Fort
Henry stood on the banks of the Tennessee River, and the Yankees were
determined to take it away from the Confederacy. The Alabama 27th
Infantry was deployed in muddy rifle pits around the fort in an effort to
prevent that. January had been a rainy, miserable month, and it didn’t look
like February was going to be any better.
2
General Lloyd Tilghman was in command of the fort, and he watched helplessly as
the river continued to rise and invade his hastily built fortress. Six of his
cannons were already underwater. “It’s a race to see which one gets here first:
the water or the Yankees,” he told the other officers.
3
Then, at dawn on the fourth of February, a strange ironclad vessel was spotted
on the river steaming toward the fort. “Blast those Yankees out of the water!”
Tilghman roared. The cannons quickly opened fire, and it wasn’t long before the
gunboat had retreated. Alfred and John Rutledge tossed their hats in the air
and joined the other soldiers in a proper Alabama holler.
4
The brothers were from Morgan County, Alabama, and they hadn’t had much to
cheer about of late. “This rain and cold don’t agree with me none,” John had
suddenly announced the night before. “I don’t care for it none neither,” agreed
Alfred as he shivered and pulled his jacket tighter around his shoulders.
5
Making matters even more miserable, the celebration of their victory over the
gunboat had been short-lived. For the remainder of the day, the soldiers had to
watch as the Yankees continued to land more and more troops just out of reach
of their cannons for the inevitable assault on their position.
6 Among the
Union soldiers bearing down on Fort Henry was an old friend of Abraham Lincoln
and his son-in-law, Theophilus Lyle Dickey and William Hervey Lamme Wallace.
Dickey was a colonel with the Fourth Regiment of the Illinois Cavalry, and
Wallace was a colonel with the Eleventh Illinois Infantry.
7 Like many
of their comrades in arms, the Fourth Illinois Cavalry had boarded boats at
Cairo in early February as part of General Grant’s Tennessee River campaign.
They had disembarked just above Paducah, Kentucky, and then marched overland
toward Fort Henry. They had stopped about six miles from the fort and waited on
the orders to proceed that they knew would be issued very soon.
8 On 6
February, the order had arrived, and the unit headed for the fort. “We will
serve as the advance guard of General Grant’s army, so I expect you to conduct
yourselves accordingly,” Colonel Dickey told his men. Anticipation and
trepidation were there in equal measure as the cavalrymen watched the other
troops and gunboats join them around the fort.
9
“The Yankees will take the fort,” General Tilghman had announced
matter-of-factly to his subordinates the prior evening. “I will, therefore,
send the bulk of our soldiers on to defend Fort Donelson and prevent their
capture here. You will leave tomorrow morning, and I will remain here with just
enough men to hold the devils off for as long as possible,” he concluded.
10
The next morning, Alfred and John crawled out of their rifle pits and joined
the rest of H Company in the yard of the fortress. Then they quickly walked out
of Fort Henry and began the twelve-mile march overland to Fort Donelson. A
little later in the morning, the rain stopped, and the sun came out. They could
hear the sound of gun and cannon fire to their rear and wondered what would
become of the comrades whom they had left behind.
11
Within hours of their departure, the Stars and Stripes were fluttering in the
wind over Fort Henry, and General Grant was walking across the same yard where
they had assembled for their march that morning. His superior, General Halleck,
was sending a telegram to General McClellan informing him of the victory and
that the flag of the United States of America had been “reestablished on the
soil of Tennessee.” He went on to predict that that flag would never come down
again.
12
That prophecy seemed more and more likely to be proven true. When news of Fort
Henry’s surrender reached General Albert Sidney Johnston in Bowling Green, he
ordered the retreat of the main body of Confederate forces into Tennessee. He
was, in effect, conceding the loss of the state of Kentucky to the Union.
13
In the meantime, the refugees from Fort Henry had reached Fort Donelson and
settled in there to prepare for another assault from the Yankees. This fort was
situated on a bend in the Cumberland River and was intended to prevent the
Union Army from using that waterway as a means to attack Nashville. Alfred and
John, along with the rest of the Alabama boys, settled into their rifle pits
along a ridge about a mile from the fort itself.
14 To their
amazement, several days passed without any sign of the Yankees.
15
Nevertheless, early on the morning of the twelfth, Colonel Wallace and Colonel
Dickey left Fort Henry and marched toward Fort Donelson. At noon, they came
within view of the fort and observed that the creek between them and their
objective was too swollen to cross. Wallace moved his troops up the creek and
occupied the heights above the fort.
16 Alfred
and John watched with great interest as the Yankees positioned themselves
around the fort. “They’re getting thicker and thicker,” Alfred proclaimed.
“Thick as fleas on a hound’s back,” John agreed.
17
The morning of the thirteenth, Alfred and John heard a few popping sounds
further down the line. “Some of them boys got itchy fingers,” John smiled. “I
ain’t in no hurry,” Alfred replied.
18
Suddenly, the noise intensified, and everyone’s fingers wrapped around their
shotguns and muskets. To their left, they could see the boys in blue charging
their lines and dropping like flies, and then falling back. Two more times the
Yankees charged, and both times the Confederates drove them back.
19
As the sun went down that evening, it began to rain again. It wasn’t long until
the wind shifted and began blowing from the north. The rain quickly turned to
sleet and snow, and the temperature fell throughout the night. Slowly, the
cries and the moans of the men who lay wounded in the no man’s land between the
two armies began to grow quiet.
20
“Those poor bastards are freezing to death out there,” John shivered. “Just be
thankful it ain’t us,” Alfred answered.
21
The next morning, everything was covered in a blanket of snow, and the trees
glistened in the sunlight with a glaze of ice. Back on the river, the ironclads
had arrived during the night and were preparing to bombard the fort and cover a
fresh assault by the Union soldiers.
22
Unfortunately for the Yankees, Fort Donelson was not Fort Henry. When the
ironclads approached the fort and opened fire, the Confederate guns returned
fire with devastating effect. The wounded ironclads were forced to retreat.
23
Word quickly spread through the ranks, that the Confederates had whipped the
Yankees yet again. General Floyd even allowed himself a little happiness. His
forces had kept the Yankees at bay and prevented them from harassing the
Confederate Army’s retreat from Bowling Green.
24
“Now it’s time to get out of here gentlemen,” Floyd told his subordinates that
evening. “Tomorrow morning, we will attack the Yankees’ flank and open an
escape route to the south and join our brethren there in defense of Nashville,”
the general proclaimed as they all surveyed the map on the table before them.
25
That night, the sounds muffled by yet another winter storm, the Confederates
moved men and artillery into place for the morning assault. As the sun came up,
the Union soldiers barely had time to discern what the Confederates intended to
do as the attack began. The fighting dragged on for three hours, but Pillow and
Buckner finally succeeded in pushing back the Yankee lines and opening the way
to the road south and the freedom to fight another day.
26
Nevertheless, at the moment of their greatest success, their nerves and
temperaments paralyzed the generals. They could not agree on how to proceed. General
Floyd vacillated between the opinions of his subordinates about what to do
next.
27
In the interim, General Grant personally took control of the situation on the
Union side and quickly moved to close the opening and prevent the escape that
the rebels had intended. Thus, the Confederates squandered their best
opportunity to escape from the stranglehold of their foes.
28 During
the battle, Colonel Wallace had stood out for his cool-headedness under
pressure from the enemy. “You are hereby promoted to the rank of brigadier
general,” Grant informed him afterwards. “You looked like you had been working
all day on the farm,” General Lew Wallace said as he congratulated his comrade
with a slap on the back.
29
That night, the Rebel generals agreed that the fort must be surrendered. Floyd,
Pillow and the cavalry under Bedford Forrest would be allowed to slip through
the lines and escape. General Buckner would be left behind to surrender the
fort and the bulk of the troops. However, when word spread through the ranks of
what was about to happen, the soldiers were not happy with their superiors.
30
“Can you believe those lily-livered sons of bitches,” Private Thomas Lawrence
announced. “What’s up, Tom?” Alfred asked. “After we’ve done whipped those damn
Yankees, our generals are about to surrender us and hand us all over to them –
that’s what’s up!” Tom snarled. “Can you believe that shit?”
31
Stunned, the two brothers sank back down into their rifle pit and stared
blankly at the tree in front of them. John, especially, looked a little green
around the gills.
32
Among the troops from Tennessee, Thomas Matthew “Matt” Downs wasn’t going to
have any part of being a prisoner of the Yankees. With several of his buddies,
he approached Lieutenant Colonel Forrest’s cavalry as they were preparing to
escape down the Charlotte Road.
33
“Can we follow your boys, Colonel?” Matt asked. “If you boys can keep up with
us, you’re welcome to come along,” he responded. Thus, it was that a few of the
soldiers from Tennessee slipped away with Bedford Forrest before General
Buckner surrendered the fort.
34
In the aftermath of the surrender, all was confusion for a couple of days. It
seemed like the Yankees didn’t quite know what to do with all of the prisoners
that had suddenly been thrust into their hands.
35
John was feverish and vomiting – no wonder with the cold, wet and unsanitary
conditions which they’d been exposed to over the past month. And John wasn’t
the only one from their company who was sick. Uriah Conley, Joseph Griffin,
Samuel Laman, Richard Roberts and James Sample were all suffering from a
similar malady.
36
Finally, the Yankees started moving all of the prisoners aboard steamboats. “I
heerd that they’re shipping us north to a new prison camp somewheres near
Chicago,” Private Henry Peck whispered to Alfred. “What about John and the
others who are sick?” Alfred asked. “Don’t know,” Peck replied as he walked
over to another one of his buddies to spread the news.
37
As it turned out, all of the sick were unloaded in St. Louis and taken to a
hospital there. Most of them, including John, would be dead in a few weeks.
They were the lucky ones.
38
When Alfred and his companions arrived at Camp Douglas, they had no idea of the
hell that awaited them there. The place was bleak and cold. The buildings and
other facilities were sparse and there wasn’t any centralized sewer system
extant in the camp.
39
As a consequence, the large influx of prisoners immediately tasked the
abilities of the staff and the camp’s available barracks to house and care for
the men who had been entrusted to them. The prisoners were quickly put to work
building more barracks, but everything was in short supply. Everyone was
cramped and crowded, and it didn’t take long for every inch of ground within
the camp to stink to high heaven.
40
During the summer months, the flies and mosquitoes were unbearable. The
barracks and men were crawling with lice and flees, and everyone seemed to be
sick to one degree or another. “If there is a hell, this is it!” Alfred
declared one day.
41
Private Tom Lawrence had been one of the first to die. He died in late April.
Alfred couldn’t remember the precise day – they all seemed to run together now.
42
“I wish I knew how to write Jane and the youngins,” he had told his friend
shortly before he passed. “I’d write ‘em for you ifin I knew how,” he had
mumbled as a single tear rolled down his cheek.
43
Then it was the fourth of July and the camp was celebrating the Union’s
independence from Great Britain. “I don’t much feel like celebratin,” Alfred
said as he stood in formation with his comrades in the street before his
barracks.
44
As his eyes swept across the other prisoners, he noticed Sgt. McCarley swaying
back and forth. Suddenly, he fell. As the men gathered around him, he stared
blankly into the blue sky above and exhaled his final breath. Six days later,
Alfred was dead too.
45
When the news of his death finally reached Alabama two months later, his wife
and younger children were overwhelmed with sadness. For his oldest son,
however, the news brought rage and a thirst for revenge. As a consequence, John
joined a cavalry unit the following year.
