Chapter 4: 1862, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson

Fort Henry stood on the banks of the Tennessee River, and the Yankees were determined to take it away from the Confederacy. The Alabama 27^th 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.