John B . Floyd John Buchanan Floyd ( June 1 , 1806 – August 26 , 1863 ) was the 31st Governor of Virginia , U . S . Secretary of War , and the Confederate general in the American Civil War who lost the crucial Battle of Fort Donelson . Early life . Floyd was born at Smithfield estate , Blacksburg , Virginia . He was the son of John Floyd ( 1783 – 1837 ) , who served as a representative in Congress from 1817 to 1829 and governor of Virginia from 1830 to 1834 . After graduating from South Carolina College in 1826 ( by some accounts 1829 ) , Floyd practiced law in his native state and at Helena , Arkansas , where he lost a large fortune and his health in a cotton - planting venture . In 1839 , he returned to Virginia and settled in Washington County , which he represented in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1847 – 49 and again in 1853 . From 1849 to 1852 , he was governor of Virginia . As governor , he recommended to the legislature the enactment of a law laying an import tax on the products of states that refused to surrender fugitive slaves owned by Virginian masters . Secretary of War . In March 1857 , Floyd became Secretary of War in the cabinet of President James Buchanan , where his lack of administrative ability was soon apparent , including the poor execution of the Utah Expedition . In December 1860 , on ascertaining that Floyd had honored heavy drafts made by government contractors in anticipation of their earnings , the president requested his resignation . Several days later Floyd was indicted for malversation in office , although the indictment was overruled in 1861 on technical grounds . There is no proof that he profited by these irregular transactions ; in fact , he went out of the office financially embarrassed . Although he had openly opposed secession before the election of Abraham Lincoln , his conduct after the election , especially after his breach with Buchanan , fell under suspicion , and he was accused in the press of having sent large stores of government arms to Federal arsenals in the South in the anticipation of the Civil War . Grant in his postwar " Personal Memoirs " said ; After his resignation , a congressional commission in the summer and fall of 1861 investigated Floyd ' s actions as Secretary of War . All of his records of orders and shipments of arms from 1859 to 1860 were examined . It is recorded that in response to John Brown ' s raid on Harper ' s Ferry he bolstered the Federal arsenals in some Southern states by over 115 , 000 muskets and rifles in late 1859 . He also ordered heavy ordnance to be shipped to the Federal forts in Galveston Harbor , Texas , and the new fort on Ship Island off the coast of Mississippi . In the last days of his term , he apparently had an intention to send these heavy guns , but his orders were revoked by the president . His resignation as secretary of war , on December 29 , 1860 , was precipitated by the refusal of Buchanan to order Major Robert Anderson to abandon Fort Sumter , which eventually led to the start of the war . On January 27 , 1861 , he was indicted by the District of Columbia grand jury for conspiracy and fraud . Floyd appeared in criminal court in Washington , D . C . , on March 7 , 1861 , to answer the charges against him . According to " Harper ' s Weekly " , the indictments were thrown out . Civil War . After the secession of Virginia , Floyd was commissioned a major general in the Provisional Army of Virginia , but on May 23 , 1861 , he was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army ( CSA ) . He was first employed in some unsuccessful operations in the Kanawha Valley of western Virginia under Robert E . Lee , where he was both defeated and wounded in the arm at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10 . General Floyd blamed Brigadier General Henry A . Wise for the Confederate loss at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry , stating that Wise refused to come to his aid . Virginia Delegate Mason Mathews , whose son Alexander F . Mathews was Wise ' s aide - de - camp , spent several days in the camps of both Wise and Floyd to seek resolution to an escalating feud between the two generals . Afterward he wrote to President Jefferson Davis urging that both men be removed , stating " I am fully satisfied that each of them would be highly gratified to see the other annihilated . " Davis subsequently removed Wise from his command of the western Virginia region , leaving Floyd as the region ' s unquestioned superior officer . In January 1862 , he was dispatched to the Western Theater to report to General Albert Sidney Johnston and was given command of a division . Johnston sent Floyd to reinforce Fort Donelson and assume command of the post there . Floyd assumed command of Fort Donelson on February 13 just two days after the Union army had arrived at that spot , also becoming the third post commander within a week . Fort Donelson protected the crucial Cumberland River and , indirectly , the manufacturing city of Nashville and Confederate control of Middle Tennessee . It was the companion to Fort Henry on the nearby Tennessee River , which , on February 6 , 1862 , was captured by Union Army Brigadier General Ulysses S . Grant and river gunboats . Floyd was not an appropriate choice to defend such a vital point , having political influence , but virtually no military experience . General Johnston had other experienced , more senior , generals ( P . G . T . Beauregard and William J . Hardee ) available and made a serious error in selecting Floyd . Floyd had little military influence on the Battle of Fort Donelson itself , deferring to his more experienced subordinates , Brigadier Generals Gideon J . Pillow and Simon Bolivar Buckner . As the Union forces surrounded the fort and the town of Dover , the Confederates launched an assault on February 15 in an attempt to open an escape route . Although successful at first , indecision on General Pillow ' s part left the Confederates in their trenches , facing growing reinforcements for Grant . Early in the morning of February 16 , at a council of war , the generals and field officers decided to surrender their army . Floyd , concerned that he would be arrested for treason if captured by the Union Army , turned his command over to Pillow , who immediately turned it over to Buckner . Colonel N . B . Forest and his entire Tennessee Cavalry Regiment escaped . Pillow escaped on a small boat across the Cumberland and the next morning Floyd escaped by steamboat with the 20th Mississippi Regiment , the 51st , 56th , 36th , and 50th Virginia regiments , and two Virginia batteries from his old Virginia command , just before Buckner surrendered to Grant , one of the great strategic defeats of the Civil War . A short time before daylight the two steamboats arrived . Without loss of time the general ( Floyd ) hastened to the river , embarked with his Virginians , and at an early hour cast loose from the shore , and in good time , and safely , he reached Nashville . He never satisfactorily explained upon what principles he appropriated all the transportation on to the use of his particular command " . Floyd was relieved of his command by Confederate President Jefferson Davis , without a court of inquiry , on March 11 , 1862 . He resumed his commission as a major general of Virginia Militia , but his health soon failed and he died a year later at Abingdon , Virginia , where he is buried in Sinking Spring Cemetery . In memoriam . Floyd County in northwest Georgia , home to the cities of Rome and Cave Spring , is named for his ancestor , United States Congressman John Floyd . Camp Floyd , a U . S . Army post near Fairfield , Utah from July 1858 to July 1861 , was originally named after Floyd .