548

ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON AT SHILOH.

as having only 12,000. He certainly reserved for himself the more d ifficulttask, the place of greater hazard, leaving the chance of glory to others. Theproposition that he should have left Nashville open to capture by Buell, andshould have taken all his troops to Donelson, could not have been seriouslyconsidered by any general of even moderate military capacity. GeneralBeauregard alleges that he urged General Johnston to concentrate all

his available forces andattack Grant at FortHenry. Conclusive con-temporary evidence de-monstrates that GeneralBeauregard’s memory isat fault. But, this aside,no more fatal plan ofcampaign could havebeen proposed. Sucha concentration was im-practicable within thelimits of the time re-quired for success. TheConfederates would havebeen met by a superiorforce under GeneralGrant, whose position,flanked by the batteriesof Fort Henry, coveredby gun-boats, and to beapproached only overcauseways not then con-structed, was absolutely impregnable. It requires an utter disregard offacts seriously to consider such a project. Moreover, this movement wouldhave been an abandonment to Buell of Nashville , the objective point of theFederal campaign. And, finally, this desperate project, commended by Gen-eral Beauregard, was exactly what the Union generals were striving, hoping,planning, to compel General Johnston to do. The answer to any criticism asto the loss of the army at Donelson is that it ought not to have been lost. Thatis all there is of it.

At midnight of February 15th-16th General Johnston received a telegramannouncing a great victory at Donelson, and before daylight informationthat it would be surrendered. His last troops were then arriving at Nashville from Bowling Green. His first words were: “ I must save this army.” Heat once determined to abandon the line of the Cumberland, and concentrateall available forces at Corinth, Mississippi , for a renewed struggle. He hadindicated this movement as a probable event to several distinguished officerssome time previous; it was now to be carried into effect. He had remain-ing only his little army from Bowling Green, together with the fragments of

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CONFEDERATE TYPES OF 1862.