Video: '1862-06 Battle Fort Donelson Feb 12-16 1862 - Corrected'

(Sunday, February 16, 1862; during the Battle of Fort Donelson, part of the American Civil War) — The Battle of Fort Donelson in the Western Theater of the American Civil War ended today when Union forces captured the Confederate fort near the Tennessee–Kentucky border and opened the Cumberland River, an important avenue for the invasion of the South.

Video: 'Ken.Burns.The.Civil.War.2of9.A.Very.Bloody.Affair.' (Battle of Fort Donelson at 19:14)

The Union’s success elevated Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant from an obscure and largely unproven leader to the rank of major general, and earned him the nickname of “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.

Video: 'Unconditional Surrender Grant - Fort Donelson - History'

Confederate commander Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd and his second-in-command, Brig. Gen. Gideon Johnson Pillow, had escaped with a small detachment of troops, relinquishing command to Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, who accepted Grant’s demand of unconditional surrender later that day.

The surrender was a personal humiliation for Buckner and a strategic defeat for the Confederacy, which lost more than 12,000 men, 48 artillery pieces, much of their equipment, and control of the Cumberland River, which led to the evacuation of Nashville.