Ft, Henry swollowed!

[5fish]

What was old Forrest doing during the brake out at Ft. Donelson?

I know he sneaks across the river to avoid surrendering but what was he doing during the fighting??

[ole]

And Hoovers Gap & The Sam Davis House,

I am chagrined to have failed to mention the Sam Davis house. And the Forrest boyhood home.

ole

[ole]

I know he sneaks across the river to avoid surrendering but what was he doing during the fighting??

Mounted infantry don't fight fixed battles. Forrest simply refused to surrender his men. He was probably disgusted with the way things were going and said, "We're outta here!" And, he didn't sneak across the river. He just went south through some rather wet territory.

ole

[larry_cockerham]

On February 12, 1862 Forrest was placed in command of about 1,300 cavalrymen. He and his men fought a series of delaying actions against Grant's advance guard, moving from Ft. Henry towards Ft. Donelson. Forrest and his men fought dismounted much of this time. On the 13th he was on reconnaisance. On the 15th he commanded the cavalry shield of the Confederate assault column and drove back Grant's right flank and opened an escape route, but the other commanders failed to utilize the opportunity. The attack on Donelson lasted several hours. Forrest captured two batteries of artillery and in the process lost his first of thirty horses killed under him. According to Michael Bradley in his NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, HIS ESCORT AND STAFF, when informed of the infantry commander's intention to surrender that night, he snorted "To hell with that, I did not come here to surrender."

During the darkness of Feb 15-16 he led his command and a few others who joined and made his escaped to Nashville where he was placed in command by General Floyd and managed to transfer the Confederate stores to Franklin and Murfreesboro.

I guess it's obvious, Forrest wasn't exactly sitting around at Donelson or anywhere else. He continued that attitude for four years. That's how he rode into legend.

[5fish]

I will give your Western boys a token victory..

Ft. Henry may not have been a great military victory in any since but it was a great victory for the union army's character....it looks like the union army need some positive reinforcement and Ft. Henry fit the bill...

Let's be positive...

[5fish]

I have a question where were the Confederate gunboats when Ft. Donelson was under siege?

It seems the union gunboats had complete control of the river with of without controlling the fronts. Even in the Mississippi river the union gunboats had complete control as well. I have read a list of confederate gunboats so they had quiet a few so where where they?

[larry_cockerham]

Confederate gunboats this far 'inland' from the Ohio were few and far between. There simply was no water to speak of. Remember that the Cumberland is a very narrow stream by navigation standards. Even with the Cheatham dam in place the river at Nashville today is only about 50 yards wide at normal pool. At and around Ft. Donelson and Dover there were no Confederate gunboats, only some Houston County farmboys with big cannons waiting to see what was coming up river next. They blasted a few with considerable success. What they weren't prepared for was Grant's army.

[5fish]

Larry,

From what little I have read about CSN gunboats, they mostly where used along the coast and not in the main rivers.

It looks as if the south must have thought that forts could control the river traffic on the main rivers but I think this is poor planning if that what the south was thinking..

It was just giving the north free run of the main inland rivers...

[Borderruffian]

Could also have to do with the souths lack of boat works. Most river vessels were constructed in St Louis (never under CS control), Memphis (fell fairly early) New Orleans (also fell early) and sites in Illinios as well as Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana, all firmly under northern control.

Then again the south would never have been able to produce enough Iron to clad many boats in that Tennessee was it's biggest sheet, pig and rail road iron producer and it also fell early.

Which brings us back to Donelson and Henry and Nashville.

[whitworth]

we would realize that all were near navigable water. And on navigable water, Union forces were supreme, in the end.

The United States had the steamboats, the shipyards, the repair facilities, the supply depots, the ferrying of troops aboard such ships, the movement of supplies to convenient points.
The U.S. had the rams to destroy Confederate steamer positions on waterways.
By mid 1862, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were gone. Columbus, Kentucky was gone. Island # 10 was gone. And by mid 1862, Memphis was in Union hands.

Each place, near water; Union controlled water. Union Steamers, ironclad and transport, were the death of the Confederacy on these inland waterways.