DONELSON, FORT

The main area of the eastern campaigns, 186165. Use left sidebar to control the speed of the in the American Civil War, important Confederate stronghold at Dover, Tennessee, that was captured by Union forces on February 16, 1862, forcing a general Southern withdrawal along the Confederate western line of defense in Kentucky from Columbus to Bowling Green. Fort Donelson was an entrenched camp erected by Confederate forces to guard the lower Cumberland River and the water approach to Nashville. On February 12, 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant moved on the fort using the same combined army and navy tactics that had resulted in his capture of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River six days earlier. Failing to break through the entrenched Union positions, the South elected to give up the defense. Although 3,000 Confederate troops escaped, 15,000 men under General Simon B. Buckner were surrendered unconditionally. The fall of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson opened the way by river into Tennessee and forced the evacuation of such Southern strongholds as Columbus and Nashville.