Charge of General Smith's Division, Capture of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, 1862-1867.Artist: Felix Octavius Carr Darley

Charge of General Smith's Division, Capture of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, 1862 (1862-1867). Brigadier-General Charles Ferguson Smith's Union troops on the attack during the Battle of Fort Donelson, 12-16 February 1862. The capture of Fort Donelson by Union forces gave them access to the Cumberland River as route to invade the South. It also established the reputation of Ulysses S Grant as an effective general and led to his promotion to Major-General. An engraving from volume II of The War with the South : a History of the Late Rebellion, by Robert Tomes, Benjamin G Smith, New York, Virtue & Yorston, 3 Volumes, 1862-1867. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)