What caused the battle at Fort Donelson?

Answer 1

Fort Donelson was invested on February 12,1862 by Grant's Union Army of The

Tennessee, which had been deployed in a semicircle going from Hickmans Creek (north) up to about some 400-500 meters before the bank of the River Cumberland (south).

The Battle began with its bombardment by Commodore Foote's Federal gunboats on February 14,1862, attempting to subdue the place only by means of their guns. The Union vessels were decisively repulsed.

Answer 2

The Battle at Fort Donelson was caused by the decision of general Albert Sydney Johnston "to give battle at Fort Donelson in order to prevent the Union forces from seizing Nashville".

It was a wrong decision as the fall of Fort Henry (February 6th, 1862) had demonstrated the impossibility of blocking the rivers by means of isolated fortifications.

The Confederate Commander would have better done springing upon Grant's army, forcing him to fight in open field.

Instead, all the mobile units which were ordered to garrison the trap of Fort Donelson were sooner or later condemned to surrender or to be annihilated by the besieging enemy who also had the control of Cumberland river.

It was, though in a different degree of comparison, the same story and fate occurred to Pemberton's army at Vicksburg in 1863.