CIVIL WAR #3: Battle Of Fort Donelson (11 feb 1862 anni – 16 feb 1862 anni)

Descrizione:

After capturing Fort Henry on the Tennessee River on February 6, 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant advanced 12 miles cross-country to invest Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. By February 13th, Grant had surrounded the fort with about 25,000 men, and had conducted several small attacks to probe the fort's defenses. Inside and around the fort, Confederate commander General John B. Floyd led a garrison of three divisions of about 16,000 infantry and cavalry. On the morning of the 15th, the Confederates launched a surprise attack on the right flank of Grant's lines outside the fort. Grant counterattacked in the afternoon, and despite some success, Floyd ordered his men to fall back inside the fort. The next day, Floyd and some other senior commanders and a few men escaped the fort, turning over command to General Simon Bolivar Buckner. Later that day, Buckner reluctantly surrendered the remaining garrison unconditionally. The capture of Fort Donelson was a major victory for Grant and a catastrophe for the South. It helped ensure that Kentucky would stay in the Union and opened up Tennessee for Union advances up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.

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