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BATTLE section

Although the weather had been mostly rainy up to this point in the campaign, a snow storm arrived the night of February 13, with strong winds that brought temperatures down to 10–12 °F (-12 °C) and deposited 3 inches (8 cm) of snow by morning. Guns and wagons were frozen to the earth. Because of the proximity of the enemy lines and the active sharpshooters, the soldiers could not light campfires for warmth or cooking, and both sides were miserable that night, many having arrived without blankets or overcoats.[25] Franklin Cooling captures the mood of the Confederate foot soldiers: "It had already been a long winter for the sullen groups of men huddled around flickering campfires near the sleepy Stewart County seat of Dover, Tennessee. Yet, it was only mid-February. The frozen landscape and the biting wind cut deeply into the bodies and spirits of the ill-clad Confederates..."

Runaway Slaves

While the nation focused on the details of the battles and what Grant's next move might be, thousands of enslaved Africans were quietly abandoning slave owners and seeking refuge and freedom at the Union Army's camps. Union victories at forts Henry and Donelson gave slaves in the area their best chance to seek freedom. Union victory at these river forts meant liberty was tangible, removed from the abstract and brought into reality. Before the war, freedom had meant traveling great distances to reach northern or western states, the Caribbean, or Canada. Slaves, who may have stayed with their masters out of fear of punishment, saw a federal camp as a reason to escape. Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant himself aided the runaway slave's cause. After the surrender of Fort Donelson in February 1862, Grant issued an order that detailed how slaves would be "employed for the Quarter Masters Department for the benefit of the Government" rather than returning them to the enemy. In Slavery’s End in Tennessee, John Cimprich estimates that approximately 300 runaways wintered at Fort Donelson in 1863. The Union takeover of Fort Donelson created a makeshift place of hospitality where runaway slaves could take refuge. Fort Donelson served as a transition between an old way of life as a slave to a new life as a freedman or woman.

As slave families moved to the Union forts, they found safety and work among the Union soldiers. At Fort Donelson, African American men were employed as laborers, cooks, teamsters, officer’s servants, and eventually recruited as soldiers. Details of laborers were sent from Donelson in July 1863 to repair the railroad at Cumberland City, the important rail connection near Dover. Women worked as laundresses, nurses, cooks, or seamstresses. Sgt. Major Thomas Baugh wrote to his wife that he paid two dollars a week for “two Negroe women to cook and wash.” Men stationed at Forts Henry and Heiman grew so accustomed to the new laborers that they persuaded their commanding officer to allow former slaves to stay within the Union lines.

Aftermath[edit source | edit] The casualties at Fort Donelson were heavy, primarily because of the large Confederate surrender. Union losses were 2,691 (507 killed, 1,976 wounded, 208 captured/missing), Confederate 13,846 (327 killed, 1,127 wounded, 12,392 captured/missing).[3]

Cannons were fired and church bells rung throughout the North at the news. The Chicago Tribune wrote that "Chicago reeled mad with joy." The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson were the first significant Union victories in the war and opened two great rivers to invasion in the heartland of the South. Grant was promoted to major general of volunteers, second in seniority only to Henry W. Halleck in the West. With the fall of the forts, the entire picture of the “War in the West” was changed almost overnight. Divided Confederate command at the local level, vacillation by theater commander Albert Sidney Johnston and his subordinate staff, and Confederate addiction to position defense had sacrificed some fourteen thousand officers and men (close to a third of all of Johnston's forces) to Northern prison camps. Grant had captured more soldiers than all previous American generals combined, and Johnston was thereby deprived of more than twelve thousand soldiers who would otherwise have provided a decisive advantage at the impending Battle of Shiloh in less than two months time. The rest of Johnston's forces were between Nashville and Columbus; Grant's army lay decisively between them. The latter's forces also controlled nearby rivers and railroads. With victory came problems the Union high command did not predict. The influx of runaway slaves transformed Fort Donelson into a temporary place of residence and shelter. “With the surrender of the two forts, the Confederacy lost much of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the slow decay of the Confederate West began in earnest.”

The site of the battle has been preserved by the National Park Service as Fort Donelson National Battlefield.

MAIN IDEA:

“With the surrender of the two forts, the Confederacy lost much of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the slow decay of the Confederate West began in earnest.”

-Where the South Lost the War…Kendall D. Gott

16:39, 2 November 2015 (UTC)16:39, 2 November 2015 (UTC)T-slice16 (talk) 16:39, 2 November 2015 (UTC)