The fall of Fort Donelson in 1862 secured the flank of the Union forces in that area. General Henry Halleck took this opportunity to have Union forces to move up the Tennessee River as far as was possible.
Ulysses Grant.
KY
Ulysses Grant.
Superior Navy
US Grant captured Paducah, Ft. Henry, and Ft. Donelson early in the war.
At the time of US Grant's capture, mainly Fort Donelson, it endangered Nashville, Tennessee. It also opened up Union forces to use the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. These river ways enabled, if it could be done, the Union to strike deep into the western part of the Confederacy.
The Union won Ft. Henry, Ft. Donelson, Shiloh, and Perryville, among others.
The North and South clashed at Shiloh because a month after the victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Ulysses S. Grant gathered his troops there, and about a month later, Confederate soldiers showed up and attacked the Union forces. Following afterwards, Grant reorganized what was left of his troops, and counterattacked the Confederates.
The Union forces as Fort Donelsson surrendered to U.S. Grant.
Fort Henry Fort Donelson Shiloh Vicksburg
In the course of the Union capture of Confederate Fort Donelson, the Union casualties came to 2,300 soldiers.