Battle of Fort Donelson | Union Victory, Confederate Surrender (2024)

Battle of Fort Donelson, American Civil War battle (February 1862) that collapsed Southern defenses in the Mid-South and forced the evacuations of Columbus, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, as well as a general Confederate retreat in Kentucky.

Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River, and Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, guarded the positions where those rivers bisected Confederate lines. After Fort Henry fell to Union forces on February 6, 1862, Fort Donelson stood as a lone sentry protecting important Southern agricultural lands and the city of Nashville, the capital of Tennessee and a munitions centre. Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston dispatched four generals and rushed 18,000 troops to meet the Union forces commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant, who were marching from Fort Henry, and a Union gunboat flotilla steaming downriver under the command of Commodore Andrew Foote. The battle began on February 13 as Grant’s soldiers prodded Confederate lines; this early action suggested the ensuing battle would be costly. When the Union gunboats arrived the next day, they met determined fire from shore batteries that severely damaged the flotilla and left Foote’s flagship a shambles. The following day the Confederates had a fleeting chance to turn the battle in their favour, but poor coordination among their generals, as well as vague instructions from Johnston, conspired to cheat them of the opportunity.

On February 16 Southern General Simon B. Buckner asked for an armistice and surrender terms from his old friend Grant. Grant replied, “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.” This was probably the war’s first demand for unconditional surrender; although Buckner was appalled, he saw no option but to quit. He turned over about 15,000 men, 20,000 rifles, 48 pieces of artillery, 17 heavy guns, about 3,000 horses, and large commissary stores. The battle was bloody: the South lost 1,500 to 3,500 men; Union losses were 500 killed and 2,100 wounded. Although 3,000 Confederates managed to escape, the defeat demoralized Southern society; citizens in Nashville rioted, Southern hopes of help from England diminished, Johnston’s reputation was destroyed, and the Union now owned a deep wedge into the Southern lines. With the fall of Fort Henry 10 days earlier, the South was compelled to retreat along a wide front, and Grant, whose first and middle names were transformed to the nickname “Unconditional Surrender,” came to the favourable attention of Union President Abraham Lincoln.