FORT DONELSON AND ITS SURRENDER.1

BY JOHN T. MCAULEY.

[Read March 3, 1880.]

To give the history of Fort Donelson and its sur

то

render requires either a careful study of the facts or a very vivid imagination on the part of one who, at the time of the affair, was at a safe and pleasant distance of one hundred miles. To draw on the imagination for facts might be easy on some occasions, but here among the men who stood shoulder to shoulder around the Rebel fort, ready to enforce the demand for "immediate and unconditional surrender," it would be worse than useless. Neither can I draw upon personal experiences further than to tell of the mingled joy and regret which came to us of Sherman's command at Paducah, when the surrender was announced, joy for the victory, and sorrow for the comrades and friends who went down amid the storm of shot and shell, and back of this the harrowing fear that the fall of Donelson and the taking of fifteen thousand prisoners would end the war and leave us the humiliation of returning to our homes with no record on our banners of "battles fought and victories won." The desire to "smell gunpowder" at that time pervaded our ranks; and not a man but cursed the luck of his regiment in

The writer of this paper feels it proper to state that it having been by his motion that the reading of military papers was first made a feature of the meetings of the Illinois Commandery, and he having, at the request of the Commandery, suggested the subject for the opening paper, he was assigned to the duty of preparing it on this account rather than from any special knowledge of the subject on his part. At the time the paper was written but little material was to be had in the way of written reports and accounts of the battle.

being left behind. Shiloh followed soon, and after that no more complaints were heard.

Not to consume further time with idle words, I purpose presenting details of the campaign as gathered from different authorities.

Fort Donelson occupied a position on the Cumberland River, commanding it for a distance of two miles, and crowning a bluff one hundred feet high. The fort mounted sixty-five guns, and was garrisoned by twentyone thousand men, under Generals Pillow, Floyd, Forrest, and Buckner. The river-front was guarded by heavy batteries, and the land side by a strong line of rifle-pits and field-pieces, protected by abattis and interlaced brush. It was a work of no mean order, and indicated the intelligence and ability of the enemy against whom our newly organized army had to contend.

Early in February, 1862, General Grant notified General Halleck that he "would take Fort Donelson on the 8th." He was, however, prevented from moving earlier than the 11th by heavy rains, making the roads impassable for artillery and wagon trains. Grant's confidence in speedy victory arose from the fact that he held a very poor opinion of the military abilities of the Rebel Generals Floyd and Pillow. On the 11th of February, the movement against the stronghold was begun, our navy, under Admiral Foote, with our transports, moving from Fort Henry by the river; while General McClernand, with his command, followed by three brigades of General C. F. Smith's division, crossed by land. At noon the next day they struck the enemy's pickets, two miles from the fort. These were rapidly driven in; and by dark Fort Donelson was closely invested from a point on Hickman's Creek on our left, to well around to Dover on our right, - McClernand holding the right, covering the roads running south and southwest, and Smith the left. The position occupied by our troops was a favorable one, the nature of the

ground being such that no intrenchments were necessary, and few casualties occurred at this time. Yet there was great suffering among the men, owing to the lack of shelter from the bad weather which had set in; no fires were allowed except at a great distance from the line, and only where the ravines were deep enough to hide them from the enemy. Many of the men were without overcoats and blankets, having left them behind or thrown them away to lighten the burden on the march from Fort Henry. The lesson was severe, and no one forgot it; and the blanket was well cared for from that time till the close of the war. The surgeons did all in their power, in caring for the sick and wounded with such inadequate supplies and meagre hospital quarters as were available.

On the 13th, our line was still farther extended to the right, and soon after General Grant's arrival an attempt was made by McClernand to capture a battery commanding the ridge road, which was harassing his men. The assault was made by three regiments of McClernand's division, he acting entirely without orders; and it resulted in failure and great loss. The gun-boats and troops arriving at this time in the river below the fort, communication was opened with them; and on the 14th, General Lew Wallace arrived with a brigade of Smith's division, and was assigned to the command of the division in the centre of our line. McArthur's brigade of Smith's division was moved to the extreme right. On this afternoon, the gun-boats, moving up to within three. hundred yards, engaged the water batteries in a terrible conflict lasting over an hour and a half. The plunging fire from the bluff, however, told heavily on our fleet; the flag-ship was struck by fifty-nine shots, and the crippled boats were compelled to withdraw, the Admiral himself being wounded. One authority states that the Confederate works were uninjured by this bombardment, and no one in them was severely hurt.

So far, success was with the Confederates. But the Union Army having received heavy reinforcements till it numbered nearly thirty thousand men, the enemy despaired of a successful defence, and General Floyd (Buchanan's late Secretary of War) called a council, at which it was decided to break through the investment and force a way to Nashville. At that time General Grant, in answer to a request from Admiral Foote for a conference, had left the field. He had been gone but a short time, when General Pillow, having massed his men heavily on the left, passed out of his works, furiously attacking our extreme right, held by General McArthur, and rapidly extending his attack toward our left, until the whole of McClernand's division was engaged. After hours of stubborn fighting, our troops were compelled to give way from sheer exhaustion. McArthur was forced to retire. Oglesby's brigade was next to waver, but held the ground until Cruft's brigade of Lew Wallace's division arrived, then passed out of line, leaving a battery in the hands of the enemy. Logan's regiment was the last to leave; and here, as on every field, this gallant son of Illinois distinguished himself by his bravery and splendid conduct. Crufts became hotly engaged, and fell slowly back. Colonel W. H. L. Wallace held his part of the line for some time after the giving way of the troops on his right, but with flank exposed and ammunition failing, he deemed it injudicious to attempt to hold it longer, and fell back on the ridge road about three quarters of a mile toward General Lew Wallace's position. Here he met Thayer's brigade of Wallace's division, which passed rapidly to the front, and had but fairly got in position when the enemy struck it. Thayer immediately opened fire with both artillery and infantry, and soon drove the enemy from the field, not, however, recovering any part of the ground lost, and leaving the Wynn's Ferry road open to the Confederates, who, by some strange

fatality, did not seize the object for which they had been fighting, this being the road by which they had expected to escape. Meanwhile, General Grant, having returned to the field, with the quick perception of military genius saw that the critical time had arrived, and ordered a general advance along the whole line. His men swept everything before them, recovered the battlefield, and at the left General C. F. Smith secured a foot-hold on the hill, the very key of the fort; a half-hour more of daylight, and Donelson would have been taken. The assaulting column of our left was formed from Lauman's brigade, the Second Iowa in advance, in two lines of five companies each. General Smith, placing himself between the two lines so formed, pushed rapidly forward under a withering fire of musketry and artillery, but bravely the troops moved on, and with the steady tread of veterans carried the works at the point of the bayonet.

That night the mercury fell to ten degrees above zero; the troops on both sides, with neither fire nor shelter, shivered in the pitiless storm, while the ground on which they lay was covered with a sheet of ice and snow. But sadder yet, the wounded by hundreds strewed the field, staining the snow with a crimson tint, and slowly stiffening and freezing as the life-current ebbed away. Under cover of the night, Pillow, Floyd, and Forrest deserted. their commands and escaped from the fort, leaving General Buckner alone in command. He, in the early morning of the 16th, addressed General Grant a note in these words: "In consideration of all the circumstances governing the present situation of affairs at this station, I propose to the commanding officer of the Federal forces the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation of the forces and post under my command, and in that view suggest an armistice until twelve o'clock to-day." To which General Grant responded as follows: "Yours of this date, proposing