[Jake]

The National Park Service website to Ft Donelson:
http://www.nps.gov/fodo/index.htm

Simon Bolivar Buckner, as historian James McPherson writes in his, I think, excellent one-volume work "Battle Cry of Freedom", lent money to a luckless Ulysees S Grant in order for the future General to get home after resigning from the army in 1854.

9 years later, the creditor, now the Confederate General in charge of the losing force inhabiting Ft Donelson, wrote to the debtor, who would, in the span of a few days, become the new name in Union leaders, "Sir - 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 fort under my command, and in that view suggest and armistice until 12 o'clock to-day."

Grant's reply would become famous: "Sir - yours of this date [Feb. 16, 1862], proposing armistice and appointment of Commissioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms except and unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works."

U. S. Grant - "Unconditional surrender" Grant. His strategy was very unorthodox and cruel for 19th century war standards... but it would prove to be the winning formula for a very bloody war. Many critics debate Grant's stance at unconditional surrender, but I would argue that, not unlike Hiroshima and Nagasaki 83 years later, nothing short of it would end the war.

[Jake]

William Tecumseh Sherman, a very popular, if not infamous, general of the Civil War, got into, again, a little hot water in his memoirs suggesting that the strategy of winning Ft Donelson and earlier Ft Henry came from General Henry Halleck.

Sherman described:
"... I remember, one night, sitting in [Halleck's] room, on the second floor of the Planters' House, with him and General Cullum, his chief of staff, talking of things generally, and the subject then was of the much talked-of "advance", as soon as the season would permit.... General Halleck had a map on his table, with a large pencil in his hand, and asked, 'Where is the rebel line?' Cullum drew the pencil through Bowling Green, Forts Donelson and Henry, and Columbus, Kentucky. 'That is their line,' said Halleck. 'Now, where is the proper place to break it?' And either Cullum or I said, 'Naturally the centre.'

..."This occurred more than a month before General Grant began the movement [through the centre and the Tennessee River], and, as he was subject to General Halleck's orders, I have always given Halleck the full credit for that movement, which was skillful, successful, and extremely rich in military results; indeed, it was the first real success on our side in the civil war."


As for the victory at Fort Donelson, Sherman wrote, "... brought us news of the surrender of Buckner, and probably at no time during the war did we all feel so heavy a weight raised from our breasts, or so thankful for a most fruitful of victories.


Grant wrote: "During the Siege [of Ft Donelson] General Sherman had been sent to Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland River, to forward reinforcements and supplies to me. At that time he was senior in rank and there was no authority of law to assign a junior to command a senoir of the same grade. But every boat that came up with supplies or reinforcements brought a note of encouragement from Sherman, asking me to call upon him for any assistance he could render and saying that if he could be of service at the front I might send for him and he would waive rank."

[Jake]

On the Confederate side, Nathan Bedford Forrest, then a cavalry colonel, who was one of a very few if any other who would start the war as a private and end it as a General, escaped Ft Donelson with his cavalry. He was, as Shelby Foote mentioned many times, a genius of the Civil War, with regards to military tactics and strategem. Forrest would be remembered for being a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan, but this cannot overshadow his genius on the field.

Jefferson Davis would be inaugurated as President of the Confederate States 6 days after the Union victory at Ft Donelson. Many were distraught, though, of the Union victory. Mary Chesnut, a chronicler of the War on the Confederate side, wrote, on February 20 (it took time for the news to spread), "Had an appetite for my dainty breakfast. Always breakfast in bed now. But then, my Mercury contained such bad news. That is an appetizing style of matutinal newspaper. Fort Donelson has fallen, but no men fell with it. It is prisoners for them that we can not spare, or prisoners for us that we may not be able to feed : that is so much to be "forefended," as Keitt says. They lost six thousand, we two thousand ; I grudge that proportion. In vain, alas ! ye gallant few few, but undismayed. Again, they make a stand. We have Buckner, Beauregard, and Albert Sidney Johnston. With such leaders and God's help we may be saved from the hated Yankees ; who knows ?"

The Rebels, however, were defiant they would eventually win. It was, in a way, easier for them to win the war than for the Union. All they really had to do was get Great Britain and/or France to back them in their quest for self-determination, whether blood was shed or not. With international diplomacy the Union's claim that the Confederate plan was unlawful or against preserving the Union would be worthless. The Union had to fight the Confederacy to the last, exhaust it, diplomatically make it seem that the Union would reconstruct afterwards to gain support in the cause (or at least not support dis-union)... difficult when you have to fight people defending their homes and way of life.

On the same day Chesnut wrote the lines from Columbia South Carolina, about 400 miles to the north in Washington, Abraham Lincoln's son Willie would die.

[Jake]

Abraham Lincoln promoted Ulysees Grant to major general the day after the victory at Donelson.

The stage was set for another major confrontation, two months later, not a siege like at Fts Henry and Donelson, but rather a battle, and a bloody battle at that...Shiloh...the battle at Pittsburg Landing....

Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate General in charge of the western theatre, regrouped his troops in west Tennessee, Alabama regions.

In Brooklyn, on Feb 18 1862, (and remember at this time Brooklyn was not yet consolidated into New York City) aldermen got together to issue the following statements:

"The recent news from our army and navy has filled all hearts with joy, and as "out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh;" therefore beat. Resolved, That we hail the capture of Fort Donelson as one of the most important, brilliant and satisfactory events of the rebellion; that in the capture of the rebel chiefs, JOHNSON, PILLOW, BUCKNER and others, with ten thousand of their deceived followers, the rebellion has, in our opinion, received a fatal blow. Resolved, That we tender to our gallant troops our heartfelt thanks for their brilliant achievements, and, in the name of Brooklyn, promise ever to hold them high as brave defenders of our country against its deadliest enemies -- treason and rebellion. Resolved, That in memory of Somerset and Roanoke, of Fort Henry, Bowling Green and Fort Donelson, will go hand in hand with Lexington and Bunker Hill; with Trenton, Saratoga -- with PERRY and DECATUR. Resolved, That we congratulate our fellow-citizens upon the cheering prospects of a speedy termination of this wicked rebellion -- a return of peace, a resumption of business, and a restoration of that happiness and prosperity which it has been our high privilege under the ever blessed flag of our country, long to enjoy."

The termination would be more than 3 years away...

[Jake]

New York Times, Feb 17, 1862:

"The news of the fall of Fort Dunelson was recived with extraordinary demonstrations in Congress today. In the Senate the gallery rose en masse and gave three enthusiastic cheers. In the House this was improved on the floor try three cheers and a tiger."

"HONOR TO GEN. GRANT. Honors follow swift on the heels of victory. Immediately on the receipt of the telegraphic news announcing the capture of Fort Donelson, the Secretary of War sent the name of Gen. GRANT to the President for nomination to the Senate as Major-General, as a reward for his gallant services."

"THE TREASURY NOTE BILL. The Committee of Ways and Means have considered the Senate's amendments to the Treasury Note bill. They non-concurred in two of the more important amendments -- the one authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to put the bonds upon the marker and to sell them for what they would bring; the other that the interest on the bonds shall be paid in coin. The vote on there two amendments stood 4 and 4."

"BOSTON, Monday, Feb. 17. Mayor WIGHTMAN has issued a congratulatory proclamation on the capture of Fort Donelson, and duecting a salute of 160 guns at noon to-morrow, also that the church bells be rang and the national flags be displayed from the public buildings. The patriotic citizens will fire 500 guns on the Common to-morrow."

[Jake]

With the fall of Ft. Donelson, Nashville, a very important Confederate centre, was threatened, and plans already were in the works to evacuate it. On the eve of Lincoln's son's death, in Nashville planns were underway for what would lead to the evacuation of Nashville on the 23rd.

[Jake]

Feb. 20, 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's third son, aged 11, died in the Executive Mansion (White House). It is said Lincoln would not write correspondence for three days, a long time considering how things were progressing out west.

[Jake]

Interesting:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...id=fb-disunion

By the late afternoon on Feb. 21, 1862, the furious Battle of Valverde raged in the sandy, cottonwood flood plain of the Rio Grande in the New Mexico Territory. Just six miles north of the Union post at Fort Craig, hundreds of dead men, horses and mules littered the battlefield as a furious artillery duel and infantry charges stretched on into the late afternoon. At 4 p.m., the Union commander, Col. Edward Canby, decided to make his move and finish the rebel forces, led by Confederate Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley.

Sibley, with the approval of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, had been marching west in a bold attempt not just to invade the arid, sparsely populated Southwest – but to capture California’s gold and ports. Despite dissent against the plan among other Confederate leaders in Richmond, Davis and Sibley believed the campaign would shift the entire balance of the war. The Union would be denied Californian gold even as Confederate coffers would fill. With ports in the Pacific, the Confederacy could send its cotton to foreign markets, avoiding the Union blockade along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

The Confederates won the battle and remained encamped on the battlefield, but there was no strategic victory. Canby and the Union survivors remained inside the walls of Fort Craig with their supplies. Sibley, meanwhile, was cut off from resupply from Texas. His hobbled forces resumed their march north, having not only failed to capture Union supplies but also endangered their own supply train, losing 160 mules and uncounted horses in the fighting.

[Jake]

The Confederates evacuated Nashville 150 years ago today, resulting in a huge win for the Union both in gaining the first Confederate state capital and enjoying Nashville's transportation and logistical advantages.

[Jake]

To the People of the Confederate States: The termination of the Provisional Government offers a fitting occasion again to present ourselves in humiliation, prayer, and thanksgiving before that God who has safely conducted us through our first year of National existence. We have been enabled to lay anew the foundations of Free Government, and to repel the florets of our enemies to destroy us. Law has everywhere reigned supreme, and throughout our wide spread limits personal liberty and private right have been duly honored. A case of earnest piety has pervaded our people, and the victories which we have detained over our enemies have been justly ascribed to Him who ruleth the Universe.

We had hoped that the year would have closed upon a scene of continued prosperity but it has pleased the Supreme Disposer of events to order it otherwise. We are non permitted to furnish an exception to rule of Divine Government, which has prescribed affliction as the discipline of nations as well as of individuals. Our faith and perseverance must be tested, and the chastening which seemeth grievous will, if rightly received, bring forth its appropriate fruit.

It is meet and right, therefore, that we should repair to the only Giver of all victory, and, humbling ourselves before Him, should pray that He may strengthen our confidence in His mighty power, and righteous judgment. Then may we surely trust in Him that He will perform His promise and encompass us as with a shield.

In this trust, and to this end I, JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Confederate States, do hereby set apart Friday, the 28th day of February instant, as a day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer; and I do hereby invite the Reverend Clergy and people of the Confederate States to repair to their respective places of public worship to humble themselves before Almighty God and pray for His protection and favor to our beloved country, and that we may be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us.

Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this 20th day of February, A. D. 1862.

[Jake]

New York Times, March 2, 1862:

Official information to the War Department from Nashville, represents that the military work in that State is about completed, and that it only remains to effect a civil reorganization of the State Government.

The President has designated Hon. Andrew JOHNSON to be a Brigadier-General, and he proceeds to Tennessee to-morrow, to open a Military Provisional Government of Tennessee, until the Civil Government be reconstructed.

Gen. BUELL will be nominated to-morrow as Major-General of Volunteers.


.....Andrew Johnson would be destined for far more than opening a Military Provisional Government in Tennessee....

[Jake]

Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General for most of the Lincoln administration period, had this to say about emancipation, more than four months before Lincoln discussed an emacipation proclamation with his cabinet.


"There are two interests in Slavery, the political and property interest, held by distinct classes. The rebellion originated with the political class. The property class, which generally belonged to the Whig organization, had lost no property, in the region where the rebellion broke out, and were prosperous. It was the Democratic organization, which did not represent the slaveholders as a class, which hatched the rebellion. Their defeat in the late political struggle, and in the present rebellion, extinguishes at once and forever, the political interest of Slavery.

It is not merely a question of constitutional law, or Slavery, with which we have to deal, in "securing permanent peace." The problem before us is, the radical one of dealing with the relations of masses of two different races in the same community. The calamities now upon us have been brought about, as I have already said, not by the grievances of the class claiming property in slaves, but by the jealousy of caste, awakened by the Secessionists in the non-slaveholders.

The difficult question with which we have to deal is, then, the question of race, and I do not think it is disposed of, or that our difficulties will be lessened by emancipation by Congress, even if such an act was constitutional. It would certainly add to the exasperation of the non-slaveholding whites of the South, and might unite them against the Government, and if so they would be unconquerable.

I am morally certain, indeed, that to free the slaves of the South, without removing them, would result in the massacre of them. A general massacre was on the eye of taking place, in the State of Tennessee, in 1856, upon a rising of some of them on the Cumberland, and I have been assured, by the Hon. ANDREW JOHNSON, who was then Governor of the State, that nothing but his prompt calling out of the militia prevented it.

The rebellion, like the Indian outbreaks, is but a vain attempt to stem the tide of civilization and progress. The treachery, falsehood, and cruelty, perpetrated to maintain negro possession, scarely less than that of the savages, marks the real nature of the contest. Nevertheless, I believe it might have been averted, if we had adopted Mr. JEFFERSON's counsels, and made provision for the separation of the races, providing suitable homes for the blacks as we have for the Indians.

No greater mistake was ever made than in supposing that the masses of the people of the South favor Slavery. I have already stated that they did not take up arms to defend it, and explained the real motives of their action. The fact that they oppose emancipation, in their midst, is the only foundation for the contrary opinion. But the masses of the North are equally opposed to it, if the four millions of slaves were to be transposed to their midst. The prohibitory laws against their coming, existing in all the States subject to such invasion, proves this.

It needs, therefore, but the assurance which would be given, by providing homes for the blacks elsewhere, that they are to be regarded as sojourners when emancipated, as in point of fact they are, and ever will be, to insure the cooperation of the nonslave holders in their emancipation.

The more enterprising would soon emigrate, and multitudes of less energy would follow, if such success attended the pioneers, as the care with which the Government should foster so important an object would, doubtless, insure; and, with such facilities, it would require but few generations to put the temperate regions of America in the exclusive occupation of the white race, and remove the only obstacle to a perpetual Union of the States."



Of course, history tells us that the subject of Native Indian treatment by the US government was far from rosy. Many of the leaders and soldiers who won the war for the North went on to displace the Indians in the West, at times very harshly. Even before the Civil War, the US government was not always benevolent with the Native Americans; one only need to bring up the "Trail of Tears" as an example.

Blair's last sentence is amazingly naive for an intellectual of his calibre. Somehow emancipating slaves would free the South of them? that the exclusive occupation of temperate regions by the white race would remove any obstacle to perpetual peace? How about if the Afro-American wishes to stay in the area in which he was born? How about if the freed slave's family in generations to come would be willing to acquire land in the area from whence his ancestors came?

I guess this letter by Blair to the Cooper Union would prelude the feelings and circumstances around which Martin Luther King Jr mentioned as the "bad cheque" that the Afro-American got from the US government, or as Lyndon Johnson said 103 years later, emancipation was a proclamation but not a fact.

[Jake]

The first two months of 1862 were immensely successful for the Union out west. Henry Halleck, who would become in the period the senior officer and poised to be commander of the Western Army, had basically 2 goals. 1. Command the Mississippi and 2. Bring Missouri, a border state, under Federal control. Don Carlos Buell, who would first be equal to Halleck in rank, controlling the eastern portion of the western army, had 2 goals as well. 1. Control the Louisville to Nashville railroad to cut the lines of supply to Confederate armies and 2. Cut the major interior line of the railroad between Chattnooga and Richmond. Buell's first goal was underscored by Abraham Lincoln wanting to free eastern Tennessee, a unionist region, from Confederate control.

The Confederates out west were commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston, in many ways to that point the supreme commander of Confederate forces everywhere. He was ahead of Robert E. Lee, ahead of P.T Beauregard, and Joseph Johnston, the latter the last Confederate general to surrender to the Union long after Appomattox. The Confederates had a western line from Columbus Ky, to Ft Henry on the Tennessee river, to Ft Donelson on the Cumberland river, to Bowling Green ky, a stop on the Louisville to Nashville railroad, but also was a stop on a railroad leading to Memphis, an interior line of supply that ran along the line close to the forts. As noted in an earlier post, Halleck and his men understood that the middle of the line, the two forts, was the weakest part of the line itself. The Union had advantage of soldier numbers, river ways, and railroad lines for advance.

Halleck gave Grant the order to penetrate the middle part of the line, and Grant proceeded first, to take Ft. Henry, second, cut the Memphis - Bowling Green railroad interior supply line, and third, capture Ft. Donelson through siege. With the forts under Union control, Johnston abandoned Nashville and Columbus ky, Bowling Green was evacuated, and now Halleck enjoyed the victory of systematically smashing Johnston's entire western line.

[Nick_Bradley78]

I like this thread Jake, your knowledge and analysis are excellent.

[Jake]

Thanks, Nick. There's so much written on the Civil War, many university courses and historical societies built around the Civil War and Reconstruction, that it's hard to summarize it all, if that could even be possible.

Southern Farmers, especially the very successful ones, were capitalists. Look at cotton.

Cotton by 1820 had a limitless future, it seemed, much like oil in the post-WWII years. The production of cotton in the US doubled every decade from 1820 to 1860. No other product in the US, arguably ever, except computers perhaps (i'm not sure), enjoyed or enjoy those numbers. By 1825, the South was the world's largest supplier of cotton, right in the time of the industrial revolution, manufacturing, textiles, etc. Where you had cotton you had money, and where you had money you had power. By the time of Whitney's cotton gin, which gave cotton growers a machine to further their production and supply, slaves went where the cotton went, money and power, especially political power, too.

By 1860, although Virginia was the spiritual heart of the South, the political power of the South was where the cotton and slaves were, and they were concentrated in the Mississippi valley. If you doubt that cotton and slaves could amass such power, consider that Jefferson Davis, born in Kentucky, was from Mississippi.

There were about 400000 slave owners/holders by 1860, about 1/3 of the South households had at least a small connect to slave ownership. 2/3 didn't. By 1860, there were 4 million slaves in the US, second in the world only to Russia and just ahead of Brazil. This slave property was worth $3.5 billion, or roughly $80 billion today. This was worth more than railroads, production centres, manufacturing, combined. Slaves were the single largest asset of property except for land. Slavery, in contrast to what many claim, was very profitable.

Is it any shock as to why the Southern leaders were against freeing slaves, looking at this argument from this viewpoint? We could argue the moralistic issues and humanity, but in terms of dollars and cents, it was a no-brainer.

Thomas Sutpen, William Faulkner's character in "Absalom, Absalom" said it well: "What you gotta have for success in the South is a house, some land, and some n******."

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Jake

Thomas Sutpen, William Faulkner's character in "Absalom, Absalom" said it well:

I'm not sure 'well' is the word I would use to describe that quote...

[Jake]

Faulkner captured the essence of Southern thought around the issue of slavery and what it meant to the livelihood of Southerners back then.

David Blight, professor of history at Yale, uses that quote, among others, to illustrate Southern thought and expression around the slave trade. You can see his lectures on the internet. Gary Gallagher, of the University of Virginia, says in order to look at the Civil War you need to look at contemporary thought and not overshadow it by what would be written later.

How serious can a discussion on the Civil War be when patronizing comments like "turns my stomach" are used on something as fundamental to understanding the Southern thought? Do you really think Faulkner was that cold that the word didn't turn his stomach, or that I'm so rascist to use that word? Incidently rascism wasn't just a Southern phenomenon: Martin Luther King was as much threatened in Chicago as he was in Memphis, and this 100 years after the Civil War.

[Jake]

Out east, George B. McClellan was becoming a real headache for Abraham Lincoln.

In January, frustrated by McClellan's reluctance to move against Richmond with his massive and well-built Army of the Potomac, Lincoln ordered McClellan to initiate his eastern campaign on Feb. 22, Washington's birthday. As we know, on Feb. 20, Willie Lincoln, the president's son, died, and McClellan, independently of the tragic event, didn't show signs of moving. Not until March did he start moving his troops on boats in what would be called the Peninsula campaign.

McClellan was excellent in building and organizing armies....what he was a disaster at was using them. His fatal flaw as a general was that he couldn't bear to lose any of his men, which is admirable in sentiment but worthless when you have to win a war. McClellan was excellent in overestimating the numbers of Confederates against him, often by 3 times. Robert E. Lee, once taking command of the Army of Northern Virginia, would play all this to his advantage, and in doing so prove the better, and the best the Confederates, and arguably America ever, had to offer.

[Jake]

Mary Chesnut, the South Carolinian diarist, had, among other things, this to write on March 5, 1862:

Lord Byron and Disraeli make their rosebuds Catholic....I like (Benjamin) Disraeli (British Prime Minister) because I find so many clever things in him. I like the sparkle and the glitter. Carlyle (I think she means Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian) does not hold up his hands in holy horror of us because of African slavery. Lord Lyons (British minister to the US) has gone against us. Lord Derby (another British Prime Minister) and Louis Napoleon (president of France and during the Civil War period emperor of France as Napoleon III) are silent in our hour of direst need. People call me Cassandra, for I cry that outside hope is quenched. From the outside no help indeed cometh to this beleaguered land.

[Jake]

New York Times, March 4, 1862:

The House Committee of Ways and Means yesterday, reported their bill for raising a revenue from internal taxes or Excise duties, for the support of the Government and the payment of interest on the Public debt. This subject, comparatively new to the revenue legislation of the General Government, was placed in charge of a Sub-Committee some weeks ago; since when their labors have been almost incessant, and of the most trying and difficult nature.

Nearly every class will probably find something to complain of -- of undue burthens in one direction -- of in. equalities in another; and, it may be, of (suppressed) opposition in the third. But in the main, we have a right to assume, that the provisions of the bill have been as justly balanced as the nature of this mode of taxation would permit, and that the weighty burthens are made to fall upon the articles and occupations which are best able to support them.

The income taxes are so framed as to place the heaviest burthen upon that portion of the people who have the largest material stake in the country and the nearest interest in the integrity, public faith and lasting stability of the Government; the men of money and of productive stocks and other income paying securities. Next to these we have the tax upon railway and steamboat travel, and upon the proceeds of passenger fares upon street cars and omnibuses and ferry boats. Upon railway the rate is fixed at two mills per mile, or one-fifth of one cent, and upon steamboat travel one mill per mile. The privileges and occupations of the mechanic and manufacturer, as well as the farmer, are generally spared, while a license tax, by no means oppressive, yet producing in the aggregate a large revenue, is imposed on the banker, the broker, the distiller, the merchant, the shopkeeper,&c.

In doing so, some injustice may have been done to the moneyed interest, and to men of fixed incomes or salaries, but this, perhaps, is inseparable from the involved nature of the subject, and the difficulty, not to say extreme delicacy, attending its adjustment to the wants and responsibilities of a popular Government.