Discover how an obscure Union brigadier general named Ulysses S. Grant won fame for demanding the unconditional surrender of Confederate Fort Donelson during the American Civil War
Learn how an obscure Union brigadier general named Ulysses S. Grant won fame during the American Civil War as “Unconditional Surrender” Grant for rejecting any other terms by which Confederate Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner could surrender Fort Donelson.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Transcript
. . .things were going differently in the west.
Here, where broad rivers cut into the Confederacy, an unknown Union general had surrounded Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. And when the Fort's Commander asked this unknown for terms, the reply was:
U. S. GRANT: "No terms except unconditional surrender."
NARRATOR: And "Unconditional Surrender Grant" it was from that day on.
Here, where broad rivers cut into the Confederacy, an unknown Union general had surrounded Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. And when the Fort's Commander asked this unknown for terms, the reply was:
U. S. GRANT: "No terms except unconditional surrender."
NARRATOR: And "Unconditional Surrender Grant" it was from that day on.
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