate strength at Columbus by set downing military personnels across the Mississippi River at Belmont, Missouri. The drawn conflict that followed sent him back to Cairo still eager to progress, but non needfully along the Mississippi River. Knowing of the hapless location of Fort Henry, he wanted to utilize Union gunboats to advantage, and foresaw that the autumn of Fort Henry would open the Tennessee River as far north as Alabama. Wining loath permission from his higher-up, Major General Henry W. Halleck, Grant moved south in early February. The afloat Fort Henry fell to the gunboats on February 6, 1862 and most of the fort fled to Fort Donelson, which was 11 stat mis off. Grant so followed, after directing the gunboats back down the Tennessee and over to the Cumberland. In St. Louis, Halleck, a # 8220 ; military administrative official par excellence # 8221 ; , took no official penetration of Grant s programs. If Grant captured Fort Donelson, Hallec k would presume recognition ; if Grant failed, he would avoid duty. Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, overall commanding officer in the West, concentrated his military personnels at Fort Donelson, expecting the loss of Nashville if Donelson fell. Torn between supporting and abandoning the garrison, Johnston took a in-between class that led to catastrophe. He was criticized subsequently for directing so many military personnels to Donelson with out directing his whole force and taking bid himself. By the clip Grant arrived, with about 15, 000 work forces. Donelson held about 21,000, including at least two generals excessively many. Brigadier General John B. Floyd, who was commanding Donelson, had been a former secretary of war in the cabinet of President James Buchanan and was widely suspected by Northerners of reassigning weaponries and weaponries due south before the rebellion broke out. Pillow, the second-in-command, had small regard from his ain work forces and disdain from Grant. Third in line but first in ability was Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner, the lone professional soldier of the three. Fort Donelson consisted of earthworks environing abut 15 estates, where the fort lived in huts. Two batteries outside the garrison commanded the river, and about two stat mis of munitions, protecting both the heavy weapon campsite and the nearby crossroads of Dover, stretched from Hickman Creek on the right to Lick Creek on the left. The brook, flooded in February, protected both wings. Confederate officers and applied scientists had complained continuously of deficits of work forces and supplies to finish the munitions, but Federal forced encountered formidable earthworks fronted by trees fell, tangled, and sharpen erectile dysfunction to blockade the onslaught. Grant advanced on February 12, and began to encircle Fort Donelson the following twenty-four hours, telling Brigadier General Charles F. Smith s division to look into the Confederate right, commanded by Buckner, and Brigadier General John A. McClenand s division to look into the Confederate left, under Brigadier General Bushrod R. Johnson. Grant found the Confederate lines excessively strong and good positioned for assault. Trusting on this strength, nevertheless, the Confederates permitted Union military personnels to finish a practical blockade, go forthing merely a little spread on their right, and to choose high land for their base. If Grant s daring had been matched by his oppositions, they might hold struck Union military personnels as they marched on two separate roads to Donelson, or the Confederates might hold counterattacked at Donelson while they had superior Numberss and Grant lacked naval support. However, they did non. Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote s gunboat fleet arrive d tardily at dark, transporting fresh military personnels, and a division commanded by Brigadier General Lewis Wallace marched from Fort Henry. Ultimately, Grant s army numbered 27,000. Both ground forcess froze when nightlong temperatures out of the blue fell to twelve grades Fahrenheit. On February 14, Foote tested the H2O batteries with six war vessels, four of the ironclads, and the batteries prevailed, bring downing heavy harm on the flotilla. Although to a great extent outgunned, artillerists found the scope when the gunboats came to shut, and the fleet suffered excessively much to restart the assault. The following moorage Grant consulted Foote on his flagship, where he lay immobilized by a would inflicted by the Confederate batteries. While they discussed their following move, Pillow struck the Union right with lay waste toing force. Buckner s line was denuded as the Confederates massed military personnels to interrupt free of encirclment. McClernand s right began to turn over back on the centre, until supports from Wallace halted the winning Confederates. Why the combat diminished, Pillow held the Forge Road, taking to Nashville. Pillow had tow sound picks ; to press the onslaught to consolidate triumph or to interrupt free of Grant s clasp by evacuating Fort Donelson. Inexplicable, he reflected both and withdrew his original line. Stung by the forenoon offense, the Union stoops were confused and demoralized until Grant returned. Inspecting the backpacks of fallen Confederates, which contained rations for three yearss, Grant concluded that the assault represented a despairing attempt to get away and ordered his military personnels to press the enemy. Smith s division was successful against Buckner s weakened line, which put U.S. military personnels inside the Confederate munitions. Otherwise, the three yearss of contending had left the ground forcess near to their initial places. Grant s supports, nevertheless, were much exaggerated in the Confederate imaginativeness, and Floyd and Pillow had squandered their lone chance to evacuate. During the eventide of February 15, the Confederate commanding officers planned the resignation. Floyd relinquished bid to Pillow and Pillow to Buckner. The top brass slipped off by H2O with about 2,000 work forces. Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest led his horse and a few foot safely by land to Nashville. When Buckner asked Grant to name commissioners to negociate the footings of resignation, Grant responded that # 8220 ; no footings except an immediate resignation can be accepted. # 8221 ; Denouncing this as a response as # 8220 ; meanspirited and caddish, # 8221 ; Buckner surrendered anyhow. Meeting subsequently at the Dover Hotel, Buckner told his old friend and military academy classmate that if he had held bid, Union forces would non hold encircled Donelson so easy. Allow answered that if Buckner had been in bid, he ( Grant ) would gave chosen different tactics. Grant lost 2,832 who where killed or wounded. Floyd about 2,000, but Grant took over about 15,000 captives, 48 heavy weapon pieces, and other war stuff the South could non afford to lose. The Confederates fell back from Kentucky and from much of in-between Tennessee, abandoning Nashville. Grant won celebrity and publicity, while both Floyd and Pillow lost bid. Robert E. Lee s later successes in Virginia obscured the significance of Fort Donelson as the first measure toward the Confederate loss of the West, which spelled day of reckoning for the new state.