New Year, Changing Fortunes
On a national level, we will soon inaugurate a new president, and install a new cabinet and agency officials such as the director of the National Park Service. At the park level, a new superintendent will soon be selected for Ulysses S. Grant NHS. And as individuals, we make resolutions and get back to work after a time filled with family, friends, and holiday cheer.
Ulysses S. Grant and the nation as a whole encountered similar changes early in the Civil War. The year 1861 had not been a good one for the Union. Federal forces in the East had been forced to surrender Fort Sumter in April, turned tail and ran at the first Battle of Bull Run in July, and were literally driven into the Potomac River at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in October. West of the Mississippi River, western farm boys had proven they would stand and fight at the battle of Wilson’s Creek in August but their retreat to Rolla had left western Missouri open to secessionist incursions. Auspicious, though less spectacular than a major battlefield victory, the aggressive actions of Unionist leaders had secured the all important Mississippi River cities of St. Louis, Missouri, and Cairo, Illinois.
What would 1862 hold? Rivers were the highways of the nineteenth century, and the Tennessee and the Cumberland flowed directly into the heart of the Confederacy. From his base at Cairo, Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant formulated plans to capture Forts Henry and Donelson, which the Confederates had established to guard the two rivers. Working in tandem with U.S. Navy Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote (though Grant had overall command), the Federals would mount a river offensive, first against Fort Henry on the Tennessee. Given the green light in February 1862 by his superior, Henry W. Halleck, Grant moved swiftly and decisively. Using ironclads and wooden gunboats built in St. Louis, Foote transported Grant and 15,000 troops to a point several miles below Fort Henry. While the gunboats shelled the rebel fort, Grant’s army would attack on land from the rear.
Unfortunately, heavy rain and mud slowed the Union infantry advance. Fort Henry was in an untenable location however, flooded and undermanned, and the bombardment by Foote’s flotilla forced its surrender even before Grant and his men arrived.
Celebrating, but not content to rest on their laurels, Grant and Foote turned their attention to Fort Donelson. While Foote’s ironclads steamed back up the Tennessee to the Ohio and back down the Cumberland, Grant marched his troops overland. Taking Donelson would not be as easy as taking Henry. Confederate General Albert S. Johnston had reinforced Fort Donelson with 21,000 troops under the command of General John B. Floyd, and they had promptly strengthened their entrenchments. The heavy artillery guns of Fort Donelson did serious damage to Foote’s Union fleet, and Grant’s initial assaults were repulsed. Worse yet, the February weather suddenly turned icy cold as a blizzard made conditions miserable for the exposed soldiers, many of whom had abandoned their blankets and jackets on the warm march from Fort Henry. The Confederates, under siege by Grant’s forces, attempted a surprise attack on February 15 which opened a gaping hole in the Union lines, but they failed to exploit the opening due to dissension between Floyd and his two senior officers, Generals Gideon Pillow and Simon B. Buckner. Displaying coolness under fire, Grant aggressively patched the breach in his lines. Despite their inability to subdue the rebel artillery, the Union gunboats still controlled the river, and the Confederates found themselves bottled up.
Deciding surrender was their only option but fearing charges of treason, Floyd and Pillow abdicated their command, made their escape, and left Buckner to send a dispatch to Grant requesting terms. Also escaping with his mounted men was a disgusted cavalry commander named Nathan Bedford Forrest. Grant’s reply to Buckner became some of the most famous words of the war: "Sir: Yours of this date proposing Armistice and appointment of Commissioners to settle terms of Capitulation is just received. No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works."
A friend of Grant’s before the war, Buckner found Grant’s reply rather rude and unchivalrous, yet he had no choice but to submit. The Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson stunned the Confederacy, secured Kentucky, and opened the river routes into Tennessee. The North, hungry for positive news, hailed Grant as their new hero. Using his initials, U. S., newspapers dubbed him Unconditional Surrender Grant. The 15,000 rebel soldiers captured at Fort Donelson would be the first of three Confederate Armies that would surrender to Grant before the tragic war ended in 1865.
Not a bad start to the new year!
