Commissioners to settle terms of Capitulation is just received. No
terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be
accepted.

I propose to move immediately upon your works.

I am Sir, very respectfully,
your obt. svt. [obedient servant],
U. S. Grant
Brig. Gen.

A portion of this letter is found at
http/www.livinghistoryonline.com/surrendr.htm]


But no more fighting was necessary, for Buckner yielded as gracefully
as he could, and on February 16, 1862, he and the entire garrison
of about 15,000 men became prisoners of war. Generals Pillow and
Floyd, it appeared, had fled with some 4,000 men the night before,
leaving Buckner in charge and as Grant's force had by that time
been increased to 27,000 men, further resistance would have been
useless.

The capture of these two forts gave the Union forces command of
the Tennessee and the Cumberland Rivers, and to that extent cleared
the way for the control of the Mississippi. It was the first real
success which had greeted the Union cause and it raised Grant to
a Major-Generalship of Volunteers, gave him a national reputation
and supplied a better interpretation of his initial than West
Point had provided, for from the date of his letter to Buckner he