Planning to Escape

In 1862, Main Street was Forge Road, a key route in Confederate plans to escape from Fort Donelson as Generals Floyd, Pillow, Buckner, and Forrest concluded their situation was deteriorating. At a late-night council of war on February 14 at General Floyd's headquarters in the Dover Hotel, they agreed that the fort was probably untenable and that they should try to open an escape route before it was too late. Despite repulsing Union gunboats that afternoon, they remained gloomy about their chances of successfully defending the fort. The plan for February 15 called for General Pillow's division, supported by Buckner's division and Forrest's cavalry, to attack and push back the Union right flank, open Forge Road, and create an escape route to Nashville.

Dover, Tennessee · United States