Battle of Fort Henry The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6 , 1862 , in western Middle Tennessee , during the American Civil War . It was the first important victory for the Union and Brig . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant in the Western Theater . On February 4 and February 5 , Grant landed two divisions just north of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River . ( Although the name was not yet in use , the troops serving under Grant were the nucleus of the Union ' s successful Army of the Tennessee . ) His plan was to advance upon the fort on February 6 while it was being simultaneously attacked by United States Navy gunboats commanded by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote . A combination of effective naval gunfire and the poor siting of the fort , almost completely inundated by rising river waters , caused its commander , Brig . Gen . Lloyd Tilghman , to surrender to Foote before the Army arrived . The surrender of Fort Henry opened the Tennessee River to Union traffic past the Alabama border , which was demonstrated by a " timberclad " raid of wooden ships from February 6 through February 12 . They destroyed Confederate shipping and railroad bridges upriver . Grant ' s army proceeded overland to the Battle of Fort Donelson . Background . In early 1861 the critical border state of Kentucky had declared neutrality in the American Civil War . This neutrality was first violated on September 3 , when Confederate Brig . Gen . Gideon J . Pillow , acting on orders from Maj . Gen . Leonidas Polk , occupied Columbus . Two days later Union Brig . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant , displaying the personal initiative that would characterize his later career , seized Paducah , a major transportation hub of rail and port facilities at the mouth of the Tennessee . Henceforth , neither adversary respected the proclaimed neutrality of the state and the Confederate advantage was lost ; the buffer zone that Kentucky provided was no longer available to assist in the defense of Tennessee . By early 1862 , on the Confederate side , a single general , Albert Sidney Johnston , commanded all forces from Arkansas to the Cumberland Gap . But his forces were spread too thinly over a wide defensive line : his left flank was Polk in Columbus with 12 , 000 men ; his right flank was Brig . Gen . Simon Bolivar Buckner in Bowling Green , Kentucky , with 4 , 000 ; the center consisted of two forts under the command of Brig . Gen . Lloyd Tilghman , also with 4 , 000 . Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were the sole positions to defend the important Tennessee and Cumberland rivers , respectively . If these rivers were opened to Union military traffic , two direct invasion paths would lead into Tennessee and beyond . The Union military command in the West suffered from a lack of unified command , organized into three separate departments : the Department of Kansas , under Maj . Gen . David Hunter ; the Department of Missouri , under Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck ; and the Department of the Ohio , under Brig . Gen . Don Carlos Buell . By January 1862 , this disunity of command was apparent because they could not agree on a strategy for operations in the Western theater . Buell , under political pressure to invade and hold pro - Union eastern Tennessee , moved slowly in the direction of Nashville . In Halleck ' s department , Grant demonstrated up the Tennessee River to divert attention from Buell ' s intended advance , which did not occur . Halleck and the other generals in the West were coming under political pressure from President Abraham Lincoln to participate in a general offensive by Washington ' s Birthday . Despite his traditional caution , Halleck eventually reacted positively to Grant ' s proposal that he move against Fort Henry . He hoped that this would improve his standing in relation to his rival , Buell . But he and Grant were also concerned about rumors that Confederate General P . G . T . Beauregard would soon arrive in the theater with large numbers of reinforcements , so celerity was warranted . On January 30 , 1862 , Halleck authorized Grant to take Fort Henry . Grant wasted no time , leaving Cairo , Illinois , at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers , on February 2 . His invasion force consisted of 15 – 17 , 000 men in two divisions , commanded by Brig . Gens . John A . McClernand and Charles F . Smith , and the Western Flotilla , commanded by United States Navy Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote . Foote had four ironclad gunboats ( flagship , USS " Carondelet " , USS " St . Louis " , and USS " Essex " ) under his direct command , and three wooden ( " timberclad " ) gunboats ( USS " Conestoga " , USS " Tyler " , and USS " Lexington " ) under Lt . Seth Ledyard Phelps . There were insufficient transport ships this early in the war to deliver all of the army troops in a single operation , so two trips upriver were required to reach the fort . Fort Henry . Fort Henry was a five - sided , open - bastion ed earthen structure covering on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River , near Kirkman ' s Old Landing . The site was about one mile above Panther Creek and about six miles below the mouth of the Sandy River and Standing Rock Creek . In May 1861 , Isham G . Harris , the governor of Tennessee , appointed the state ' s attorney , Daniel S . Donelson , as a brigadier general and directed him to build fortifications on the rivers of Middle Tennessee . Donelson found suitable sites , but they were within the borders of Kentucky , then still neutral . Moving upriver to just inside the Tennessee border , he selected the site of the fort that would bear his name on the Cumberland River . Colonel Bushrod Johnson of the Tennessee Corps of Engineers approved of the site . As construction of Fort Donelson began , Donelson moved west to the Tennessee River and selected the site of Fort Henry , naming it after Tennessee Senator Gustavus Adolphus Henry Sr . . Since Fort Donelson was on the west bank of the Cumberland , he selected the east bank of the Tennessee for the second fort so that one garrison could travel between them and be used to defend both positions , which he deemed unlikely to be attacked simultaneously . Unlike its counterpart on the Cumberland , Fort Henry was situated on low , swampy ground , dominated by hills across the river . On the plus side , it had an unobstructed field of fire two miles ( 3 km ) downriver . Donelson ' s surveying team — Adna Anderson , a civil engineer , and Maj . William F . Foster from the 1st Tennessee Infantry — objected strongly to the site and appealed to Colonel Johnson , who inexplicably approved it . The fort was designed to stop traffic on the river , not to withstand infantry assaults , certainly not at the scale that armies would achieve during the war . Construction began in mid - June , using men from the 10th Tennessee Infantry and slaves , and the first cannon was test fired on July 12 , 1861 . After this flurry of activity , however , the remainder of 1861 saw little more because forts on the Mississippi River had a higher priority for receiving men and artillery . In late December , additional men from the 27th Alabama Infantry arrived along with 500 slaves . They constructed a small fortification across the river on Stewart ' s Hill , within artillery range of Fort Henry , naming it Fort Heiman . At about the same time , Brig . Gen . Lloyd Tilghman assumed command of both Forts Henry and Donelson . At Fort Henry were approximately 3 , 000 – 3 , 400 men , two brigades commanded by Colonels Adolphus Heiman and Joseph Drake . They were armed primarily with antique flintlock rifles from the War of 1812 . Seventeen guns were mounted in Fort Henry by the time of the battle , eleven covering the river and the other six positioned to defend against a land attack . There were two heavy guns , a Columbiad and a 24 - pounder rifled cannon , with the remainder being 32 - pounder smoothbores . There were two 42 - pounders , but no ammunition of that caliber was available . When the river was at normal levels , the walls of the fort rose about it and were thick at the base , sloping upward to about thick at the parapet . But in February 1862 , heavy rains caused the river to rise and most of the fort was underwater , including the powder magazine . The Confederates deployed one additional defensive measure , which was then unique in the history of warfare : several torpedoes ( in modern terminology , a naval mine field ) were anchored below the surface in the main shipping channel , rigged to explode when touched by a passing ship . ( This measure turned out to be ineffective , due to high water levels and the leaking metal containers of the torpedoes . ) Battle . On February 4 and February 5 , Grant landed his divisions in two different locations : McClernand ' s three miles ( 5 km ) north on the east bank of the Tennessee River to prevent the garrison ' s escape and C . F . Smith ' s to occupy Fort Heiman on the Kentucky side , which would ensure the fort ’ s fall . But the battle turned on naval actions and concluded before the infantry saw action . Tilghman realized that it was only a matter of time before Fort Henry fell . Only nine guns remained above the water to mount a defense . While leaving artillery in the fort to hold off the Union fleet , he escorted the rest of his force out of the area and sent them off on the overland route to Fort Donelson , twelve miles ( 19 km ) away . Fort Heiman was abandoned on February 4 , and all but a handful of artillerymen left Fort Henry on February 5 . ( Union cavalry pursued the retreating Confederates , but the poor conditions of the roads prevented any serious confrontation and they took only a few captives . ) Foote ' s seven gunboats began bombarding the fort on February 6 . This was the first engagement for the Western Flotilla , using newly designed and hastily constructed ironclads . Foote deployed the four ironclads in a line abreast , followed by the three wooden ships , which held back for long - range , but less effective , fire against the fort . It was primarily the low elevation of Fort Henry ' s guns that allowed Foote ' s fleet to escape serious destruction ; the Confederate fire was able to hit the ships only where their thin armor was strongest . One ship was seriously damaged , causing many casualties . A chance 32 - pound shot penetrated USS " Essex " and hit her middle boiler , sending scalding steam throughout half of the ship . Thirty - two men were killed or wounded , including her commander , William D . Porter , and the ship was out of action for the remainder of the campaign . Aftermath and the timberclad raid . After the battle had lasted 75 minutes , Tilghman surrendered to the fleet , which had engaged the fort and closed within . A small boat from the fleet was able to sail directly through the sally port of the fort and pick up Tilghman for the surrender ceremony on " Cincinnati " , demonstrating the extent of flooding . Twelve officers and 82 men surrendered ; other casualties are estimated to be 15 men killed and 20 wounded . The evacuating force left all of its artillery and equipment behind . Tilghman was imprisoned , but exchanged on August 15 . Tilghman wrote bitterly in his report that Fort Henry was in a " wretched military position . . . . The history of military engineering records no parallel to this case . " Grant sent a brief dispatch to Halleck : " Fort Henry is ours . . . . I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th and return to Fort Henry . " Halleck wired to Washington : " Fort Henry is ours . The flag is reestablished on the soil of Tennessee . It will never be removed . " If Grant had been as cautious as other generals in the Union Army and had delayed his departure by two days , the battle would have never occurred , since by February 8 , Fort Henry was completely underwater . The North treated Fort Henry as a glorious victory . On February 7 , the gunboats " Cincinnati " , " St . Louis " , and " Essex " returned to Cairo with whistles blowing , flying Confederate flag s upside down . The Chicago " Tribune " wrote that the battle was " one of the most complete and signal victories in the annals of the world ' s warfare . " Fort Henry ' s fall opened the Tennessee River to Union gunboats and shipping past the Alabama border . This was quickly demonstrated . Immediately after the surrender , Foote sent Lieutenant Phelps with the three timberclads , the " Tyler " , " Conestoga " , and " Lexington " , on a mission up river to destroy installations and supplies of military value . ( The ironclads of the flotilla had sustained damage in the bombardment and were slower and less maneuverable for the mission at hand , which would include pursuit of Confederate ships . ) The raid reached as far as Muscle Shoals , just past Florence , Alabama , the limit of navigability . The Union ships and their raiding parties destroyed numerous supplies and the important bridge of the Memphis & Ohio Railroad , upriver . They also captured a variety of Southern ships , including the " Sallie Wood " , the " Muscle " , and an ironclad under construction , the " Eastport " . The Union ships returned safely to Fort Henry on February 12 . However , Phelps made a major blunder during his otherwise successful raid . The citizens of the town of Florence asked him to spare their town and its railroad bridge , of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad . Phelps told them that he would , seeing no military importance to the bridge . Yet the loss of the bridge would have essentially split the Confederate theater in half . It was this bridge that Johnston ' s army would ride across on their journey to Corinth , Mississippi , in preparation for the Battle of Shiloh . After the fall of Fort Donelson to Grant ' s army on February 16 , the two major water transportation routes in the Confederate west became Union highways for movement of troops and material . And as Grant suspected , this action flanked the Confederate forces at Columbus , causing them to withdraw from that city and Western Kentucky soon thereafter . Preservation . Although closely associated with Fort Donelson , the site of Fort Henry is not managed by the U . S . National Park Service as part of the Fort Donelson National Battlefield . It is currently memorialized as part of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area . When the Tennessee River was dammed in the 1930s , creating Kentucky Lake , the remains of Fort Henry were submerged permanently . A small navigation beacon far from the Kentucky shoreline marks the location of the northwest corner of the former fortification . Fort Heiman was on privately owned land until October 2006 , when the Calloway County , Kentucky , executive office transferred associated with Fort Heiman to the National Park Service , for management as part of the Fort Donelson National Battlefield . Some of the entrenchments are still visible .