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[497] glimmer of that winter morning announced to Buckner that the time had arrived for proposing a capitulation to Grant. From that moment he could no longer authorize the flight of a single man. While the Federals were preparing for the attack they saw the enemy displaying the white flag on every side. A few hours after, Buckner accepted, with bad grace and without dignity, Grant's propositions. He constituted himself a prisoner of war, with the remnants of the army which had been beaten the day before. The Confederate colonel Forrest, whose mission during the battle had been to clear the road, had taken advantage of the night to draw off with his cavalry, across swamps impracticable for the army, by following a narrow path running along the steep banks of the river. He made his escape, leaving his rearguard in the hands of McClernand. The capture of Donelson was a great and glorious success for the Federals. The material results were considerable. The capitulation delivered into the hands of Grant fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three prisoners, sixty-five cannons, seventeen thousand muskets—that is to say, an entire army, with all its materiel. His entire losses amounted to two thousand and forty-one men, of whom four hundred and twenty-five were killed; the Confederates had about the same number of men disabled. The moral effect was immense. The remembrance of Bull Run was blotted out by a victory much more hotly contested, and the results of which were otherwise of importance. In short, after the scenes which had just been witnessed in Floyd's tent and on the banks of the Cumberland, the Confederates could no longer taunt their enemies with the panic of the 21st of July: the game was henceforth even between them. This defeat was a terrible blow for the South. It caused great surprise to the Richmond government as well as to the public, who had too long been lulled by dangerous illusions. From the impression produced by this reverse we may already remark the difference of character in the two peoples who were struggling on the soil of America. The South bore the disaster without being discouraged, but no indication could be perceived of that patriotic impulse which had armed so many volunteers in the
Philadelphia, Jos. H. Coates and co., 1876.
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