Within a week of Fort Henry's capture on the Tennessee River by the joint army-navy command of Grant on February 6, 1862, nearby Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River came under siege by the same Union force. Grant's army of 17,000 to 21,000 men and Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote's six-vessel gunboat flotilla. In early February Confederate department commander Albert Sidney Johnston concentrated some 15,000 men to defend against Union General U. Principally a commanding water battery with adjacent armed camp for garrison, Fort Donelson was expanded to defend against land assault following the Fort Henry debacle. Tennessee Confederates constructed the earthen fort in the summer of 1861 to defend the river approach to Middle Tennessee and Nashville the fort was named for Daniel S.
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