OneManGang
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,853
- Likes
- 8,240
Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Indiana
In the end it came down to The Gen'rul. Your Humble Scribe can imagine no other reason for what happened.
Clinging desperately to a measly single-point lead, the Vols, for whatever reason, allowed the Hoosiers to move down the field to the UT 34 yard line with a skosh over two and a half minutes left. Indiana kicker Logan Justus trotted out for a 51-yard attempt. He had already hit on three attempts including a 49-yarder toward the end of the third quarter and an extra six feet or so shouldn't have been a problem. The ball was on the left hash mark – a near-perfect position for a left-footed kicker such as Justus. After a Tennessee time-out, the ball was snapped and the kick was on its way. Groans were heard among the Vol Faithful as the ball appeared headed through the uprights when … well … it began to drift right, and farther right until it sailed outside the right upright and the refs signaled “no good.”
This writer has, over the last half-century or so of watching the Vols, seen many inexplicable things: opposing runners with nothing between them and the end zone but grass suddenly falling down, passes hitting opposing receivers in stride and between the numbers before falling to the ground, Clint Stoerner laying the ball on the ground in '98 and so on. After a while it became obvious something more than football fortunes were at work.
The answer is the spirit of The Gen'rul hissownself which will sometimes rise up and protect his beloved boys from themselves and secure victory. It's almost as though he says, “Not this time!” And so it would seem that on Thursday night in Jacksonville the Old Man put it yet another appearance and nudged that ball off course.
If you have a better explanation, I'm open to it.
* * * * * * * * *
Sam was ready to start moving. He had a force of about 15,000 men in twenty three regiments and an attached flotilla of five ironclads and two “timberclad” gunboats.His objective? Nothing less than to lay the western half of the Confederacy wide open to any advances his superiors might want to make.
He sent a cable to his immediate boss, General Henry Halleck, “With permission, I will take Fort Henry on the Tennessee ...”
Permission was quickly granted.
Sam was a product of West Point. When his congressman filled out the appointment papers he mangled the young man's name suing his middle name for his first and inserting an “s” for the middle initial. Not wanting to risk a good thing, the young man went along with it and soon his fellow cadets decided the “s” stood for “Sam” and thus his Academy nickname was assured.
Sam graduated in 1843 and served as a junior officer in the 4th Infantry until the beginning of the Mexican War in 1847. There he served under Zachary Taylor during all the battles in Northern Mexico before his regiment was sent to join the main American effort under Winfield Scott that eventually took Mexico City itself.
Sam's service during the war was steady and competent but not spectacular. After the war he returned and was sent to several postings on the western frontier. These were long lonely for the young officer and in April, 1854, just after having been promoted to Captain (10 years after making 1st Lt.) and missing his beloved wife Julia greatly, Sam resigned his commission and went back to Missouri to try his hand at farming. He had been drinking more than he should have, but no more than most officers in his situation but it gave his commanding officer and excuse to accept the resignation.
Farming never worked out for Sam and eventually he found himself back in his old job a clerk in his father's leather tannery. He was there in 1861 when Fort Sumter was fired on in South Carolina and the Civil War began in earnest.
With the U.S. Army (Union) rapidly expanding along with its rival further South, West Point trained officers suddenly found themselves in demand, those with combat experience even more so. Sam was both and was soon made a Brigadier General. He led an expedition against Columbus, MO and tied down a large Confederate force while another Union force swept the Rebels out of southern Kentucky, This action put him in his current position.
Fort Henry had been built by the State of Tennessee which apparently could not find anyone who knew anything about fortress design. The fort was built on the eastern bank of the Tennessee far too close to the river bank and now, swollen with winter rains, the river was threatening to inundate its ramparts. The fort was commanded by Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman along with about 3400 soggy Confederates with about two dozen guns.
Grant landed his force on 4 February about two miles downstream of the fort and made his way cross-country. Commodore Foote, commanding the gunboat flotilla, steamed upstream and opened fire. The cannon on his gunboats outnumbered those in fort by about 4-to-1. The gunboats retired for the evening and the river kept rising, by now the entire river rampart was nearly under water and six guns were submerged. Tilghman decided to send the bulk of his men to Fort Donelson about twelve miles away on the Cumberland but kept a few hundred to offer a token defense and allow the others to get away.
Foote returned in the morning and, after trading a few shots with the remaining defenders, saw the Confederate flag come down and a white one replace it. Grant was still making his way from the landward side. The river had risen so high that the cutter bearing Foote's officers sent to accept the surrender sailed right through the fort's sally-port. (An opening in the ramparts to allow for counter-attacks.) Grant arrived a couple of hours later.
It is impossible to overstate just how much of a catastrophe this was for the Confederacy as now the mighty Tennessee River was open all the way to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. As Sam was plotting his move against Fort Donelson, Foote proceeded to prove just that as he led his flotilla upstream all the way to the aforementioned location sinking and burning river boats along the way. He withdrew having suffered no losses whatsover.
Sam had rashly promised to take Fort Donelson in two days but weather and other impediments intervened. Most of this was due to the fact that Ft. Donelson had actually been designed by somebody who knew what they were about.
It sat on high ground on the west bank of the Cumberland and its cannon commanded the upstream approaches. While originally not well defended from the landward side, as soon as the Union gunboats appeared at Henry, the Confederates began digging extensive field fortifications to rectify that situation. The fort was commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd with about 16000 men including a detachment of cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Sam's force of 15,000 closed on the field works and by 13 February had the place surrounded. Foote tried reduce the fort with his gunboats on the 14th but found these guns much better sited and by mid-afternoon all of his gunboats were heavily damaged and he withdrew. At the same time, Sam ordered a probing attack on the western side but withdrew under heavy fire. Inside the fort, though, things were grim. It was obvious the defenders could expect no outside aid and that the best thing to do was to leave a token force behind and use the majority of the infantry to clear a path south, cross the river and get away. The push was to be commanded by the mercurial Brig, Gen Gideon Pillow.
On 15 February, after a morning assault on Sam's right flank, Pillow's men had blown a gap in the Union lines. It was then that Pillow took counsel of his fears and called a halt, then withdrew back to the fort. By that time Sam had arrived on the spot, restored order and shifted forces around to seal the gap.
At a counsel of war that night, recriminations were rampant. Pillow had by now regained his confidence and was breathing fire, Floyd was silent as he considered the options and Brig. General Simon Bolivar Buckner, who had arrived with a few re-enforcements before Sam's force had arrived, agitated for another breakout attempt. Bedford Forrest was livid that the breakout had been called off at the cusp of success and made his feelings known.
Finally, it was decided that further resistance was futile and that the fort be surrendered. Floyd was wanted by the US Army Adjutant General for some misdeed or other before the war opted to turn command over to Pillow and make his way out with as many men as he could. Pillow refused to be the goat and turned command over to Buckner who said he would open a parlay with the Yankees in the morning. Pillow too, took to his heels but in a small boat with room only for him and an aide. Forrest demanded to be allowed to take his men out via a pathway his scouts had found and did so.
The morning of the 16th saw a small group of officers under a flag of truce carry a letter from Buckner to Sam requesting terms of surrender. Sam looked at the note and quickly penned a response stating the only terms would be unconditional surrender.
Buckner had no choice and surrendered Ft. Donelson forthwith opening the Cumberland River all the way to Nashville which fell to Union forces on 25 February 1862.
In ten days Sam's actions had torn a 200-mile gap in the western Confederacy's northern defenses. A gap that would never close.
Oh, and by the way, “Sam” was, of course, one Ulysses S. Grant who would prove to be the Union's most capable general and the Confederacy's nemesis. Three years and two months after taking Nashville, General Grant would be sitting in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's house in Appomattox, Virginia accepting the unconditional surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.
*********
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
In retrospect the Vols should have benched Guaratano in the first or second quarter. He seems to much better coming off the bench than he does as a starter. Indiana needed to recruit more speed. Finally, I wonder if the Hoosiers should have gone for it on 4th and 8 in that last series that ended in the missed field goal. Tennessee had issues leaving the middle open on pass rushes all night.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
What more can one say about one the best executed onside kicks in living Vol memory and the subsequent drive for the go-ahead score?
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don’t let up … PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Tennessee fiddle and faddled for three and a half quarters, with the offense sputtering and the defense stepping up before, FINALLY, redemption!
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Coaches Cafego and Neyland high-fived as Eric Gray caught that onside.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Daniel Bituli, Henry T'oo T'oo and the rest of the defensive troops kept the Vols close enough to win in the end.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
Yes! Sir! Ree!
7. Carry the fight to Indiana and keep it there for sixty minutes.
On the feaking dot!
The 2019 campaign is now in the books. It wasn't as bad as many of us feared after GA State and BYU, but it could have been better. The good news is that Coach Pruitt appears to have now come into his own as Head Vol and the future looks brighter than it has in many a year. Many moons ago as Vol Fans were oinking that a ten-win season just wasn't enough, CharterVol remarked to Yours Truly, “Remember when we were eight and three and HAPPY?
This eight and five season leaves this Old Vol ecstatic.
See you in September!
MAXOMG
© 2019 Keeping Your Stories Alive
Suggested Reading:
Bruce Catton, Grant Moves South
Benjamin Franklin Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland
Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
Fort Donelson today. (State of Tennessee)
Last edited:
