donelson, ft. henry fall, the new union army of tennessee will move to pittsburgh landing, south of here. general albert sidney johnson is collecting every force he can, bowling green, nashville, and this is his counterstrike. that's where the battle of shilo comes about. someone else? you already asked one. you already asked one, too. come on. >> when they made their breakout, there were a lot of other people that went along with him. now, did they -- the different grig a brigade generals say you want to go? >> it was a case by case basis. the question is when nathan bedford forest escapes, he takes his own command but what about the other guys that went with him? about 800 to 1200 guys went with forest. the question is, was it -- well, i'll just say. it was a case by case basis. word got out that forest was going to make a run for it, break out. if you had a horse, like if you're an artilleryman and you had a horse, get on the dang horse and follow him. if you're on foot, that's kind of tricky. a

another fort donelson legacy. so another -- i'm going to badger this point is that donelson campaign was so pivotal, and it kind of breaks my heart that it's not as remembered as it should be. lessons for today. if you look at the fort donelson campaign, a lot of studies for command, command and control personalities, fort donelson campaign where it kind of makes it a fun campaign. the study is looking at the personalities. on the union side they had more of a traditional unified command. you had general holleck in st. louis command of the west, subordinate commander grant in cairo in charge of the expedition. say what you will about halleck in st. louis but he was good about -- you might overwhelm the telegraph lines with notes to grant telling him to do this and that. but grant always knew at least what halleck wanted him to do. it may not have been possible for some of the things that halleck wanted. but he gave grant enough trust to do what was right and he let him know what he wanted done. conversely on the o

donelson campaign. this took plate at ft. donelson. it's 50 minutes. >> purpose of my -- of today is not really to give the down and dirty blow by blow of the battle. i've been asked to give a few random thoughts about the 150 years that have passed since the battle and the importance of a battle. i'll focus my remarks on that. for more detailed analysis of that, my book, i would love for you to buy that, but there's some others out there, too. dr. kuhning wrote an excellent book on the battle itself and the short film that's involved here and the interpretation with the rangers, seek those out for the blow by blow. we'll have more of a macro level for this here. it is exciting to be here for the 150th anniversary. as historians we look back and we think 150 years is a long time but really it isn't. we're talking -- it may depend on who you are. great grandfathers, maybe great great grandfathers. just a couple impgenerations ha passed here but the world has changed a great deal in the last 150 years. it's exciting to be here but a litt

so why is fort donelson forgotten? it was a bigger battle that came up after this campaign of shiloh in particular. it was six weeks after this. i imagine six weeks from now you'll all be down at the shiloh national battlefield park having a good time, too. so it certainly was a big one. and it is understandable that number of calgaries and such. why even in their day, when you look at the official records or if you look at the books that are written shortly after the war, fort donelson is rarely mentioned. could it be that the north, although a great victory, shiloh and so forth that, overshadowed. we can leave that down. why would the south want to remember this battle? i don't like to remember vicksburg either. that one is hard to brush aside. for the southerners, this is kind of an embarrassment. the loss of both the rivers is just so tremendous and traumatic. they never got it back. i it was hard to remember this kind of thing. the generals on the southern side, two of them escaped. they never received a command a

he sends his guys to fort donelson. so leaving behind the skeleton crew with the heavy batteries to hold off the union. yeah, i don't know how to explain why they chose that site. any site along that stretch of the river go a mile up, a mile south, any position would have been better than that. even today if you go out there since the dam was built in '33, '34, the tennessee valley authority, it's under about 20 feet of water. and i'm not sure there's much of anything left. the existing photos from 1932 had a picture of an old man and the fort north wall fort henry was probably about three feet high when they were originally about 10 to 20 feet high. so it's been eroded by that time. and now being underwater under sediment and all that. i can't imagine anything is left of it, unfortunately. it would be neat. so you had a question earlier. >> who's the overall commander again for that region? >> north or south? >> south. and did he catch a lot of flack for having an in-depth defense? >> the overall regional commander for

he sends his guys to fort donelson. so leaving behind the skeleton crew with the heavy batteries to hold off the union. so, yeah, i -- i don't know how to explain why they chose that site. any site along that stretch of the river go a mile up or mile south, any position would have been better than that one. even today since the dam is built, it's under 20 feet of water. and i'm not sure there is much of anything left. the existing photos from 1932 had a picture of an old man and the fort was made. the fort walls was probably three feet high when they were originally 10 to 20 feet high. and now being underwater, i can't imagine anything is left of it. unfortunately. it would be neat. sir, you had a question earlier. >> yeah. who was the overall commander again for that region? did he catch a lot of flack -- >> north or south? >> did he catch a lot of flack for not having indepth defense? >> the original commander for the south was albert sidney johnson. he was the western department. after it is any johnson was the highe