Ft, Henry swollowed!

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by 5fish

I come from a navy background and the captain goes down with his ship or he surrenders his ship. He does not pass the buck to his exec.

At Ft. Donelson, John Floyd pass the surrender of the fort to Gen. Pillow who in turn pass it to Gen. Buckner.

It sounds like rats leaving a sinking ship....

WE praise Forrest for being a rat and sneaking across the river to escape surrender. WE do not praise Gen. Floyd for escaping surrender by steamboat or Gen. Pillow for rowing across the river. They were all rats avoiding their responsibility and leaving their troops behind....

A question where was the union gunboats with all these people using the river to escape? Maybe the whole fort should have just jump in the river and swam to the other side for it looks like the union gunboats were not doing their job.

Why does one rat(Forrest) get praise for leaving a sinking ship and none of the other rats do?

Again, it is that Southern leadership in the west showing us their best.....


Did Gen. Lee run like a rat when he surrender his army?
The answer is NO!!

As I recall, and as has been posted previously, Forrest didn't exit until about the third day. Not exactly a man jumping away from the fracas. He had produced a breech in the Federal lines that could have been exploited by proper action by Floyd and others. Forrest had no control of inadequate Confederate management, a condition that was to continue.

[ole]

Think every night ship either regiments across the river or hold brigades. I know boats and steamboats may have been in short supply but drag out the siege until you got most of the garrison across the river.

I believe here, 5Fish, that you've introduced an inventive expectation. You noted that Floyd fled on some sort of commandeered power boat barely large enough for himself and a few men. Pillow had to be content with a rowboat. And you've assumed that the opposite bank was amenable to landing; that a holding action and a shuttle service could have been arranged. Is that meager collection enough to shuttle the whole garrison in a week?

Once Grant slammed the gate, Donelson was finished. The garrison could have been starved out. It was finished. Surrender was inevitable. It could have tried to fight its way out, but then there would simply be fewer men available for surrendering.

Forrest took his men out, choosing to live to fight another day. And they didn't simply jump in the river and swim across. They rode upriver through an understandably union-free swamp. Where they crossed, if they crossed, I don't know.

Rats desert. They don't take a formidable fighting force with them. It's called preserving your fighting force.

ole