In 1861, Ulysses S. Grant seized Paducah, Kentucky which gave his forces access to the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. In 1862, Grant marched his army to Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. The fort was captured easily on February 6 as Union gunboats bombarded the Fort Henry's walls at almost point-blank range. Grant then marched his men twelve miles east to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. This would be a more difficult challenge. The Confederate force inside was equal to Grant's and the gunboats were not as effective because the fort stood high on a bluff.
Confederate guns bombarded the Union gunboats and two of the six vessels were sunk and the rest damaged. Grant's men settled in for a prolonged siege. Another enemy was the weather, the Union men tried to stay warm by piling leaves over their bodies. On February 15, a rebel column exited the fort to try and cut out a path to Nashville. Confederate cavalry, under Nathan Bedford Forrest, led the way. For a short time, a path lay open to the Confederates when they suddenly pulled back. Meanwhile, Grant, who had been conferring with his navy, arrived on the scene and ordered a counterattack. The rest of the Confederate forces fell back and once again, they were trapped.
The commanders inside the fort conferred and it was agreed that the fort should be surrendered. Forest was outraged and stormed out of the meeting. He led his seven hundred men out of the fort and across an icy backwater of the Cumberland to Nashville. Grant received a note asking for surrender terms. Grant's response has become famous: "no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." The garrison was surrendered with its fifteen thousand men, the largest number to be surrendered on the American continent up to that time. The importance of these victories by Grant cannot be overstated; the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers were now controlled by the Union. Nashville was taken within a week's time. Grant immediately became a hero and his initials, helped out by newspaper accounts, came to mean "Unconditional Surrender Grant."
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