On this day in (alternate) history

(This is a new thing. Sometimes I just get depressed writing about how many more people have fallen victim to the religion of peace. I know you must too, so this will no doubt come as a relief.)




Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston

February 7, 1862

The Confederate Fort Henry on the Tennessee River had just fallen to the victorious Union Army, and Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston could see that Fort Donelson was now directly imperiled. He faced a grave decision. Reinforce the city's garrison with fresh troops and risk their loss should the Fort fall, or abandon it and thus insure further Union penetration into the south.

Throughout the fall and winter of 1861/62, Kentucky and Tennessee had been infiltrated by the Union forces. As well as fixed installations and material infrastructure, the accursed Yankees now held strategic points along the northern areas of the great rivers which were the lifeblood of the Confederacy.

Determined to halt the drain on Confederate resources, Johnston set out to dispatch 15,000 reinforcements to Donelson. But, acting on intuition the following day, he decided to draw upon his reserves and send a further 10,000 men and precious artillery assets to the Fort.

It was a wise decision. Led by General Ulysses S. Grant, the Union forces began to surround Fort Donelson. Unfortunately for Grant, the encirclement was thwarted by Confederate sallying raids and artillery barrages made by the fanatical defenders, whom Johnston had ordered to hold the Fort and prevent its capture "at all costs". Grant's riverborne attack a disastrous failure, the encirclement was abandoned and Confederate supplies once more flowed into the Fort.

Two more months and hundreds of Union lives would be expended on trying to seize the stronghold, to no avail. After allegations of Grant's alcoholism reached Lincoln (rumours spread mainly by jealous fellow officers), he was replaced as commander. Ulysses S. Grant, tired and humiliated by his failure would resign his commission in 1863. He died in the following year of liver failure.

General Johnston, elated at the resilience of Donelson's defenders, personally came to their aid at the head of a large Confederate force. The armies met just a few miles north of the Fort, and there the demoralised Union army suffered a terrible defeat. The Union invasion of the south had faltered, and then been broken. Confederate power was no longer being drained away, and soon they would be on the move, launching an offensive to regain Fort Henry. Johnston was a happy man. By that time the following year, they would be invading the North.

God truly was on the side of the Confederate States of America.

What really happened: General Johnston sent only 15,000 men to Donelson, and the Fort fell to Grant's encirclement. This was soon followed by the Battle of Shiloh. This would be a painful encounter for both sides, but especially so for the Confederacy, as it was at Shiloh that they lost their finest commander, Albert Sidney Johnston. Had Donelson not fallen, Shiloh would not have taken place.