Union Camp

On the night of February 15, 1862, soldiers of General Smith's division lay tentless and fireless along this ridgeline in bitter cold after occupying trenches that had formed the right flank of the Confederate defenses that morning. Having driven the Confederates off the ridge, across the ravine behind them, and onto the next ridge, they awaited daylight to resume the battle, but no more fighting came. Just after daybreak, a bugle from within Fort Donelson announced a Confederate officer carrying a letter from General Buckner to General Grant requesting terms of capitulation for the forces and fort under his command. After the surrender was announced, Lauman's brigade, rewarded for its performance in the February 15 attack, became the first Union troops to march into the captured fort. Lauman's brigade consisted of the Second Iowa Infantry, Seventh Iowa Infantry, Fourteenth Iowa Infantry, Twenty-fifth Indiana Infantry, and Birge's Sharpshooters. Soldiers on both sides suffered from the severe winter weather, but Union troops were less able to cope because some had discarded their winter gear during the 12-mile march from Fort Henry when the weather turned unseasonably warm; at Donelson, rain, snow, sleet, and bone-chilling cold brought frostbite and even death to Union and Confederate soldiers alike.

Dover, Tennessee · United States