Fort Donelson, Battle of

In the American Civil War, capture by Union forces under General Ulysses S Grant 15 February 1862 of two vital Confederate strongpoints: Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River, about 19 km/12 mi away.

Fort Henry fell to Grant's attack quite easily and he then moved overland to attack Donelson, to which most of Henry's garrison had fled. An initial attack by Union gunboats failed but the Confederate commander Brig-Gen Gideon Pillow was not confident of holding the fort and formed a striking column to breach the Union lines, so that the rest of the garrison could escape. The sally began well, taking one Union division by surprise and swinging it back on the rest of the Union line, but Grant sent a reserve corps under General Lew Wallace to deal with the Confederate column and ordered a frontal attack on the earthworks around the fort in order to draw defenders away from the attempted breakout. By the end of the day the Confederate column was back inside the fort, the Union lines were redrawn, and a renewed attack was planned for the following morning.

Pillow decided to surrender but as no Confederate general had yet surrendered to a Union force, he was apprehensive of what might happen to him if he fell into Union hands. He fled, passing command to Brig John Floyd. Floyd also fled, in turn passing the command to General Simon Bolivar Buckner, who sent a message to Grant asking his terms. ‘Immediate and unconditional surrender ... I propose to move immediately upon your works’ was the famous reply, and Buckner and 15,000 troops surrendered the following morning.