OCR Text |
Show Grant's "Unconditional Surrender" Note. "No terms except an unconditionat nd Immediate surrender can be accepted. ac-cepted. I propose to move Immediately Immediate-ly upon your works." That laconic dispatch is famous in American history. his-tory. Written to Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, the Confederate commander at Fort Donelson, Tenn., by Gen. U. S. Grant on February 16, 1S02, it gave to the Union commander the nickname of "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. At the opening of the Civil war the Confederates built Fort Donelson on the Cumberland river and Fort Henry oa the Tennessee to protect Nashville, the very heart of the Confederacy, from an invasion from the north. Erected on a hill 120 feet above the river, surrounded by two and a half miles of rifle pits and protected on the river side by three great batteries, Fort Donelson with its garrison of 18,-000 18,-000 men was one of the most important impor-tant posts in the Mississippi valley. On February 6 Fort Henry fell before be-fore the cannon of Commodore Foote'f flotilla of gunboats, but when that commander moved to attack Fort Donelson Don-elson he was speedily repulsed. Meanwhile Mean-while General Grant had moved against Donelson and for three days a fierce battle raged during which each army lost more than 2,000 men. On February 15 the garrison tried to cut Its way through Grant's lines but was driven back Into its stronghold. The next day Buckner sent a message mes-sage under a white flag asking Grant what terms he would give if the Con federates gave up the fort. Grant's historic reply was the result. When Fort Donelson surrendered the first great Union victory 'of the war was won and 14,500 grayjtickets marched out and laid dowD their arms, the largest number of men ever captured up to that time In any battle on the American continent. The victors also took possession of 57 pieces of artillery, artil-lery, although one great prize in the persons of Generals F loyd, I'lllow and Nathan Bedford Forrest, the dashing cavalry leader, slipped through their hands when these officers escaped across the river. The surrender of Nashville and Columbus Co-lumbus soon followed. Kentucky end Tennessee u ere now In the hands of the Union forces and Ulysses S. Gram had started on the military careei that ended triumphantly at Apporaat tOJ. |