Civil War scholars and buffs alike have long differed on the 
turning point of the war. Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and 
Chattanooga, to name but a few, have garnered attention as
turning points. Seldom do the names of Forts Henry and Donelson 
enter the argument.  But as prolific military historian 
Spencer C. Tucker points out, the capture of these river 
bastions in Tennessee  became the first important Federal 
victories of a war still in its infancy.


From the beginning Union leaders devised a plan to 
capitalize on their command of America's waterways as a means 
of dividing and conquering the Confederacy.  Large, navigable 
rivers such as the Mississippi, the Tennessee, and the 
Cumberland formed gateways to the Southern heartland.


In February 1862 a combined effort by the land forces of 
unheralded Federal General Ulysses S. Grant and a flotilla of 
gunboats commanded by veteran Flag Officer Andrew Foote moved 
on the inadequate Confederate defenses of northwestern 
Tennessee in a attempt to open the South to deeper 
penetration.


Ill-prepared Fort Henry on the Tennessee fell on February 
6; ten days later Grant offered the hapless commander of 
Fort Donelson on the Cumberland the terms for which he 
would become famous - Unconditional Surrender.


The loss of these two important forts opened Tennessee 
to Union invasion.  Within weeks Nashville fell, and soon 
the state and most of its resources were in Union hands.  
Grant became an instant hero in the North, while in the 
South the Confederacy scrambled to recover. It never would.


Tucker, an authority on naval warfare, deftly blends the 
elements of naval innovation, combined operations, and 
political considerations into a compelling story about the 
beginning of the end for the Southern Confederacy.


_________________________________________________________


SPENCER C. TUCKER is the John Biggs Professor of Military 
History at Virginia Military Institute.  He is the author 
of numerous books, including Raphael Semmes and the 
Alabama and a recent biography of Andrew Foote, and is 
editor of the award-winning three- volume Encyclopedia 
of the Vietnam War and several other major reference 
works.  He lives in Lexington, Virginia.