It fell to the lot of General Lewis ous and unchivalrous terms which you Wallace first to take possession of the propose." town on the surrender. On the morning of Sunday, the 16th, "about daybreak," says he, in his report, continuing the narrative which we have already given from his pen, "Lieutenant Ware, my aid-de-camp, conducted Colonel Thayer's brigade to the foot of the hill. Lieutenant Wood's battery was ordered to the same point, my intention being to storm the entrenchments about breakfast time. While making disposition for that purpose. a white flag made its appearance. The result was, that I rode to General Buckner's quarters, sending Lieutenant Ross with Major Rogers, of the 3d Mississippi (rebel) regiment, to inform General Grant that the place was surrendered, and my troops in possession of the town, and all the works on the right."

The communication on the morning of the 16th, of General Buckner, to General Grant, read as follows:-"Sir: In consideration of all the circumstances governing the present situation of affairs at this station, I propose to the commanding officers of the federal forces, the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation of the forces and post under my command, and in this view, suggest an armistice until twelve o'clock to-day." To this General Grant replied:—" Yours of this date, proposing an armistice and appointment of commissioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms, other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." This decided denial called forth the following letter of surrender from General Buckner:-"Sir: The distribution of the forces under my command, incident to an unexpected change of commanders, and the overwhelming force under your command, compel me, notwithstanding the brilliant success of the confederate arms yesterday, to accept the ungener

Thus on Sunday, the 16th of February, Fort Donelson was surrendered. Agreeably with the prudent resolution of the senior Generals, some five thousand of the garrison had been withdrawn by steamers on the river, leaving about twice that number in the works prisoners of war, with vast quantities of military material. The prisoners were transported to the military camps at Illinois and Indiana, and elsewhere, and held for exchange. A St. Louis journal chronicled the arrival of ten thousand in ten steamers, on their way to their destination. By a table published in the Nashville Patriot, the month following the battle, it would appear that the Confederate loss at Donelson, was 237 killed, and 1007 wounded. The Union loss was estimated, 446 killed, 1,745 wounded, and 150 prisoners.*

General McClernand, in an order issued the day after the victory, paid a glowing tribute to the merit of his division, which had so faithfully endured the labors and encountered the hazards of the week.

"Officers and men of the 1st division of the advance forces.-You have continually led the way in the Valley of the Lower Mississippi, the Tennessee and the Cumberland. You have carried the flag of the Union further South than any other land forces marching from the interior towards the seaboard. Being the first division to enter Fort Henry, you also pursued the enemy for miles, capturing from him, in his flight, six field pieces, many of his standards and flags, a number of prisoners, and a great quantity of military stores. Following the enemy to this place, you were the first to encounter him outside of his intrenchments, and to drive him within them. Pursuing your advantage, the next day, in the night, you advanced upon his lines in the face of his works and batteries,

*New York Herald, Record of the Rebellion, for 1862.

CONGRATULATORY ORDERS.

237

and for the time silenced them. The quartermaster's and commissary stores. next day, skirmishing all along his The death knell of the rebellion is left, you daringly charged upon his re- sounded. An army has been annihildoubts, under a deadly fire of grape and ated, and the way to Nashville and canister, and were only prevented from Memphis is opened. This momentous. taking them by natural obstacles and the fact should, as it will, encourage you to accumulated masses which hurried for- persevere in the path of duty and of ward to defend them. The next day, glory. It must alleviate your distress you extended your right in the face of for your brave comrades who have fallen newly erected batteries quite to the Cum- or been wounded. It will mitigate the berland, thus investing his works for grief of bereaved wives and mourning nearly two miles. The next day, after parents and kindred. It will be your standing under arms for two days and claim to a place in the affection of your nights, amid driving storms of snow and countrymen, and upon a blazoned page rain, and pinched by hunger, the enemy of history." advanced in force to open his way to General Lewis Wallace, in a conescape. By his own confession, formed gratulatory order to the troops of his diin a column of ten successive regiments, vision, warmly commemorated their serhe concentrated his attack upon a single vices. "You were last to arrive before point. You repulsed him repeatedly, the fort; but it will be long before your from seven o'clock, to eleven, A. M., deeds are forgotten. When your gallant often driving back his formidable odds. comrades of the 1st division, having fired Thus, after three days' fighting, when their last cartridge, fell back upon your your ammunition was exhausted, you fell support, you did not fail them; you reback until it came up, and re-formed a ceived them as their heroism deserved; second line in his face. Supported by you encircled them with your ranks, and fresh troops, under the lead of a brave drove back the foe that presumed to foland able officer, the enemy was again low them. And to you, and two gallant driven back, and by a combined advance regiments from the 2d division, is due from all sides was finally defeated. His the honor of the last fight—the evening unconditional surrender the next day battle of Saturday-the reconquest by consummated the victory. Undiverted storm of the bloody hill on the rightby any attack for near four hours from the finishing blow to a victory, which has any other part of our lines, the enemy already purged Kentucky of treason, and was left to concentrate his attack with restored Tennessee to the confederacy of superior numbers upon yours. Thus, our fathers. All honor to you." while you were engaged for a longer time than any other of our forces, you were subject to much greater loss. The battlefield testifies to your valor and constancy. Even the magnanimity of the enemy accords to you an unsurpassed heroism, and an enviable and brilliant share in the hardest-fought battle, and the most decisive victory ever fought and won on the American continent. Your trophies speak for themselves. They consist of many thousands of prisoners of war, forty pieces of cannon, and extensive magazines of all kinds of ordnance,

In a general order on the 17th, General Grant congratulated the troops of his command, "for the triumph over rebellion gained by their valor. For four successive nights (he added) without shelter, during the most inclement weather known in this latitude, they faced an enemy in large force in a position chosen by himself. **The victory achieved is not only great in the effect it will have in breaking down rebellion, but has secured the greatest number of prisoners of war ever taken in any battle on this continent."

PANIC AT NASHVILLE.

bition of the case, as presented by the senior generals, that they should be relieved of command, to await further orders whenever a reliable judgment can be rendered on the merits of the case."

The fleet of Commodore Foote immediately followed up on the Cumberland the advantage gained by the surrender of Donelson. On the evening of the 16th, the gunboat St. Louis ascended the river to the Tennessee Iron Works, six miles above Dover. There was no force to defend the works, and there being abundant evidence of their employment by the Confederate government, the establishment was set fire to and destroyed. Mr. John Bell, the recent candidate for the Presideney of the United States, was one of the owners of this property. On the 19th, Commodore Foote, with the gunboats Cairo and Conestoga, reached Clarksville, where the forts commanding the town were found to be abandoned. The Union flag was hoisted on the works, and numbers of citizens having fled in alarm, at the suggestion of the Hon. Cave Johnson, Judge Wisdom, and the Mayor of the city, Commodore Foote issued a proclamation, announcing "to all peaceablydisposed persons, that neither in their persons nor property shall they suffer molestation by me, or by the naval force under my command, and that they may safely resume their business avocations with assurances of my protection." At the same time, he required that all military stores and army equipments should be surendered, and forbade the exhibition of any "secession flag or manifestation of secession feeling." Brigadier General C. F. Smith was placed in command of the city.

239

reached the town in the forenoon of the Sunday on which the surrender took place, while many of the people were on their way to church. The effect of the ill tidings was enhanced by the previous bulletins which had been sent by General Pillow, with assurances of victory. "Instantly every consideration gave place to the thought of personal safety. Every means of transportation at hand was employed to remove furniture and valuables; the depots were thronged with men, women, and children, anxious to leave the city; train after train was put in motion; government stores were thrown open to all who chose to carry them away, and negroes, Irish laborers, and even genteel looking persons, could be seen' toting' off their pile of hog, clothing, or other property belonging to the army, though, by order of the military authorities, much of this was recovered on the ensuing day. In a single word, the city was crazy with a panic. Governor Harris is said to have ridden through the streets at the top of his speed, on horsehack, crying out that the papers in the capitol must be removed; and, subsequently, with the legislature, which had at once assembled, left the city in a special train for Memphis.'

The flight of the broken armies of the Confederacy was well calculated to strengthen these disastrous impressions. On this very terror-stricken Sunday, besides the arrival of the fugitives with Floyd and Pillow, the rebel army of General A. S. Johnston from Bowling Green, in full retreat before the advance of General Buell's forces, worn and harrassed by their forced march of eighty miles, passed through the city. General The important city of Nashville, the Johnston had abandoned Bowling Green capital of Tennessee, next fell into the-a post which he had adroitly mainhands of the Union army. The fall of Donelson, on which it had relied for its defence, threw the citizens into a fearful panic. The news of the loss of the fort

* Message of Jefferson Davis, March 11, 1862.

tained by ingeniously "magnifying his forces "--with 14,000 effective men; the fatigues of the march had reduced this

* Nashville Correspondent of the Richmond Despatch, Squier's Pictorial History, vol. i. p. 319.

headed by Mayor Cheatham, to whom, as at Clarksville, every assurance of safety and protection to the people, in their person and property, was given. In the meanwhile, on the same morning, one of Commodore Foote's gunboats, with a number of transports. arrived, bringing General Nelson, with a considerable body of troops. The interview with the officers was considered satisfactory by the committee, and the mayor, in a proclamation, on the following day, "respectfully requested that business be resumed, and that all our citizens, of every trade and profession, pursue their regular vocations."

force on reaching Nashville to less than 10,000. Unable to hold the city against the forces of the Union advancing by land and water, General Johnston left a rear guard, under General Floyd, to secure the stores and provisions, and proceeded with the remainder of his forces to Murfreesboro. General Floyd having under his command the demoralized wreck of an army, mainly of fugitives, in spite of the remonstrances of the citizens, destroyed the costly railway and wire suspension bridges over the Cumberland. Besides the bridges, two valuable steamboats, in process of conversion into gunboats, were destroyed, lest they should fall into the hands of the The same day, General Buell issued Union army, which was hourly expected. a general order to the army, from his The week which ensued was one of utter headquarters at Nashville, congratulapanic and confusion. Sick and wounded ting his troops, "that it has been their soldiers were dying rapidly in the over-privilege to restore the national banner crowded, ill-appointed hospitals; lawless to the capitol of Tennessee. He believes soldiers were rioting, and plundering private houses; a mob was contending with the military authorities for the public stores, of which Nashville had been one of the most important depots of the Confederacy, which were at one time given to the people, at another withheld to be removed for the retreating army. Heavy rains meanwhile poured down upon the devoted region and added to the embarrassments and melancholy of the scene.

On the 25th, the Union forces were at the city to receive its surrender. The advance of the army which had followed in pursuit of Johnston, after his evacuation of Bowling Green-the defences of which, when General Mitchel's command, after great exertions, reached the place, were found to be far less formidable than had been supposed-had reached the neighborhood of Nashville, two days before, when it was agreed that the formal surrender of the city should be made to General Buell on his arrival. He was now present with General Mitchel, and was waited upon at Edgefield, opposite the city, by a delegation of citizens,

*General Johnston's letter to Mr. Barksdale.

that thousands of hearts in every part of the State, will swell with joy to see that honored flag reinstated in a position from which it was removed in the excitement and folly of an evil hour; that the voice of her own people will soon proclaim its welcome, and that their manhood and patriotism will protect and perpetuate it." Various injunctions were added, requiring a strict observance of the rights of property, and the protection of all peaceable citizens. "We are in arms," said he, "not for the purpose of invading the rights of our fellow countrymen anywhere, but to maintain the integrity of the Union, and protect the Constitution under which its people have been prosperous and happy."

Governor Harris, from his executive office at Memphis, whither the legislature had adjourned, issued on the 19th, a violent proclamation deploring the fate of Fort Donelson, and declaring that Tennessee was "now to become the grand theatre, wherein a brave people will show to the world, by their heroism and suffering, that they are worthy to be, what they have solemnly declared them