Men of Fire

Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign that Decided the Civil War by Jack Hurst

Not all that new, came out in 2007, but I got a copy for Christmas. I was excited to read this as there is not much out on Fort Donelson (that is the campaign Hurst believes decided the war). I think Hurst brings some new interpretations that I'll need to examine in the future.

The biggest is that Halleck was pretty actively trying to replace Grant. And he wasn't being very covert as McClelland discusses one potential replacement with him. Hurst says that Halleck would use his later position as general-in-chief to destroy/hide some of the other evidence. I didn't notice anything new in the tactical aspects but it has been close to a decade since I read Cooling's wonderful book on Fort Donelson. Just a reminder again of how badly the Confederates bungled the breakout attempt and should have been able to escape, but when Floyd and Pillow are your ranking generals its easy to see how things went awry. I'm not sure I'd agree that this campaign was the one that decided the war.

On one hand how does the first major Union effort to invade the heartland become the tipping point for the war? But when the Union is basically able to win battle after battle in the west and hardly ever have a major setback there is no turning point. A turning point is when the war seems to be going one way and then the course changes. That's why Gettysburg is often described as the turning point, which I do not agree with, because Confederate fortunes in the East seem to always be bright and then after Gettysburg they never regain that momentum. They tend to suffer defeat after defeat and lose ground until they are forced to surrender at Appomattox.

But in the West there are only a few times the Confederates gain something positive and its usually followed in quick secession by defeat. They get away from Corinth, slip east to Knoxville and steal a march into Kentucky only to come to grief at Perryville. The campaign as a whole does regain some of Tennessee as the lines eventually end near Murfreesboro but I don't think its a turning point because Union fortunes are about the same post-Perryville. Later Grant is forced to abandon his overland Mississippi campaign but they are soon closer to Vicksburg, just using a different route. Bragg wins at Chickamauga but within a few months his army has been forced farther south again and he has resigned. In that light maybe there is no turning point in the West. The story of the West is pretty much success after success so maybe the opening victory on that path can be called the decisive campaign.

All in all it was a good book, glad I finally was able to add it to my library. If you needed a book on the details of the Donelson campaign I'd probably go with Cooling's but Hurst's book is also a good one to have.

Fort Donelson National Cemetery

I always wander cemeteries when I visit a battlefield. The Civil War section is the low square stones in a circular arrangement. There are 670 Union soldiers here, with 512 being unknown. Incidentally the site of the cemetery was where the Union built their own fortification in 1863 after they abandoned the Confederate built fort.

Surrender & Escape

On the night of February 15th the Confederate high command faced a dilemma. They came to the conclusion that the escape route was no longer open (Forrest would scout it and determine that prompt action would still allow many men to escape but the high command was no longer listening to reason at that point). General John B. Floyd decided they must surrender but that he could not do it as he might end up facing a court due to his questionable practices as Secretary of War under Buchanan. He turned the command over to General Gideon Pillow. Pillow was also worried about surrendering so he turned the command over to General Simon Bolivar Buckner.

Buckner was an Old Army veteran and would do his duty no matter how difficult the particulars of it. The next morning Buckner wrote his old friend Grant a note asking what surrender terms he might get. Grant was with CF Smith at that moment, the two quickly hashed it out and Grant sent back his now famous reply, "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." Buckner had no choice but to surrender and his response was, "The distribution of the forces under my command, incident to an unexpected change of commanders, and the overwhelming force under your command, compel me, notwithstanding the brilliant success of the Confederate arms yesterday, to accept the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms which you propose."

Before this exchange of notes Floyd and Pillow worked hard to get as many men out of the fort as they could, mostly using arriving river boats to get their men out of there. Forrest also famously pulled his troops out, as well as about a 1000 other men who took the initiative to go along.

Grant was now a rising star in the Union. He would become a household name and people would say that US Grant stood for Unconditional Surrender Grant, not Ulysses S. Grant (actually born Hiram Ulysses Grant).

Up the Cumberland River is Nashville. The fall of Fort Donelson doomed Nashville and it would be abandoned by the Confederates in about two weeks.

A state historical marker for Forrest's escape.

Smith's Attack

While the Confederates tried to break out of the siege Grant was away from the army discussing with the navy what the next step would be. The navy was too battered to be of much use so Grant knew he'd have to finish the job alone. Upon his return to the army that afternoon he found out the extent of the damage and that an escape route had been cleared. Grant resolved to counter attack and win back what had been lost. In many places his men were able to recapture most of the lost ground, this was also because the Confederates had decided to return to their lines, get some rest and make their escape the next morning.

On Grant's left he ordered CF Smith's division to assault the lines closest to the fort, this area had not been part of the earlier fighting. The Confederates had pulled men from this area to make the breakout attempt, so Smith's men faced a much smaller force and were able to drive the Confederates back from these outer works. In the pictures you'll see a cannon, that cannon represents Jackson's Virginia battery and it had been pulled from the line earlier.

Confederate Outer Works

This series of photos takes us along the section of Confederate works near the Wynn Ferry Road. This is where the main breakout effort will take place, and succeed, on February 15th. The first position is French's Battery, at the time a four gun battery. This battery was placed here to prevent the Union from using Erin Hollow to pierce the Confederate lines. Maney's Battery is farther to the west (I have no digital pictures) and protected the other side of Erin Hollow.

Now we are near the Wynn Ferry Road. The attacks in this area pushed McClernand's Division back and opened the Forge Road. The way was now open for the Confederate army to escape from the siege. Instead the Confederate high command decided to return to their lines and have the men march out the next morning. Grant had been away conferring with the navy but returned in the afternoon, ordered a counter attack and secured most of what was lost. Forrest's scouts would find out that night there was still one road open but it was obvious that it would be closed at first light the next morning. Returning to the trenches assured the Confederate army of capture.

Texas Monument

The other monument at Fort Donelson is for the two Texas regiments who fought here, even though one of them fought here a year later.

The 7th Texas Infantry was part of the force that cleared an escape route for the Confederates before the high command gave up the effort and doomed the garrison to capture. A year later, 3 February 1863, the 8th Texas Cavalry fought here as part of General Wheeler's attack on Dover. That attack failed but the 8th Texas performed its job well, keeping Union reinforcements away from Wheeler's force.

This monument is similar to other Texas monuments in that it was placed during the centennial celebrations, this one actually was placed in 1964, not sure why they didn't hit the 1862 or 1863 anniversaries.

Confederate Monument

Fort Donelson does not have much in the way of monuments. In fact I can think of only two monuments in the park. Considering how this battle helped decide the fate of the war it seems odd that it lacks a monument to Grant's army.

The oldest monument is this one to the Confederate soldier. I've read that the monument rests on top of a mass grave. I've also read that the mass grave is just near here and the NPS is not sure where it is exactly.

Upper Water Battery

Since I first started going to Fort Donelson they have added guns for the upper water battery. This battery was intended more to disrupt a landing party than to drive off the gunboats. The Union never got close enough to try to land a force to assault the water battery. If there had been a landing the guns in the water battery could not have depressed their muzzles enough to hit the attacking force. But these guns would have been placed just right to sweep the slope in front of the water battery and would have caused much destruction and confusion.

Water Battery

On Valentine's Day 1862 the Union navy tried to do to Fort Donelson what they had done a week earlier to Fort Henry, reduce it by bombardment. This time though the fort was better situated and the Confederate guns won the day. Grant would have to find another way to capture the fort and its garrison.

The park has done a good job of recreating the battery with a full complement of guns. There were eight 32 pounders on wooden carriages and one 10 inch Columbiad on a metal carriage. The Columbiad's pivot point is in the center of the carriage while the wooden carriages pivoted at the front. Not a particularly important fact but something I found interesting.

As you can see one time I was there as they did work on the guns of the battery.

I put this picture in so you could see how little the Union gunboats had to shoot at. I'm sure it was hellish to load the guns during the bombardment but there is also plenty of cover for the men.

Fort Donelson - the fort

There are a variety of entrenchments at Fort Donelson. There are outer works which is a long trench with artillery positions. As the name suggests it is far away from the fort (and will be shown in a later post). There are two water batteries which were located right next to the river and were there to prevent Union gunboats from steaming up river. And then there was the fort itself. It was located on the high ground adjacent to the water batteries and was there basically to protect those batteries.

It also served as a campground for the troops especially int he early days of the fort when only 2-3 regiments were stationed here. As the threat from Grant developed more men came here and filled the outer lines. The park has two reproduction cabins so that you can see the kind of quarters the troops would enjoy. They claim there were about 400 of these huts. After the campaign Grant had these burned as they were a source of disease. New huts would be built to house the men that stayed in the area to secure the Union supply line.



Here are a variety of shots of the inner fort. It is in pretty good condition.

This old park photo shows how formidable the walls were. No direct assault was made on the fort itself. The main actions happened away from the fort at the water batteries and in front of the outer works.