Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[47] a short and spirited contest, drove him into them, obtaining possession of the ground and the guns that had been wrung from themselves in the morning. They thus did important service, detaining a large rebel force in their own front, and subtracting from the enemy's strength at the key-point of the fight. Night came on before the battle was decided, but Smith maintained his position inside the rebel works, and a half an hour more of daylight would have sufficed to carry the fort.¹ Grant perceived this, and declared that the rebels were fighting only for darkness.²

Grant slept in a negro hut that night, and Smith, with his troops, on the frozen ground they had won; while inside the fort occurred one of the most remarkable scenes of the war. Floyd summoned his highest officers, to consult them about the propriety of a surrender. The opinion was greatly in favor of such a course; Buckner, whose troops were opposite Smith's, and certain to be attacked at dawn, asserting that he could not hold out half an hour after the fight began. Floyd then announced his determination to desert the troops who had fought under him so well; he declared, however, that he had doubts of the military propriety of this conduct, and asked the advice of his inferiors, Most of whom intimated very plainly their disapprobation of his recreancy. Buckner told him every man must judge for himself in such matters; but Pillow