Unconditional Surrender - Col. Heath at Fort Donelson

Cauldron - A Military History Podcast

Unconditional Surrender - Col. Heath at Fort Donelson

"Sleep poorly, you bastards..." grumbled Col. John Heath as he watched the Union officers trudge back down a snow-covered corpse-strewn palisade. The emissaries had, under a flag of truce, brought a message for whoever was in command of Fort Donelson. It was most likely an agreement to negotiate a surrender of the Fort. Yesterday's fight had started so well that, for a moment, Col. Heath thought they might just make it, they might just win even. But the South seemed to get a lot of tough breaks in the last 24 hours, mused the Colonel as he folded his arms against the chilly early morning air. There was no point in delaying the inevitable. He watched for a moment longer as the soon to be victors grew smaller, threw his cigar stub aside and began to head back. The HQ was in the ugly, long, and squat Dover Hotel right on the riverbank. Col. Heath wasn't sure who was in charge of the garrison anymore, but he knew whoever it was they'd be there.

The gunboats the Yanks had brought down from Fort Henry proved more bark than bite. Col. Heath had heard from the men at that fight that these new technological monsters were impervious to artillery fire. The frightened faces from Fort Henry whispered about how that place had been pounded by shot so continuous that she fell in under two hours. Col Heath surmised there was likely more to it than just a couple of gunboats, but when the very same ironclads steamed into view, he had to admit they struck a fearsome figure. Of course, Fort Donelson was no pushover, and he knew it. More a ring of earthworks and heavy artillery, Donelson used the land to perfection. A warren of trenches, crisscrossed by streams and gully's, the landward side of Donelson was designed to play murder on anyone brave (or dumb) enough to attack. And the riverside of the fort wasn't much easier on the attacker.

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This week’s sources - Grant by Ron Chernow and The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote and The American Civil War: A Military History by John Keegan

Music -

Art - Bror Thure de Thulstrup