{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcauldron.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fbattle-of-fort-donelson-feb-11-1862-feb-16-1862-NaFsT7bJ","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Battle of Fort Donelson - U.S. Civil War - Feb 11, 1862 – Feb 16, 1862","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/8192e860-751c-44a4-b950-f5c62cca27a0/66d3e644-f447-4521-ab7c-71e0e824f521/fort-donelson-ill.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"\"In every battle, there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.\" - Grant's statement is not just a bit of battlefield wisdom. He could just as readily have been describing North and South in the lead up to the American Civil War. Or throughout the War itself. Or any of the thousands of battles that took place during the War. Lincoln, self admittedly no military man, understood the dogged nature needed to win the drag em out drop em down type contest that this War was going to become. \"Our success or failure at Donelson is vastly important, and I beg you to put your soul in the effort,\" he wrote to his Western commander. Finding the type of man that would attack even after he thought he'd already lost proved difficult, but not impossible. It was on the rivers of the Western theater that the War would shift for good. Where the man and the mind Lincoln and the Union most needed would mature into a singular force. Let's go back to February 1862, to the winding calm of the Cumberland River. New bizarrely beetle-like and inky black but deadly ironclad beasts are chugging upstream to pound two forts into submission. One will fall quickly, and with little fight, the other will take days and see savage combat. Where a determined Brig General is preparing to show his family, his country, and himself that he's no failure, he can, in fact, succeed, maybe even excel. Where a group of cold but confident confederate soldiers is readying to defend their new country no matter the cost. Let's go back to the battle of Fort Donelson"}