Feb. 15, 1862

Feb. 15, 1862: THE BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON, Day 3 - Having failed to launch the planned breakout attack the afternoon of the 14^th, Gen. Pillow is ordered by Gen. Floyd to form up and attack this morning. At 7 a.m., the Confederate line moves forward, with Forrest’s dismounted cavalry before them in a skirmish line. Grant, not expecting an attack, is miles away, conferring with Commodore Foote. The Rebel brigades pile into McClernand’s Federals along the Wynn’s Ferry Road, the escape route to Nashville for the trapped Confederates. McClernand’s line begins to give way. He sends to Gen. Wallace for help, and Wallace sends a brigade–but instead of using it to stem the Rebel breakout, McClernand holds it in reserve. Soon, Gen. Buckner’s division, in the Confederate center, begins to move forward in support of Pillow’s attack–which has flanked McClernand’s line, as the Yankees fall back in disorder. Buckner’s attack, however, is moving sluggishly, and McClernand uses the time to re-organize his shattered force, and the Rebel assault has degraded into separate, disjointed regiment-sized fights. Wallace moves the rest of his division to the right, and strikes Buckner’s advance. Gen. Pillow, inexplicably, feels that the victory is won, and orders his brigades to withdraw back to their original trenches, even though the way to escape is open. He and Gen. Floyd and Gen. Buckner engage in bickering over whether they should have withdrawn, and what to do next. Buckner is livid that they are not moving the army out of the pocket, which had been the Confederate goal. Meanwhile, Grant returns to the battlefield, and orders McClernand and Wallace to re-group and attack. He also orders his division on the Union left, Smith’s, to attack. Smith’s division moves forward immediately, and drive the Rebel right back close to the fort itself. Although McClernand is slow to move, Wallace attacks with three brigades, and drives the Confederate line back to their original entrenchments, as the last light of day fades. Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner have a conference that night.

—The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes an article quoting Gen. James Lane, a die-hard abolitionist Senator from Kansas, as Lane gave a speech in St. Louis:
The other day, while I was talking with the President, Old Abe said to me, "Lane, how many black men do you want to have to take care of your army?" I told him as my army would number 34,000, I proposed to have 34,000 contrabands, in addition to my teamsters and wagon masters. I consider every one of my soldiers engaged in this glorious crusade of freedom a knight errant, and entitled to his squire to prepare his food, black his boots, load his gun, and take off his drudgery. Vanity and pride are necessary adjunct of the soldier, and I do not propose to lower him by mental offices, nor compel him to perform the duties of the slave. So, while I shall elevate the slave by giving him his freedom and making a man of him, I shall also elevate the soldier and leave him no work to do but fighting.

—In camp near Alexandria, Virginia, with the still-idle Army of the Potomac, Private Robert K. Sneden of the 40^th New York, a topographical engineer on the staff of Gen. Heintzelman, records in his journal:
Snowing all day.　Three inches fell.　The artillerymen at Fort Lyon were practicing at the guns all forenoon.　The concussion of the 100 pounder Parrotts shook these headquarters to the foundation.　 The clerks could not write as usual while I could not make a straight line, owing to the firing.　In the evening 9 p.m. we had a fine serenade at these headquarters by the 26^th New York Regiment band, which are now stationed at Fort Lyon.　Artillery firing was heard down river from 10 to 12 p.m. . . . Fine moonlight with no wind made the cannonading very distinct, and it sounded grand.　 The view from headquarters of the river smooth as glass was enchanting.　We smoked our pipes on the piazza until after midnight.

Captain William Jordan Bolton, of the 51^st Pennsylvania Infantry, with Burnside on Roanoke Island, records in his journal about the aftermath of the battle:
The island . . . is situated a short two miles from the mainline, and is about twelve miles long and three miles wide, and lies very low, and a good part of it an impassable swamp, and in this swamp we fought our first battle, and it is here where the rebel fort (now Fort Russell) stands with her three spiked guns.　 Standing on the ramparts of the fort, and looking towards the position of the assaulting column, one could not believe that the position could be taken, but we did get there.