The decisive Union victory at Fort Donelson thrust Brig. Ulysses S. Grant into the national spotlight and enabled Union advances up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Union victory. Early in the war, Union commanders realized that control of the major rivers would be the key to success in the Western Theater. Grant advanced 12 miles to invest Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.
Operations against Donelson were part of an amphibious campaign launched in early to push the Confederates out of middle and western Tennessee, thereby opening a path into the Southern heartland. The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, as well as railroads in the area, became vital Federal supply lines, and Nashville became a huge supply depot for the Union army in the west.
After the fall of Fort Henry on February 6, , Brig. Grant is determined to move quickly to capture the much larger Fort Donelson, located on the nearby Cumberland River.
Despite his conviction that no earthen fort could withstand the power of the Union gunboats, Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston allows the garrison at Fort Donelson to remain and even sends new commanders and reinforcements there.
On February 11, Johnston appoints Brig. John B. Floyd as the commander of Fort Donelson and the surrounding region. Nearly 17, Confederate soldiers, combined with improved artillery positions and earthworks, convince Floyd that a hasty retreat is unnecessary. February Flag Officer Andrew H. While Grant contemplates an extended siege, the Confederate leadership devises a bold plan to mass their troops against the Union right to force open a path of escape.
