ECW Podcast: In the Wake of Fort Donelson (with Greg Biggs)
Everything the Confederates did in the West after the fall of Fort Donelson was an attempt to reverse the results of Donelson. Join historian Greg Biggs for a look at the strategic situation before and after.
This episode of the Emerging Civil War Podcast is brought to you by Civil War Trails, the world’s largest open-air museum, offering more than 1,500 sites across six states. Request a brochure at civilwartrails.org to start planning your trip today.
Co-hosted by Chris Mackowski and a revolving cadre of ECW’s contributors,The Emerging Civil War Podcast taps into an award-winning line-up of historians from a wide variety of backgrounds with a wide variety of interests on a wide variety of topics.
Find episodes each week, available for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
You can listen on Spotify here:
You can listen on Apple Podcasts here:
You can also listen through the ECW Patreon page. A subscription to our Patreon page—which helps pay our podcast costs—also entitles you to exclusive free content. Sign up for as little as $1.99/month: https://www.patreon.com/emergingcivilwar.
Be sure to also catch the video version of each podcast on Emerging Civil War’s YouTube Channel!
Fort Donelson. This engagement was more significant than many realize: over sixteen thousand casualties; one of the few examples of a Union commander abiding by President Lincoln’s command to “attack everywhere [by] Washington’s Birthday” (and in US Grant’s case, TWO attacks were conducted: against Fort Henry and Fort Donelson). Also, there was friction revealed at Fort Donelson between Grant and McClernand, and Grant and Lew Wallace… and after victory at Fort Donelson, between Grant and Buell, and Grant and Halleck… and this festering friction would have implications for the 6 April 1862 Battle of Shiloh.
This researcher is looking forward to Greg Biggs’ discussion of Fort Donelson…
Hi Chris. Greg mentioned a book on the artillery during the Henry/Donelson campaign but I’m not finding it either on Amazon or a general google searxh. Brigadier General Google, if you will. Would you point me to it? Thanks.
I believe the book is by Cathey and Robnett– “The River Batteries at Fort Donelson.”
Gregg Biggs is one of or is the Father of Fort Donelson History. He knows!! Finally Fort Donelson is getting the attention it deserves. 47,000 men and a fleet of ironclad and wooden gunboats involved. Fort Donelson was a military disaster that the South suffered along with Fort Henry and from there went downhill. Shiloh was a direct result of the defeat at Donelson. With the loss of Donelson the Federals occupied Nashville, Tennessee, lost the rich iron Country around Donelson and Dover, the State of Kentucky and a lot of Tennessee. Almost all of it. For decades Fort Donelson was a footnote of History, associated with the rise of Grant as Major General and Commander of the Army and not recognized for the great victory it was. The Battle and siege of Donelson was a hard fought Battle for both sides. The capture of 14,000 Confederates as prisoners and their shoulder arms, lots of Artillery, and the Cumberland River the Confederates could not afford to lose. Just imagine if those 14,000 men and Van Dorn’s Army from Arkansas were at Shiloh or some other Western Battle– They might have won… Thanks to Chris and Greg for doing this…