Chapter 2
1 Charles Elliott, Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), 721.
2 OR 1, pt. 3, 177, 178, 250.
3 Ibid., 4, 385-387.
4 Ibid., 7, 444.
5 Ibid.
6 Kenneth P. Williams, Lincoln Finds A General (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952), 3: 109-112.
7 || See Steven V. Ash, When the Yankees Came: Conflict and Chaos in the Occupied South, 1861-1865 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995).
8 OR 7, 440, 441; Roy P. Basler (ed.), The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 5: 54.
9 Thomas W. Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee (Knoxville: Ogden Brothers and Company, 1888), 60.
10 James Welch Patton, Union ism and Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1860-1869 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1934), 1. In October William Blount Carter wrote to General Thomas that “who ever is the leader of a successful expedition into East Tennessee will receive from these grateful people a crown of glory of which anyone might be well proud.” OR 4, 320.
11 A. C. Graham to Jeff Davis, in Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee (Nashville: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1886), 485.
12 OR 52, pt. 2, 115.
13 Ibid., 7, 480.
14 The Knoxville Whig, Au gust 10, 1861.
15 OR 4, 230, 251; Ed ward Younger (ed.), In side the Confederate Government: The Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean (New York: Ox ford University Press, 1957), 17, 18. Carter was a Presbyterian minister living in Elizabethtown. He received twenty thousand dollars from the federal government for his activity in arranging the scheme for burning the bridges.
16 For further details of these events see William Brownlow, Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Se cession, With A Narrative of Personal Adventures Among the Rebels (Philadelphia: G.W. Childs Publishers, 1862), 311, 312; Oliver Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War (Cincinnati: The R. Clarke Company, 1899); Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee, 60. Brownlow could have escaped going to jail if he had been willing to take the Oath of Allegiance to the Confederacy, but he refused to do so. Unionist feeling continued in this region as the result of Confederate attempts to suppress Union sympathizers.
17 OR 7, 468.
18 Samuel R. Kamm, The Civil War Career of Thomas A. Scott (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940), 94.
19 Ibid., 95.
20 Ibid., 95, 96.
21 Sherman, Memoirs, 219, 220.
22 Grant, Memoirs, 146, 147.
23 Wallace, An Au to biography, 1: 353.
24 Ambrose, Halleck, 19.
25 OR 7, 463.
26 Ibid., 450, 524.
27 Ibid., 532.
28 Ibid., 526
29 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, October 25, 1861.
30 See Freeman Cleaves, Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948), 89-91, for details of this operation.
31 || For Mill Springs, see Raymond E. Myers, The Zollie Tree: General Felix K. Zollicoffer and the Battle of Mill Springs (Louisville: Filson Club, 1964).
32 Battles and Leaders, 1: 383.
33 Private Henry Doak, Nineteenth Tennessee, who participated in the action, said Fry’s story of shooting Zollicoffer with a revolver was a lie, and that the general was shot by a Union soldier with a musket. Henry M. Doak, “The Nineteenth Tennessee,” Confederate Collection, Tennessee Department of Archives and History; Battles and Leaders, 1: 383. For a fuller discussion of the matter see Raymond Myers, The Zollie Tree (Louisville: c. 1964), 119-125.
34 Cleaves, Rock of Chickamauga, 94-99; Williams, Lincoln Finds A General, 3: 172-175.
35 Younger, Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean, 24.
36 Myers, The Zollie Tree, 13-42; D. A. B., 20: 20.
37 Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 5: 90.
38 Ibid., 91.
39 Ibid.
40 Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 5: 98, 99.
41 OR 7, 120, 121.
42 Ibid., 451, 521, 528, 529.
43 J. F. C. Fuller, The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant (New York: Dodd, Meade and Company, 1929), 79; OR 7, 120, 121.
44 Ibid., 121, 571, 572.
45 Ibid., 121, 122.
46 || Dr. Cunningham uses the terms “steam ships” and “ships” through out the dissertation. These vessels are properly termed “steamboats” and “boats” since none of them were ocean-going vessels. We have left the terms in tact through out the document.
47 Grant, Memoirs, 148.
48 OR 7, 127; Grant, Memoirs, 148.
49 A. L. Conger, The Rise of U. S. Grant (New York: Century Press, 1931), 156.
50 H. Allen Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters: The Story of River Gunboats in the Civil War (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1949), 47, 48.
Chapter 3
1 || Much has been written on Forts Henry and Donelson since Cunningham’s dissertation appeared in 1966. The two best accounts are Benjamin F. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987), and Kendall D. Gott, Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862 (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2003).
2 || For Fort Pillow, see John Cimprich, Fort Pillow, A Civil War Massacre, And Public Memory (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005).
3 Conger, “Fort Donelson,” 39. Conger said that one 32-pounder was rifled, but gave no source for this. According to Captain J. Taylor, Confederate artillery, Fort Henry had eight 32-pound guns, two 42-pound guns, one 128-pound Columbiad, five 18-pound siege guns which were smoothbores, one 6-inch rifle, and six 12-pounders, which were defective, and two which exploded the first time they were tested. This was his February 1st report. Battles and Leaders, 1: 369.
4 Conger, “Fort Donelson,” 47.
5 Battles and Leaders, 1: 369.
6 Walter J. Buttgenbach, “Coast Defense in the Civil War,” Journal of the United States Artillery 39 (March-April 1913): 210-216.
7 The foregoing description of the main fortifications is taken from B. F. Thomas, Soldier Life: A Narrative of the Civil War. This work was privately printed March 6, 1907, for the use of the author’s immediate family, and the only copy I know of is in Shiloh National Military Park Library. There are no page numbers. Thomas’ account was based on his personal daily diary, and due to the unusual accuracy of his account, I have basically paraphrased his description of Donelson. For additional description of the fort, see Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881), 28, 29. Davis said the enclosed area was about “one hundred yards.”
8 Buttgenbach, “Coast Defense in the Civil War,” 211-213.
9 Warner, Generals in Gray, 306.
10 Battles and Leaders, 1: 366.
11 OR 7, 139. || For Tilghman, see James W. Rabb, Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman: A Biography (Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 2006).
12 Steele, American Campaigns, 75. Tilghman’s soldiers were poorly trained and worse armed. Most of them had shot guns and fowling pieces. His best equipped regiment, the Tenth Tennessee, was armed with flintlock muskets, originally used by Andrew Johnson’s militia in the War of 1812. Stanley F. Horn, The Army of the Tennessee: A Military History (New York: The Bobbs Merrill Company, 1941), 82; Tennessee in the Civil War (Nashville: Civil War Centennial Commission, 1964), 1: 194; Battles and Leaders, 1: 370.
13 Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 49.
14 Conger, “Fort Donelson,” 57; Richardson, Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant, 210; Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 114; Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America (Philadelphia: Joseph H. Coates and Company, 1875), 1: 483, 484.
15 OR 7, 134.
16 Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (Wa
shington: 1894-1922), 22, 540. Here inafter this will be cited as ORN.
17 OR 7, 146.
18 OR N 22, 559, 538.
19 Ibid., 539.
20 Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 54, 55; Battles and Leaders, 1: 367.
21 OR 7, 142.
22 Ibid., 129, 147.
23 Ibid., 124.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid., 590.
26 Ibid., 591.
27 Ibid., 592-594.
28 ORN 22, 461, 485, 486.
29 Ibid., 570-573.
30 OR 7, 596; Richardson, Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant, 211. Grant’s failure to appreciate the reality of the possibility of such an advance can be seen in a conversation between the general and correspondent Albert Richardson on February 7. The reporter stopped by briefly to tell Grant he was leaving for New York, and the general promptly remarked, “You had better wait a day or two.” “Why?” asked Richardson. “I am going to attack Fort Donelson tomorrow.” Richardson asked, “Do you know how strong it is?” “Not exactly; but I think we can take it; at all events, we can try.” Ibid.
31 OR 7, 596, 597. In his Memoirs Grant says he personally accompanied this reconnaissance force. Grant, Memoirs, 150, 151. A. L. Conger says Grant actually accompanied a second reconnaissance party, which explored the route on February 9. Conger, The Rise of U. S. Grant, 164. General Gideon Pillow reported a cavalry skirmish on February 9 near Fort Donelson, which would tend to confirm Conger’s account of the reconnaissance. OR 7, 370.
32 Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 115; Wallace, Autobiography, 1: 376; OR 7, 600. General Lew Wallace wrote of attending a staff conference on board the Tigress, at which Generals Smith and McClernand both advocated as quickly as possible. Wallace, Autobiography, 376, 377.
33 Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 83; Alfred Roman, The Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War Between the States (New York: Harper, 1884), 1: 225.
34 Johnston had about fourteen thousand men at Bowling Green under his personal direction, about five thousand at Fort Donelson, including the survivors of the Fort Henry affair now under General Bushrod Johnson, about eight thousand at Clarksville, Tennessee, under General John B. Floyd, and about fifteen thousand partially organized and partially equipped fellows in the Columbus area under General Leonidas Polk. Roman, Beauregard, 1: 214; Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 61, 62; Thomas Jordan, “The Campaign and Battle of Shiloh,” The United Service: A Monthly Review of Military and Naval Affairs 12 (March 1885): 264.
35 OR 7, 861, 862; Roman, Beauregard, 219-223.
36 Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 109, 110; Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston, 290.
37 Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 83; OR 7, 867, 868; Thomas D. Duncan, Recollections of Thomas D. Duncan, A Confederate Soldier (Nashville: McQuiddy Printing Company, 1922), 26.
38 || For Pillow, see Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr. and Roy P. Stonesifer, Jr., The Life and Wars of Gideon J. Pillow (Knoxville: University of North Carolina Press, 1993).
39 Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 83; OR 7, 383, 865; Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston, 291.
40 One Union officer described the Confederate military leadership this way: “General Floyd, the most worthless officer in the Confederate camp, had command of their forces. Next in rank was their next most worth less officer, Gen. Pillow. Buckner and Bushrod John son were next, both educated and practiced military men.” Charles Whitlesey, War Memoranda: Cheat River to the Tennessee, 1861-1862 (Cleve land: William Walker, 1884), 33. || For Floyd, see Charles Pinnegar, Brand of Infamy: A Biography of John Buchanan Floyd (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002).
41 || For Buckner, see Arndt Stickles, Simon Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
42 Grant, Memoirs, 152; OR 7, 170.
43 Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 115.
44 OR 7, 384; Grant, Memoirs, 152, 153. || For a modern assessment of Forrest, see Brian Steel Wills, A Battle from the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest (New York: Harper Collins, 1992).
45 ORN 22, 587, 588; Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 59, 60.
46 Grant, Memoirs, 153; OR 7, 172, 173.
47 Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 60, 61; ORN 22, 588.
48 Ibid., 61; Conger, The Rise of U. S. Grant, 165; Grant, Memoirs, 153; de Paris, Civil War in America, 1: 488, 489.
49 Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 61, 62.
50 John Wyeth, That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959), 40.
51 Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 61, 62; ORN 22, 585-594; OR 7, 262, 263.
52 ORN 22, 586, 587; OR 7, 263.
53 Wallace, Autobiography, 1: 382, 389.
54 Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 117, 118; Wallace, Autobiography, 1: 392.
55 The Confederate soldiers were probably suffering a good bit more than General Grant’s men because of their hopelessly inadequate clothing. J. B. Paisley to his cousin, Jane, February 23, 1862, William A. McLean Papers, Illinois State Historical Library. The Confederate soldiers’ morale was up; however those in side Fort Donelson were in terrible shape clothing wise. Their garments were “thin and ragged, gray and butternut predominating, but all the colors of Joseph’s coat were to be seen. For blankets they carried square pieces of carpet, comforters and coverlets.” Thomas M. Stevenson, History of the 78th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, From Its “Muster’ in” to its “Muster’ Out” (Zaneville, Ohio: Hugh Dunne, 1865), 38.
56 Grant, Memoirs, 155, 156; Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 119, 120.
57 OR 7, 330; Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 91.
58 Ibid., 263.
59 Steele, American Campaigns, 77.
60 R. S. Henry, “First With The Most,” Forrest (Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill Company, 1944), 54, 55; OR 7, 175; Wyeth, That Devil Forrest, 45, 46.
61 Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 121.
62 Steele, American Campaigns, 78.
63 Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 121.
64 Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 93; John T. Bell, Tramps and Triumphs of the Second Iowa Infantry (Des Moines: Valley Bank and Trust Company, 1961), 10.
65 Wyeth, That Devil For rest, 50.
66 OR 7, 273.
67 Henry, Forrest, 57, 58; Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 95, 96.
68 Henry, Forrest, 57, 59; OR 7, 288.
69 Williams, Lincoln Finds a General, 3: 258; Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 97. Horn has a slightly different set of figures. J. F. C. Fuller gives the number of prisoners as 11,500. Fuller, The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, 89. Union accounts tend to place the number considerably higher. Reverend Thomas M. Stevenson, History of the 78th Ohio, 132; Francis H. Bruce to his mother, February 18, 1862, Francis H. Bruce Papers, Illinois State Historical Library; Payson Z. Shumway to wife, Hattie, March 2, 1862, Payson Z. Shumway Papers, Illinois State Historical Library; OR 7, 169.
70 W. H. Stevenson and Edwin A. Davis, “The Civil War Diary of Willie Micajah Barrow September 23, 1861-July 13, 1862,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly 17 (July-October 1934): 22; Younger, Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean, 24, 25; John Q. Anderson (ed.), Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861-1868 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1955), 90; J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary At The Confederate States Capitol (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Company, 1866), 1: 111; Douglas S. Freeman, R. E. Lee (New York: Scribners, 1934), 1: 625. Lee said of this affair that “the news is not favorable.” Ibid.
71 Basil Duke, A History of Morgan’s Cavalry (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1960), 118, 119; Cecil Holland, Morgan and His Raiders: A Biography of the Confederate General (New York: Macmillan Company, 1943), 65.
72 Horn, The Army of the Tennessee, 105; Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston, 299.
73 Jefferson Davis to A. S. Johnston, addressed to General Johnston as “My Dear General,” Mrs. Mason Barret Papers, Albert Sidney Johnston Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University; F
rank Peak, “A Southern Soldier’s View of the Civil War,” Frank Peak Papers, Louisiana State University Archives; Captain S. Ridgeway Letter, February 24, 1862, S.P. Ridgeway Papers, University of Tennessee Library.
74 Peak, “A Southern Soldier’s View of the Civil War,” Frank Peak Papers, Louisiana State University Archives; Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston, 301, 302; A. D. Kirwan (ed.), Johnny Green of the Orphan Brigade (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1956), 17, 18.
Chapter 4
1 OR 7, 609, 617.
2 Ibid., 156.
3 Ambrose, Halleck, 33; Richardson, Personal History of U. S. Grant, 229. According to Richardson, a war correspondent, Halleck made the following remark: “Humph! If Grant’s a drunkard and can win such victories, I shall issue an order that any man found sober in St. Louis tonight, be punished by fine and imprisonment.” Ibid.
4 OR 7, 628.
5 Ambrose, Halleck, 36.
6 U. S. Grant to wife, Julia, February 24, 1862, U. S. Grant Papers, 1844- 1880, Illinois State Historical Library.
7 ORN 22, 622. Foote wrote his wife that he thought Halleck’s order was based on jealousy on the part of Halleck and McClellan. He told her he was going to report the matter to the navy, and predicted there would be a “row” over the matter. Ibid., 626.
8 OR 7, 7, 655.
9 Ibid., 677.
10 Ibid., 622; Grant, Memoirs, 163, 164.
11 OR 7, 944; Grant, Memoirs, 164.
12 OR 7, 674.
13 Ibid., 677, 678.
14 Ibid., 676.
15 Ibid., 679.
16 Ibid.; Conger, Rise of U. S. Grant, 205.
17 Charles King, The True Ulysses S. Grant (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1914), 144.
18 OR 7, 680.
19 Ibid., 682.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid., 10, 2: 15; 7: 21. In his Memoirs, Grant says most of the trouble was caused by a telegraph operator sympathetic to the Con federates. This fellow intercepted most of Grant’s dispatches before deserting to the South. Ibid., 167. See James Harrison Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins (New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1916), 77.
22 OR 7, 674.
23 Ibid., 10, pt. 2, 7.
24 Ibid., 12.
25 Ibid.
26 Williams, Lincoln Finds A General, 3: 275.
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 Page 37
