Today’s the 150th anniversary of the Union victory at Fort Donelson

Seriously derelict on the Civil War front—what can I say?  Sooo…today’s the 150^th anniversary of the Union victory at Fort Donelson.  For those who ran to the fridge during the commercials, here’s a very—very—very, brief recap of what’s been happening.

Recall how some of our more libertarian inclined countrymen felt that an intrusive, overeaching Federal government would take away their individual liberty and property rights by either restricting their right to own another human being—I’m sorry, their "property," or abolish it all together.  Of course some call the whole thing a “States Rights” issue which is clearly a euphemism for…something…not really sure what.  What is certain is that our State’s Rights libertarian friends certainly weren’t advocating a State’s right to levy or regulate taxes, raise a military, build schools, roads, hospitals, construct water treatment plants, plant their own crops, enter into treaties, or anything else that I can figure out.  Indeed, I think South Carolina’s “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” pretty much sums the whole thing up:

"An increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The [northern states]…have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them…the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed…In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.

…The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor."

See: http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html. 

I think the great Presbyterian minister and theologian Albert Barnes said it best when he wrote that,

“The Bible is the acknowledged standard of morals in this nation…there are perhaps no questions of more importance to our country than those which pertain to the subject of slavery…there is nothing connected with our national interests which is not affected more or less by slavery.”  Of course he went on to say that slavery was “intimately allied with religion”

But that’s missing the point.  See: Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery, 1846, p. 21 @ http://www.archive.org/stream/inquiryintoscrip1846barn#page/20/mode/2up/search/the+acknowledged+moral+standard).

As an aside, here: http://www.nytimes.com/1860/11/13/news/why-not-let-south-carolina-secede.html?pagewanted=all, was an amusing and somewhat interesting letter to the editorial from the November 13, 1860 New York Times titled “Why Not Let South Carolina Secede?”  Ahhh…things haven’t really changed all that much ‘lo these past 150 years or so, have they?

But in any event, our libertarian brothers collectively said F-it and pre-emptively succeeded from the Union while James Buchanan was President (lest we forget that Lincoln wasn’t sworn in until March 4, 1861, while South Carolina started the secession band wagon on December 20, 1860; followed by Mississippi on January 9, 1861; Florida on January 10, 1861; Alabama on January 11, 1861, and so on).

So the states seceded, Lincoln was inaugurated; the Confederates attack Ft. Sumter in April 1861; Lincoln called up 75,000 troops ‘n  Davis called up his folks; Winfield Scott devised the Anaconda Plan to strangle the south into surrendering; and…

On July 26, 1861, the Battle of First Manassas where Thomas Jackson would earn the nickname Stonewall and the Confederates would beat the Union in Northern Virginia.

But what was going on out west, say, in Kentucky, a neutral state?

Recall that Lincoln said that while he hoped to have God on his side, he “must have Kentucky.”  On September22, 1861, Lincoln warned:

“I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we can not hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol.”

Certainly an oversimplification, but skip forward to January 11, 1862, when Union Ironclads defeated Confederates in western Kentucky on the Mississippi River in the Battle of Lucas Bend.

Then on January 19, 1862, BG Felix Zollicoffer invaded eastern Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap and was defeated by Union BG George Thomas (one of my personal hero’s).  Indeed BG Zollicoffer was shot dead by Col Speed Fry.  By later standards, it was a minor engagement but at the time, it was the largest Union victory of the war and was strategically important because it broke the Confederate defensive line in eastern Kentucky.

What’s next?  The January 11, Confederate defeat at Lucas Bend on the Mississippi River , allowed U.S. Grant to move up the rivers toward the Confederates at Forts Henry and Donaldson.

On February 6, 1862, Grant “defeats” the Confederate at Fort Henry in Western, Kentucky—although he didn’t as much defeat the Confederates as they surrendered.

On February 16, 1862, Grant soundly defeated the Confederates at Fort Donelson resulting in the surrender of nearly 12,000 Confederate soldiers.  That’s pretty much it for the Confederates in western Kentucky.  The Confederates would briefly consolidate in Bowling Green, Kentucky and then withdraw to Nashville, Tennessee, then to Shiloh, Tennessee, Vicksburg, Mississippi, and so on.

There would of course be a relatively brief Confederate invasion of Kentucky in October resulting in the Confederate defeat at Perryville…