GDG- Re: this day in history

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Hello,
 
As one who lives 25 miles from Ft. Donelson and as the president of the  
Friends of the Ft. Donelson Campaign, I wanted to clarify a few things  below:

>>>>The attack on Ft. Donelson began today. The gunboat  Carondelet started 
the morning with a bombardment. This was followed by an  attack by Grant's 
forces, led by C.F. Smith on the left and McClernand on the  right. In an unusual 
move the Confederates changed commanders in the middle of  the battle, when 
Gen. John B. Floyd arrived with reinforcements and assumed  command from Gen. 
Pillow. The change failed to lead to any improvement in the  Confederate 
situation.>>>> 


The Carondolet only made a desultory bombardment from far range to do two  
things - test the power of the Confederate batteries and to see if they had any  
long range artillery (they did - two Columbiads, one a 10 inch smooth bore 
and  the other a 6/5 inch rifle).  The other reason was to let grant know that  
the Navy was on station.  The long range shooting did have one good affect  - 
they dismounted a 32 pound gun in the battery, which showed that they would  
have fared much better the next day when the Iron valentines were exchanged and 
 the ironclads got the snot shot out of them by coming too close.  But Foote  
was short of proper ammunition and did not want to waste shots.
 
Secondly, the attack McClernand made was without orders and it went into  the 
poor terrain of Erin Hollow with the aim of capturing the Confederate  
batteries on the hill to his front.  Smith only really skirmished on his  front.
 
Lastly, the arrival of John Floyd necessitated the command change as he was  
senior brigadier in a place that had 5 of them on site!  Pillow, being much  
more of an Alpha personality, dominated Floyd the entire time, so nothing going 
 on really changed.
 
Greg Biggs