Battle of Fort Henry

The Battle of Fort Henry on February 6, 1862, was the first significant Union victory of the American Civil War (1861-65). In an effort to gain control of rivers and supply lines west of the Appalachians, Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and Commodore Andrew Foote launched an attack on the lightly defended Fort Henry in Tennessee. After a fierce naval bombardment, Confederate Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman secretly evacuated the bulk of his troops to nearby Fort Donelson before surrendering to Union forces. The fall of Fort Henry, followed 10 days later by the capture of Fort Donelson, opened up both the Columbia and Tennessee rivers to Union control, cutting off Confederate access to two key waterways for the remainder of the war.

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Did You Know?

Fort Henry was a poorly situated and designed outpost; just two days after the Confederate surrender of the fort to Union forces, it was completely inundated by rising waters from the Tennessee River.

American Civil War battle along the Tennessee River that helped the Union regain western and middle Tennessee as well as most of Kentucky.

Fort Henry, situated on the Tennessee River, was a linchpin in Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston's defense lines. Along with Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, Fort Henry bisected Southern lines and guarded rich mineral deposits and agricultural lands as well as the important city of Nashville, Tennessee. Union General Henry Halleck hoped to regain control of western rivers as a means of piercing Confederate defenses, and in early February 1862 he sent General Ulysses S. Grant and Commodore Andrew Foote on a joint endeavour to capture Forts Henry and Donelson. A Union force of 15,000 men and seven gunboats traveled along the Tennessee to Fort Henry, whose meagre defenses they overcame on February 6. About 2,500 Confederate defenders under General Lloyd Tilghman fought briefly, then retreated 12 miles (19 km) overland to nearby Fort Donelson to prepare a stronger defensive line.

The Union victory was largely the result of a fierce gunboat bombardment, as Grant's men had arrived too late to see action. The victory cost the North 11 killed and 31 wounded; Southern losses totaled 5 killed, 11 wounded, and 78 prisoners of war. The battle's consequences were greater than its size, however. Navigation on the upper Tennessee fell to the Union, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River then stood alone guarding the Confederacy's western heartland and population centres.

Copyright © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.

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